WEBVTT - Short Stuff: Camberley Kate

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<v Speaker 1>Hey, and welcome to the short stuff. I'm Josh, and

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<v Speaker 1>there's Chuck and it's us, but we're joined by a

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<v Speaker 1>third person today in spirit. Her name is Camberly Kate,

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<v Speaker 1>and she seems like a pretty boss person.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, she sure was.

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<v Speaker 3>If you found yourself in Camberly, England, which is about

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<v Speaker 3>thirty five miles southwest of London.

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<v Speaker 1>In Surrey, that's right.

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<v Speaker 3>If you found yourself there, and let's say the mid

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<v Speaker 3>nineteen seventies, you might have seen causing a traffic jam

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<v Speaker 3>in town. Beret wearing, gray haired senior citizen with a

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<v Speaker 3>handmade push cart with Ward stray dogs painted on the

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<v Speaker 3>side of it. And then some dogs in that cart

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<v Speaker 3>riding along, and maybe another, I don't know, fifteen or

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<v Speaker 3>twenty dogs, some on leashes, some not on leashes, but

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<v Speaker 3>very good boys and girls walking along with this, you know,

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<v Speaker 3>for lack of a better word, crazy dog lady in

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<v Speaker 3>the best way.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah, crazy dog lady. Your name was Kate Ward. And

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<v Speaker 1>the reason she was a crazy dog lady, in addition

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<v Speaker 1>to walking all these dogs around, is that all of

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<v Speaker 1>these dogs were hers. She wasn't like helping out a

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<v Speaker 1>friend by taking these dogs on a walk. She had

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<v Speaker 1>taken in all these dogs because they were all strays,

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<v Speaker 1>they're about to be put down, they had been abandoned,

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<v Speaker 1>and she took them in as her own. And what's

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<v Speaker 1>really cool about this too, is she took really good

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<v Speaker 1>care of them. This wasn't like a situation where she

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<v Speaker 1>was just collecting dogs and you know, whatever happened to

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<v Speaker 1>him happened to him. Like, she took excellent care of

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<v Speaker 1>each one of these dogs. And over the course of

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<v Speaker 1>her lifetime, actually over the course of just something like

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<v Speaker 1>fifty years, I think she rescued hundreds of dogs and

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<v Speaker 1>kept them in great health and gave them great lives.

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<v Speaker 3>Yeah, it's amazing. It was more like like thirty something years.

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<v Speaker 3>Oh really, Yeah, that's a lot of dogs. And apparently

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<v Speaker 3>here's you know, the little secret is apparently there were

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<v Speaker 3>hundreds of cats. I couldn't find a lot of evidence

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<v Speaker 3>of that, but I did read a couple of articles

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<v Speaker 3>where they said, you know that no one ever talks

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<v Speaker 3>about the cats, but there were just as many cats

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<v Speaker 3>over the years. So you know, one of England's first,

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<v Speaker 3>probably the first en mass dog rescue person. You know,

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<v Speaker 3>from what I read, people would of course taken a

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<v Speaker 3>stray here and there and that kind of thing, But

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<v Speaker 3>there weren't these big dog rescue organizations. People would like

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<v Speaker 3>either abandon a pet's very sadly or just drop it

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<v Speaker 3>off at the vet, or drop it off at the

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<v Speaker 3>front door of the police station. And that's where she

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<v Speaker 3>sourced them. She got dogs and cats from police stations,

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<v Speaker 3>from veterinarians out on the streets, just randomly. And it

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<v Speaker 3>all started with this greyhound at the very beginning, I

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<v Speaker 3>think in nineteen forty three, she had bought a cottage.

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<v Speaker 3>It was her first house. And then she said, went

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<v Speaker 3>up the road on the doorstep of the vet. Someone

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<v Speaker 3>had abandoned this little lame, skinny greyhound that was set

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<v Speaker 3>to be put to sleep. And she was like, no, no, no,

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<v Speaker 3>that's coming with me.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah the vet I heard is very dramatic. The vet

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<v Speaker 1>had the axe in the air in the mid swing

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<v Speaker 1>when she stopped him and said, no, no, I'll take this

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<v Speaker 1>little greyhound in. That became, from what I can tell,

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<v Speaker 1>her first dog at the very least of her adult life,

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<v Speaker 1>and she and the dog. Did you see the little

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<v Speaker 1>doggie's name? I couldn't find it anywhere.

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<v Speaker 2>No, I couldn't find the greyhounds name.

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<v Speaker 1>Okay, but this is her first dog. We'll call him Primo.

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<v Speaker 1>And she and Primo were like inseparable for eight over

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<v Speaker 1>eight years, like they were just the best of friends.

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<v Speaker 1>And then sadly, as things happened Primo died, she gave

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<v Speaker 1>him an extra eight plus years of great life. He

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<v Speaker 1>had a new best friend. So his passing was sad

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<v Speaker 1>in and of itself, but it wasn't as sad as

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<v Speaker 1>if he had been put down for being lame eight

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<v Speaker 1>years earlier.

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<v Speaker 3>Yeah, for sure. And she said, and you know, how

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<v Speaker 3>did this come from? This great BBC interview from the

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<v Speaker 3>mid seventies. You can watch on YouTube if you want

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<v Speaker 3>to hear Kate in her cantankerous ways, kind of spill

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<v Speaker 3>this story out. But she said that at the time

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<v Speaker 3>everyone kind of thought like, well, that's it. You know,

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<v Speaker 3>no one's gonna like this woman isn't going to get

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<v Speaker 3>another dog.

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<v Speaker 2>And she was like, that was just the start.

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<v Speaker 3>And at this point, it was five hundred dogs by

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<v Speaker 3>the time of this interview, and then I think four

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<v Speaker 3>years later that had grown to six hundred by the end.

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<v Speaker 1>Nuts, man, it's so great too. I say, we take

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<v Speaker 1>a little break and come back and talk a little

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<v Speaker 1>more about Kimberly Kate and her saga.

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<v Speaker 4>Let's do it, okay, Chucks.

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<v Speaker 1>At some point back there, you had said that she

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<v Speaker 1>sourced her dogs from different places, and I couldn't help

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<v Speaker 1>in my mind think that it sounded like she was

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<v Speaker 1>running a farm to table operation out of her house. Yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>that's not at all what she was doing. She was

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<v Speaker 1>doing the opposite of that. She's not eating dogs. She

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<v Speaker 1>was taking really good care of them, as we said.

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<v Speaker 1>And one of the really crazy things about this, or

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<v Speaker 1>neat things about this, is she could rattle off the

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<v Speaker 1>names of all the dogs she'd ever taken care of. Yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>she's being interviewed at age eighty, and she's not only

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<v Speaker 1>rattling off their names like Patch and Daddy, she's also

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<v Speaker 1>talking about where she got each one or how she

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<v Speaker 1>found each one too. So it's quite obvious that each

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<v Speaker 1>one of these dogs that she took in and would

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<v Speaker 1>have dozens at a time, meant something very important to her.

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<v Speaker 1>Each one.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah for sure.

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<v Speaker 3>I mean, just to be able to remember six hundred

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<v Speaker 3>things at that age is pretty remarkable, Yeah for sure.

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<v Speaker 3>You know, and you know she couldn't do this without help.

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<v Speaker 3>It seems like there were townspeople who would donate money

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<v Speaker 3>for food, although one of them was keen to point

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<v Speaker 3>out that like, she never took anything for herself even

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<v Speaker 3>when people tried to help her out. Yeah, she didn't

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<v Speaker 3>have a whole lot of money, but she did have

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<v Speaker 3>the help of a local vet, a guy named Jeffrey Craddock,

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<v Speaker 3>who did pro bono care for her dogs. And he's

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<v Speaker 3>interviewed and basically was like, these are some of the

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<v Speaker 3>healthiest dogs I've come across.

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<v Speaker 2>He said.

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<v Speaker 3>They seemed to live a little longer than most, an

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<v Speaker 3>average of about sixteen years, and they're in better shape

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<v Speaker 3>than the average dog. She feeds them well, he said,

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<v Speaker 3>but like not too much, he said, none of them

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<v Speaker 3>are overweight, and they're all very well behaved because you know,

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<v Speaker 3>as you see on these dog walks, like a lot

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<v Speaker 3>of them even aren't on leash. And in fact, she

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<v Speaker 3>battled a leash law that came around at one point

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<v Speaker 3>that I don't think was necessarily targeting her, but would

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<v Speaker 3>have affected her.

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<v Speaker 1>No, that's the other reason why people remember her. In

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<v Speaker 1>addition to being mentioned in Sir Arthur's Personal History of

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<v Speaker 1>twentieth century England called the Lion and the Unicorn. He

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<v Speaker 1>gave her that nickname in the book. One of the

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<v Speaker 1>reasons she became kind of a legend in addition to

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<v Speaker 1>being the first like basically solo animal rescue person, yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>was that she had quite a personality in.

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<v Speaker 4>And of it.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah, Like she was known to be rather vocal and defensive,

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<v Speaker 1>and anytime somebody threatened her dogs with putting them on

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<v Speaker 1>a leash or taking them away from her something, she'd

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<v Speaker 1>let them know in no uncertain terms that they were

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<v Speaker 1>not going to do that.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah.

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<v Speaker 3>I think it's interesting, like she didn't seem personality plus,

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<v Speaker 3>but kind of in a lovable way because she's like,

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<v Speaker 3>don't screw with my dogs.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah.

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<v Speaker 3>Apparently she would, you know, the cars would honk at

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<v Speaker 3>her and stuff because she would cause like, you know,

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<v Speaker 3>a bit of a traffic jam at times when she

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<v Speaker 3>has all these dogs on these walks and she would

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<v Speaker 3>ram that cart into the cars and not be too

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<v Speaker 3>nice sometimes, and was not nice to the city council.

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<v Speaker 3>Like I said, with that leash law, It's not like

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<v Speaker 3>she went in there with hat in hand. She even

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<v Speaker 3>petitioned the royal family at times, right.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah, apparently she would regularly write to them and I

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<v Speaker 1>don't know that they ever wrote back, but there was

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<v Speaker 1>an incident where a teacher said publicly that they saw

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<v Speaker 1>Kate beating one of her dogs with a stick, and

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<v Speaker 1>she got so incensed about this and was so concerned,

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<v Speaker 1>I guess about what people thought of how she was

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<v Speaker 1>taking care of her dogs. She wrote to King George

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<v Speaker 1>the sixth, Queen Elizabeth's father and said like that did

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<v Speaker 1>not happen. Unequivocally, that didn't happen, nor would it ever happen.

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<v Speaker 1>So she would appeal to them too if the city

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<v Speaker 1>council wasn't behaving. And I don't know what effect it has,

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<v Speaker 1>but it's definitely worth mentioning.

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<v Speaker 3>Yeah, apparently she even sent Queen Elizabeth when she got married,

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<v Speaker 3>well before she's queen, I guess in November nineteen forty seven,

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<v Speaker 3>and it says that one of the dogs sent a

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<v Speaker 3>wedding gift a dog leash to those corgies that Queen

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<v Speaker 3>Elizabeth loved. So that's pretty cute, you know. She she

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<v Speaker 3>lived on a pension. Not a lot is known about

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<v Speaker 3>her early life. I think I found that she was

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<v Speaker 3>sadly both her parents had died when she was a

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<v Speaker 3>young age and was raised by her aunt and kind

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<v Speaker 3>of worked as a when she became a teenager, worked

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<v Speaker 3>as a housemaid at various places and institutions, and apparently

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<v Speaker 3>it was pretty religious, because she did say that, you know,

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<v Speaker 3>capital h him, these animals belonged to him, and that

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<v Speaker 3>I'm just sort of caring for them, you know, the

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<v Speaker 3>best I can.

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<v Speaker 1>I'm just cleaning up their poop exactly. She Yeah, you

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<v Speaker 1>mentioned that, and I think it's worth pointing out again

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<v Speaker 1>she was not wealthy. She was living off a pension

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<v Speaker 1>from the government from what I can tell, Like you said,

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<v Speaker 1>she'd been a housemaid here there, and I don't know

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<v Speaker 1>that she was occupied much after that. Once she bought

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<v Speaker 1>her house for six hundred pounds. By the way, but

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<v Speaker 1>there's a this is from a House of Works article,

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<v Speaker 1>and there is a person named Heather drisk gold Woodford

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<v Speaker 1>who curates a Facebook page to Kate Camberly Kate and

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<v Speaker 1>has a lot of information about her, but basically points

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<v Speaker 1>out that Kate was like the forerunner to the people

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<v Speaker 1>who are rescuing dogs today, and like you said before,

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<v Speaker 1>like this just did not happen. People just abandoned dogs.

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<v Speaker 1>Maybe you would take as stray and like you said,

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<v Speaker 1>I think, but she just came out of nowhere and

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<v Speaker 1>made such an impact and became so memorable that she

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<v Speaker 1>inspired other people to do the same, not nearly to

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<v Speaker 1>the degree that she did, Like there's very few animal

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<v Speaker 1>rescue people with a couple dozen dogs at any given time,

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<v Speaker 1>but or let alone, not just fostering them, keeping them

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<v Speaker 1>for the rest of their lives. But she definitely inspired

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<v Speaker 1>people in that respect for sure.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, very sadly she passed.

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<v Speaker 3>I guess she was about eighty four because this was

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<v Speaker 3>in nineteen seventy nine. She had a series of strokes

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<v Speaker 3>in the BBC she was eighty and seventy five. So

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<v Speaker 3>a nice, full life, saved a lot of dogs and cats.

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<v Speaker 3>So we salute Kamberly Kate.

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<v Speaker 1>Yes, we take our berets off to her. And short

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<v Speaker 1>stuff is.

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<v Speaker 3>That stuff you should know?

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