Brenda Jackson says she “stayed in trouble all the time” as a child for bringing stray dogs home.
“I had probably about 10,” she said.
Now she’s 61, and her love for animals has persisted. At the Leflore County Humane Society Animal Shelter, she manages and directs operations and is often the first face greeting prospective pet parents.
She has worked at the shelter since December 2019, when she was looking for a change of pace after her older brother succumbed to cancer. “I had been working 12 hours, seven days a week, and I just needed a change,” she said.
At the time, Jackson was working at Bypass Liquor. She had purchased the business a year-and-a-half earlier after working there 12 years. Jackson also has a younger sister, and an older brother died from a gunshot wound when she was 16.
Her sister lives in Lewisburg, but Jackson said they were raised in Banner, in Calhoun County. Jackson graduated from Bruce High School and has also worked in the check cashing business, in convenience stores and as a waitress. She said her experiences have prepared her well for her job at the shelter.
When she was a child, she wanted to be a nurse but “realized I wasn’t smart enough,” she said. “But, every day is a learning experience, and you learn something new.”
At the shelter, Jackson is responsible for greeting people and helping to process intake and adoptions. She sees all types of people and animals come in, and she said that has helped her understand and navigate humanity.
“I’ve just always had compassion for dogs, and animals, and people, too,” she said. “I’ve always been a caregiver, and I want to see them survive. I want to feel like I’m doing something good.”
As a child, Jackson had a collie that would ride the bus with her to school. Now she has two pit bulls and is fostering another one while also fostering a German shepherd mix.
She recently performed life-saving CPR on a pit bull puppy born in the shelter to a pregnant mom with mange that someone abandoned. Another dog, Journey, entered the shelter with mange and a deep distrust for humans. Now he is healthy and well adjusted, thanks to Jackson’s efforts.
“It’s rewarding and heartbreaking, and people think of dogs just as being dogs — you know, you can keep them inside or chained up and feed and water them and it’s fine — but you have to treat them like they’re family, and people just don’t get it,” Jackson said.
In her spare time, Jackson enjoys listening to evangelist Jimmy Swaggart because “he doesn’t mind stepping on your toes” and gospel music because “it has a message in it, too.”
In spite of the hardships she has faced, Jackson said she is “truly blessed.” She said she’ll probably work with the animal shelter, which offered her the job when she sold Bypass, until she retires.
“God’s put these people in my life and blessed me,” she said.
- Contact Katherine Parker at 662-581-7239 or kparker@gwcommonwealth.com.
