She died unexpectedly on Oct. 6 at 27 years old.
“Her greatest ardour was animals,” mentioned her mom, Donna Pelikan, noting that her daughter first volunteered on the Sadie Mae Foundation in Bolton when she was simply 13 years old.
Donna Pelikan mentioned that Jenna had a knack for capturing every canine’s persona by means of movies set to music, an typically succesful instrument in attracting households to undertake them.
“All of the dogs had been getting adopted when she made movies” for dogs in numerous shelters all through Connecticut, Donna Pelikan mentioned.
While Jenna initially was interested in puppies to foster in her younger years, she later took in hard-luck circumstances, her father Richard Pelikan mentioned.
“Everybody else would quit on dogs that had been older, sickly, and he or she simply did not need them to be put down so she would do all she may to get them adopted,” he mentioned. “I feel that introduced her pleasure, however she additionally took on all that ache. That was troublesome for her.”
The “unconditional love” dogs present is a big a part of what stored Jenna motivated in her rescue efforts, Donna Pelikan mentioned. “She was at all times in search of the subsequent animal she may save.”
Brenda Albert, founding father of the Sadie Mae Foundation, mentioned that she normally will not settle for a volunteer to work for her if they’re younger than 18, however she made an exception for Jenna.
When she was 13 years old, Jenna wrote Albert a letter asking to volunteer.
“It simply hit me that this woman actually, actually wants this. I made an exception and I used to be by no means sorry I did. … She was the one one that I ever made an exception for and he or she began volunteering for me when she was 13,” Albert mentioned. “Jenna was actually distinctive when it got here to the rescue world. … She remembered each single canine, who adopted them. Her reminiscence was superb when it got here to that and he or she labored tirelessly to get dogs adopted.”
Jenna was somebody the dogs and their rescuers may depend on, Albert mentioned.
