Rescuer Gives Unwanted German Shepherds Safe Shelter

Once a Las Vegas card dealer, Grace Konosky of North Hollywood is now known as a savior of sorts. But she’s not after human souls.

She runs the German Shepherd Rescue, a nonprofit, no-kill facility in Burbank, where unwanted or neglected German shepherds are cared for and nursed back to health until they can be adopted by a family that will love them.

Although a dog lover since her childhood in New Jersey, Konosky did not set out to become an animal advocate.

Almost 20 years ago, after a divorce, Konosky moved from the East Coast to Las Vegas with her young children. She was looking for a change of scene and anticipated the desert climate after one too many New Jersey winters.

She took several low-paying jobs, but quickly realized that if she was going to support her children, she would have to work in the casinos. “I took classes to learn how to deal cards and did that for 15 years while my children were growing,” she said.

After remarrying and moving with her new husband to the Valley, she took a course in dog grooming so she could volunteer at a facility in Canoga Park that kept abandoned dogs. “Their care and feeding was paid for by various groups around the Valley,” she said.

This went on for several years until the facility gave notice it was going to shut down.

Konosky says there was a flap over where the abandoned dogs would be transferred. Various organizations placed animals in facilities. Konosky went looking for a place in Burbank, found one and took 12 German shepherds there.

German Shepherd Rescue was born.

Today, the Shepherd Shelter at 417 Moss St. in Burbank is licensed for 35 animals and the place overflows with purebred German shepherds, often with papers from the American Kennel Club, according to Konosky.

“My life is now pretty much taken up with the shepherds,” she said. “I rescue them, help them get healthy, feed them, exercise them, clean them, clean up after them and try to find them good homes.”

Asked why she spends all her time and much of her money in this ongoing act of devotion, she shook her head sadly and tried to explain: “Shepherds are extremely intelligent and intensely loyal. Once they bond with a person or family, they will do almost anything asked of them in return for shelter, food and love.

“But we get dogs in here who have cigarette burns and other suspicious injuries,” she said. “The kind of injuries you associate with child abuse.”

She said that after receiving or retrieving dogs, Konosky and friends spend time trying to rehabilitate the dogs, if that is necessary. “We try to rekindle their faith in humans. We try to give them confidence that we mean well.”

Some dogs have been so abused and are so frightened that there is almost nothing that can be done for them. They have been driven crazy, Konosky said. A case in point is a male dog in her care.

“The owner brought him to our facility and told me to hide in the closet while he put the animal in a cage,” she said. “He said no one could handle the dog, and the man was right. The dog wouldn’t let anyone near him, not even to bring him food and water. After months of working with him and talking gently to him, I am now just able to approach him. I don’t even want to think about what might have been done to that dog.”

Konosky said she has heard some incredible explanations from people leaving her their German shepherds. “One man told me the dog didn’t understand him. One woman said the dog followed her around too much.”

Konosky said most of the dogs are beautiful, alert and loving. They come to her facility from people who can no longer keep a large dog or who don’t want the ongoing responsibility.

Because of the condition in which some of the dogs arrive on her doorstep, she is cautious about people who come to adopt a German shepherd. There is a long questionnaire, an interview and other procedures that an applicant must complete before an animal is released from the facility.

The animals are not free or even inexpensive. A $150 donation is asked for each pet, although, under special circumstances, she said she is willing to let a dog go for less to a loving home. The money, she said, goes toward the feeding, care and placement of other dogs.

Konosky said dogs are only given to families in which they are welcomed as a companion.

Those looking for a guard dog need not apply.

High School Journalist’s Cinderella Story Ended at Ball

Reseda High School journalist Romina Atayan is philosophical about the treatment she got at last Monday’s Oscar ceremonies. But her teacher thinks the little gold statue should be turning red from embarrassment.

“Romina was told she could be right there next to the other journalists when the stars made their entry into the Shrine Auditorium,” said journalism instructor Beth Bleiberg.

“She was told she would be backstage with the print media where the stars came after winning Oscars.

“She was told she would be a guest of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences at the Governor’s Ball afterward.”

Someone, it seems, dropped the ball.

“I was in the bleachers when all the stars came into the auditorium, which was sort of a disappointment,” Romina said. “But I did get to be backstage during the awards and asked Tom Hanks a question. That part was great.”

But, she said, after completing a story that she phoned into USA Today, she headed over to the ball with Bleiberg--only to be told she didn’t have the proper credentials.

“I was pretty disappointed about that,” Romina said.

Romina generated a lot of publicity for the Academy by being the first high school reporter credentialed to cover the awards event. This came about after she asked the right question at a press conference held by the Academy for young writers.

Romina asked why the Academy had never invited a young journalist to cover the awards ceremony. She barely got the words out of her mouth before Academy officials agreed it was a great idea.

What followed was a lot of print in various newspapers and television interviews about this poised young journalist and her unique opportunity. She said she was surprised about not being allowed into the ball.

An Academy official said the whole thing is a big misunderstanding.

“We offered to let Romina cover the event the way all print reporters do,” the Academy’s Frank Lieberman said. That means reporters only have access to what they are actually covering, he continued, without apologies.

Bleiberg says that wasn’t the way it was told to her and she’s sorry Romina was disappointed.

“It was like: ‘Welcome to the real world,’ ” Bleiberg said.

Overheard:

“This place looks like a meeting of mimes from Mars with everyone listening to the trial on their headsets and talking in gestures so they don’t miss any of the proceedings. Doesn’t anyone but me think this is pretty weird?” Man at Gelson’s Market in Encino to stranger, neither of whom were wearing Walkmans to listen to testimony in the O. J. Simpson double-murder trial.