Inspiring Conversations with Katya Lidsky of The Thriving Volunteer

Today we’d like to introduce you to Katya Lidsky.

Hi Katya, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I started as an animal shelter volunteer back in 2007! I stumbled into the South LA animal shelter with a friend, and felt forever changed. It’s been a long, windy road of volunteering, fostering, working in, learning more about animal welfare… sometimes I’ve taken breaks. Necessary, reflective, restorative breaks. But the truth is this space is my life’s work, my heart, or both. I have fostered 80 dogs over those years, adopted (and had to say goodbye to) many senior shelter dogs, worked for Adopt-a-Pet.com and other nonprofit organizations, including most recently at better Together Forever as a intervention specialist, supporting people to keep their pets instead of surrendering them to the animal shelter. I became a certified, positive-reinforcement based dog trainer and though I don’t practice dog training as a profession anymore, I still use those behavioral tenets all the time. About 5 years ago, I began the latest phase of my work in animal welfare. I studied to become a trauma-informed, certified Breathwork Facilitator, and did most of my practicum hours at animal shelters and rescue groups. That’s when I knew it was the people! The people who take care of animals, I wanted to support. Not that I don’t still volunteer, foster, advocate for, and love animals. I do! But creating programming, workshops, continued education resources, wellness tips and tools, community and connection for animal volunteers (at rescue groups and shelters) is my passion and purpose. A few years ago, I embarked on a journey to become a Creative Grief Coach, and folding grief into the work I do has been especially necessary and rewarding, as we carry a lot of disenfranchised grief in many forms doing this work we do. Last but not least, I am a writer and have written countless articles about animals. My award-winning book Be Your Dog’s Best Friend: The Benefits of Mutual Bonding and Relationship Building (Dogs In Our World), was just published by McFarland fall of 2025.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I learned most of what I know on the job, living it. In my body, in any mind. Feeling frustration, feeling overwhelmed, feeling stressed, emotionally manipulated, taken advantage of, and both grandiose and inept in the same shift as a shelter volunteer and foster. I’ve had challenging dogs of my own, fostered difficult dogs, broken open losing old dogs I loved very much, and survived the loss of Ophelia, my heart and soul dog, my first rescue, the one who started me on this journey, validated my soul-level love for animals and innate connection to them that I’ve had since childhood. She saved my life. Learning where I fit in animal welfare, wrestling with accepting my pull to animal welfare, it’s all been a challenge. This is a field where often empathy gets juiced until it becomes self-abandonment that is beneficial to others. It is ripe with good intentions, good people, trauma, drama, emotions, and pain. We see the worst in people all the time. And yet! We see the best in people too! There is so much joy, celebration, elation, and humor in animal welfare! High-functioning, high-capacity people who make shit happen, who save lives, who juggle 27 balls at once while ordering a refill of treats on Chewy. Centering to take a breath, finding a pause, and most of all staying with oneself is a constant and imperfect practice as an animal person, but it makes all the difference for the animals we help when we do. And the people we help. And communities. In short, animals make me better at loving. Animal shelters are representatives of everything going on in a community, for they are community spaces, and just because we want to ignore what goes on there or turn away from the inconvenient, complex and multi-layered issues that animals bring up, doesn’t mean we are not all equally part of it. Me. And you.

Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about The Thriving Volunteer?
Giving animal volunteers access to connection, resources, and wellness tools to feel supported. Often volunteers at animal shelters, rescue groups, and sanctuaries are motivated by their emotions to help, but aren’t given the backing, soft landing, or circles in which to keep going. In order to prevent burnout, mental anguish, and the many hurdles we carry from continued exposure to trauma, neglect, need, loss and injustice, The Thriving Volunteer is designed to increase retention, enhance sustainability, and provide much more enjoyment and peace along the way. Through gatherings, expert education sessions, and a consistently updating library of wellness tips (all doable, practical and 5 minutes or less to take on the job!), the hope is to create the vision in animal welfare that we know is missing. Not by screaming about it – although venting is welcome and sometimes essential to expression – but by BEING it. Community organizing, collaborating, learning and growing together in an accessible, affordable, safe and inclusive container. I am fluent in Spanish as my parents are Cuban immigrants to this country and I grew up on the border of Texas and Mexico. So listening to and talking with Spanish-speakers about their animals, their needs, their challenges, and animal care overall is a privilege for me, and particular purpose of mine. For animal welfare workers who would prefer breathwork, grief work, connection and community in Spanish, I believe they should have that access to information in the way that aligns best for them.

What matters most to you? Why?
People staying in this work because quite frankly, the animals’ wellbeing depends on it. But not leaving themselves in order to do so. We can stick around AND be well as volunteers, but that is not something that happens on accident or to the lucky. It’s something we cultivate, discover, and choose. We don’t have to burnout, feel guilty and leave to be well. We don’t have to stay and suffer. We can discover more balance, boundaries and bliss in this work we do while sticking with the animals in a way that keeps us caring for ourselves, animal lovers, animal protectors, animal advocates, animal people. We are a certain kind of person, weird and wonderful and important, and to both be one of and champion animal people is an honor to me. If we keep losing volunteers and starting over with new people, we don’t make headway. It’s like moving air around, and the animals are the ones who pay the ultimate price. Without volunteers, the animal shelter system would collapse as there is just too much work, too much need, and too little staff or resources designated to animal care. To move this mountain, we need more people, not less, and volunteers are the essential bridge between animal welfare and the people out in the world. Not just in shelters, but in rescues and sanctuaries, it’s the volunteers who spread the word, do extra, and make things happen. They deserve to be tended to, nurtured, nourished, celebrated, heard, seen, and supported for it. The animals depend on them.

Pricing:

• $36 a month membership to The Thriving Volunteer community
• $249 a Lifeline nervous system alert button for when things are extra hard at your shelter/rescue
• $3000 for a 2-month workshop series geared towards staff, volunteers, whole teams, and includes membership in the online community

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.katyalidsky.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/katyalidsky
• Other: https://members.katyalidsky.com

Image Credits
Casey Chapman-Ross – CCRstudios for the professional shots of me and Ophelia