A St. Petersburg Realtor collects blankets, towels and other items for local animal shelters ahead of the winter cold snap each year.
ST. PETERSBURG, FL — Ever since she was a child, Jennifer Jones loved animals. And as she got older, as a teenager living in St. Pete’s Old Northeast neighborhood, she’d happily care for her neighbors’ pets.
“My first job wasn’t even a job … I had keys to everybody’s house; I had one of those janitor key rings,” she told Patch. “I’d ask people, ‘You going to work? I’ll come walk your dog.’”
Now, as a realtor with the Jennifer Thayer Group, which recently joined real estate firm Michael Saunders & Company as it expands into St. Petersburg, Jones continues to have a big heart for animals by collecting blankets and other supplies for rescue animals.
Through their grassroots initiative Operation Cold Noses, she and her boyfriend, Alex Kaczmarski, a home inspector with Quigley Inspection Services, accept these donated items for no-kill shelters in the area every year from November into early January.
It’s a personal mission for the couple, who have two rescue dogs together — Doug, a 13-year-old pitbull mix and Eli, an 8-pound Shih Tzu.
Jones knows how much her pups hate the cold.
“And they have a shelter … and all the blankets and snuggles,” she said. “But there are so many without.”
At first, they simply collected items from family and friends — mostly used linens, towels, and blankets, though they’d sometimes accept food, treats, and other items.
“Year after year it grew a little bit more and a little bit more,” Jones said. “Now this little homegrown thing we started is a lot bigger than us. It’s bigger than what we ever thought it would be to the point where we need storage units and drop-off facilities.
