It is with immense sadness that we are announcing the passing of one of our treasured team members, Dawn Forest. Dawn was not only a vital member of the Fredericksburg SPCA on our Matchmaker/Adoption team, but she was also an incredible human being. Love for animals and people flowed abundantly through her each day in the work she did. Dawn adored her job and her work family, and that includes the fosters and volunteers she worked alongside. She was much more than a coworker and we were lucky enough to come to know Dawn as a great listener, a shoulder to cry on, a hype man, a sneaky dog snuggler, and someone who came out of the left-field with jokes right when you needed them.

The entire Fredericksburg SPCA team is under 25 people in total, and the Matchmaker team, in particular, consisted of only three, including Dawn. To explain the magnitude of grief for those who worked alongside her is to downplay the loss into words we can process. The Matchmakers work extraordinarily hard to connect homeless animals to new families – a job position that is born of great passion and takes a very special person. Dawn’s role as a Matchmaker seemed made for the person she was. Her innate ability for deep listening and her compassion were the groundwork for connecting animal lovers to their new companions. She took so much enjoyment in being around the SPCA animals, getting to know each one, and bridging the gap between them and their future family. The joy and excitement she had after she finalized adoptions were palpable, and we’ll miss seeing the twinkle in her eye when she would say, “guess who just went home!?”