Article by Gwen Jones, Department of Family Services
(Posted 2024 October)
Julianne (Juli) Verrier believes in finding your passion. A lifelong animal lover, she is passionate about caring for vulnerable animals. Following her retirement 10 years ago, Verrier began devoting much of her time to volunteering with the animal rescue group, Pets Bring Joy, to help cats without homes in the community. In June, her compassion for endangered cats led to her rescuing a mother cat and her five kittens from the parking lot at a local Starbucks, then fostering the feline family while working with other volunteers to place them in loving homes. While caring for these creatures can be exhausting, it is also a gratifying experience, one that provides Verrier with a deep sense of purpose and great joy.
Verrier grew up in the small town of Winterset, IA, a place she remembers fondly. Winterset is in Madison County, made famous by Robert James Waller’s 1992 novel, “The Bridges of Madison County.” Verrier and her younger brother Jim enjoyed an idyllic childhood raised by their parents Jim and Evelyn. Verrier recalls that she and her brother had pet rabbits and a dog. In 1954, the family moved to Kansas City, KS, when Verrier was 12 years old.
After high school, Verrier attended the University of Kansas for three years. While at school, she became close friends with her sorority sister, Edda Buchberger, who was from Austria and attended school on a Fulbright scholarship. After Edda returned to Austria, Verrier decided that she wanted to visit her friend, so she left school and worked for a year to save enough money for the trip. She arrived in Austria in time to attend Edda’s wedding to her fiancé, Wilhelm, in the scenic village of Gmunden, Austria.
Instead of returning home after visiting Edda, Verrier decided to stay in Europe, traveling from place to place. “I traveled wherever the jobs and people took me,” she says. She recalls working a variety of odd jobs – washing wine glasses at a train station in a little Swiss Village to working as a waitress in a restaurant on the Baltic Sea. She met new friends during her travels, including a German family that invited her to visit them for a week at their home in Bonn. Verrier traveled throughout Europe for three and a half years, only visiting the United States once to spend Christmas with her family.
Upon returning home, Verrier moved to Northern Virginia and got a marketing job at Riggs Bank. Noticing that she had completed three years of college, her supervisor encouraged her to complete her degree, even allowing her to attend classes at American University during work hours. Verrier graduated with a degree in Public Communications. Verrier’s brother, Jim, also lived in Northern Virginia and worked for Riggs Bank, ascending to the role of Vice President.
Verrier’s parents moved to Northern Virginia from Kansas City to be close to their children and Evelyn Verrier joined the ranks of Riggs Bank employees as well, working as an executive secretary. Wishing to stay active, she worked into her 80s before finally retiring.
Verrier eventually left Riggs Bank, working in public relations at various places before joining the corporate team at Long & Foster Real Estate. During her career with Long & Foster, she did public relations and special event planning for the company, which required her to travel extensively throughout the mid-Atlantic region. Outgoing and upbeat, Verrier enjoyed her job – planning events, taking photos and interacting with the agents. Throughout her career, she always had a pet cat or two, leaving them in the hands of her trusty cat sitter during her work trips.
After retiring 10 years ago, Verrier joined Pets Bring Joy after a woman she knew who was involved in animal rescue suggested that she join a rescue group because caring for cats required a team effort. Verrier began working with other volunteers to feed cats at various community cat colonies. She also transported rescues and fostered cats while they awaited permanent homes. As she became more involved in the work, she had an epiphany, “I remember going out and feeding one day and saying to myself, I really enjoy this because it’s not stressful and it’s very needed. I’m happy doing this and helping them,” she recalls. Pets Bring Joy also introduced Verrier to like-minded people (primarily women), and together they’ve formed a friend group of community cat ladies.
At age 82, Verrier has little family besides her niece and nephew. However, she and Edda Buchberger have remained friends for over 60 years, visiting each other periodically. “It’s hard when you get my age because you do lose a lot of your friends. So, animal rescue is what fills my life. You need the excitement of something like this that gets you out of bed in the morning,” she shares.
Verrier had been trying to scale back some of her animal rescue activities until this past June, when a little brown tabby cat upended her plans. While returning home from a doctor’s appointment, she stopped for a latte at the Starbucks in the Bradlick Shopping Center in Annandale. In the parking lot, she caught sight of the tabby darting under cars. Concerned for the cat’s welfare, she returned to the parking lot every morning to put out food and water. After several days, a man confirmed that the tabby was eating the food, so she decided to attempt to trap it.
To keep the number of community cats down, animal rescuers often trap cats to be spayed or neutered before releasing them back into the community. “It is called catch-neuter-return when you put the cat back and I have trouble with the R part,” Verrier says, laughing. After setting the trap and hoping for the best, she returned the next day to find that she had successfully trapped the tabby.
Because the cat feared people, it took Verrier several days to get close enough to see that the cat’s nipples were engorged with milk, indicating that she had recently given birth. Worried, Verrier rushed back to the shopping center and scoured the lot, trying to spot the kittens. She finally located them in the sewer and with the help of several young Starbucks employees and a helpful bystander, was able to remove all five kittens and reunite them with their mom. Thankfully, mother Nugget and kittens, Bean, Brew, Mocha, Matcha and Cappuccino, were all healthy. While Verrier has no regrets about rescuing the cats, the rescue and the work required to foster them were exhausting.
Verrier isn’t planning any future cat rescues. She is content to continue with her work feeding community cats. Currently, she visits five sites three days a week to feed and water the cats. She also hopes to scale back fostering so eventually the only cats living in her home are her own. Decorating is Verrier’s other passion, so she plans to devote more time in the future to decorating projects.
Verrier hopes that by sharing her story she’ll inspire others to discover purpose and joy in animal rescue. There are many ways to get involved, including fostering, feeding community cat colonies, transporting rescue cats to vet appointments, or building shelters so cats have a safe and warm place to sleep during the winter. To learn more about Pets Bring Joy, the rescue group Verrier volunteers with, visit their website at petsbringjoy.org.
This article is part of the Golden Gazette monthly newsletter which covers a variety of topics and community news concerning older adults and caregivers in Fairfax County. Are you new to the Golden Gazette? Don’t miss out on future newsletters! Subscribe to get the electronic or free printed version mailed to you. Have a suggestion for a topic? Share it in an email or call 703-324-GOLD (4653).