Following the death of her dog Cassie, Carolyn Rossi-Carfora found that she wanted to spend more time around animals. Not knowing where to go, a coworker told her about a shelter in Hamden where a family member spent time as a volunteer. Carolyn filled out an application and soon found herself helping out at adoption events for the Where the Love Is (WTLI) shelter. Before long, Carolyn became a regular volunteer, assisting with feeding and cleaning, and she discovered that her interest in animals was greater than she knew.

“I also loved animals, and I think after I started volunteering, I really started to understand how much of a passion I really have for it,” Carolyn says. “That kind of opened up a whole new area of interest for me that I didn’t really know I had that strongly.”

Now, Carolyn performs a variety of health-oriented and caretaking acts for the dogs at the rescue, including practicing the Japanese energy healing technique known as Reiki — specifically a form called Let Animals Lead.

“You want a peaceful, grateful, compassionate, harmony feeling about yourself when you’re around the animals,” Carolyn says. “When I say it’s like a form of energy, it’s not like you’re sitting in there, meditating with the animals. If you go in and do your feeding and cleaning and you’re full of anxiety, the dogs are going to feel that anxious energy and they may be barking in their kennel, they may have accidents, and they may not be able to settle.”

With this meditative practice, Carolyn can follow the dogs’ emotional responses towards calmly performed tasks by WTLI volunteers, influencing her to support a sustained, tranquil environment.

“That radiates to the dogs. They’re so much more in tune to the energy field around them than people are.”

Carolyn says she’s interested in bringing Reiki healing to other shelters and would love the opportunity to bring the approach to rescues like East Haven’s animal shelter and Dan Cosgrove in Branford.

“A sound mind in a sound body” is the peaceful state Carolyn wants to help the dogs at WTLI achieve, and she researches healthy canine diets to help achieve that state. Carolyn has put some dogs at the rescue on a raw diet, which she says is better than feeding processed kibble.

“I started with a couple of our dogs at the rescue that were having some issues,” she says. “[With] a couple of them, I decided to sponsor them and take it upon myself to purchase some different items that I thought would be good for them to be eating, and then try to incorporate some of the Reiki.”

Her dietary approach was influenced by wanting to relieve a six-month limp from which her dog Rhea was suffering. Carolyn swapped Rhea’s pain medications and kibble-based diet for one consisting of freeze-dried raw foods. Afterward, Carolyn says she discovered her dog’s physical condition had improved. Having carried this approach to a canine’s diet back to the rescue, Carolyn has seen it help some of their dogs as well, and while it cannot be provided by every one of them, she nonetheless wants to see it become the standard at shelters and homes.

“Ultimately, I would love to be able to take every dog in the rescue off the kibble because of all the things that go into it to make it what it is and how much nutrition is actually lost,” she says. “There’s so much behind it that research shows: allergies are more prevalent, inflammation is more prevalent. Whereas if you can get them on a whole food, or ultimately raw food diet, that is what animals are designed to eat in the wild.”

While Carolyn has taken an interest in taking care of dogs’ diets, she also takes care of helping spread the word about WTLI. She shares the rescue’s social media posts on her own personal social media account and by word-of-mouth. The word has spread quite a bit.

“People know that if they’re looking for a dog or if they know someone is looking for a dog, they kind of seek me out,” she says. “They know that I’m the dog lady now!”

Carolyn and the team of volunteers at WTLI will also try to host adoption events every five to six weeks, and Carolyn notes that the next one is on Saturday, Jan. 21, at the Subaru dealership in Milford.

For many, walking into an animal rescue space can engender intense emotions, with potential adopters understanding that many of the dogs may overcome traumatizing events from negligent owners. To establish and maintain a safe and positive environment, Carolyn says the best way to respond is for people to be in the here and now and only think of the bright future ahead for the dogs.

“If you look at the dog and dwell on ‘Oh, they were abused,’ or this and that happened to them, it’s very easy to get sucked in and get depressed for them,” she says. “[It’s about] being present for them, and knowing that they’re safe now, they are loved, and they are well-cared for.”

Essentially, adopters “have to look past what their past was” and recognize the happy days ahead of them.

Carolyn says her greatest joy in working with WTLI is the overall human-animal connection. Not just as reached through Reiki, but right from the beginning in recognizing that they have a place in the world and helping them find an owner to make that a reality.

“Just being a part of the dog’s life in some form. Knowing that I showed this sweet being love and compassion and helped with giving them a second chance to find their forever home. I’m a small piece on their journey, but I’m just so grateful to have been a part of that because they deserve the best.”