OkcPets Magazine July 2023

July / August 2023 • OKC Pets 13 PETS AND THEIR PEOPLE No Shortage of Love The McCune Family Blends People and Pets by Kaycee Chance | Photos by Linda Earley I n conversation with Louisa McCune, executive director of the Kirkpatrick Foundation, it’s easy to gather that she is a passionate, fierce, and dedicated animal advocate who feels in her very core the importance of animals to our human experience. Her love for animals promotes visions of a safer, kinder, more humane world for animals of all sizes and all cir- cumstances in Oklahoma and beyond. At the Kirkpatrick Foundation, in addi- tion to the day-to-day operations, McCune oversees the foundation’s three major programs: one that focuses on grantmak- ing; the Safe and Humane program, which aims to create a safer world for animals in Oklahoma by 2032; and ArtDesk, a quar- terly contemporary arts magazine. It’s no real surprise that McCune has ded- icated so much of her life to animals. Her love of these sweet creatures goes back to her childhood, when a favorite movie unknow- ingly gave her a glimpse into her future. “The movie Seems Like Old Times (1980) was the first movie I ever went to by myself,” McCune explains. “I was 10 years old at the downtown theater in Enid. I grew up in a household similar to that of the main character, Glenda — she had many dogs and many people, lots of coming and going.” Sharing a Happy Home Like Glenda in the movie, McCune has no shortage of puppy and kitty love in her life, with her current pack consisting of five dogs and one cat. “There is no shortage of dog hair,” she jokes. McCune and her three sons — Mac, 18, Rucks, 15, and Eddie, 13 — happily share their home with Marga- ret, nine, a Golden Retriever; Carl, six- and-a-half, a Catahoula; Helen, six, also a Catahoula; Luna, three, a Newfoundland; Tara, three, a Great Pyrenees; and Rocka Gray, six, their kitty. McCune adds, “it’s a full house! Thankfully, we have room for all of them to be themselves.” Louisa McCune enjoys a sunny day on the patio with Tara (left) and Luna.