When it's a beautiful day, you'll see 13-year-old Ashley Mobilia walking Kirby. But Kirby is not the family pet. He lives at "Big Dog Ranch Rescue"and is waiting to be adopted.
"Right after my grandfather died my nanny told me and my mom about all of the dogs, and as soon as we came here, I just fell in love with them," Mobilia said.
For the past four years, she has spent almost 400 hours helping rescued animals. "The most fun is sitting down and playing with the puppies but I like to let the older dogs out of their crates and just walk around and give them some love."
But her love for animals doesn't stop there. She collects pet food and other supplies from neighbors, and asks her friends to donate towards the animals instead of buying her a birthday gift. "I also got some of my friends adopting animals and dogs from here and I got some of them volunteering here as well."
Robin Friedman, the development director at Big Dog Ranch Rescue,vsays Ashley's enthusiasm is contagious. "When it's someone so young, that has such a generous heart, those are the people that are going to change the world moving forward and that's what's so exciting for me."
It's not surprising what Ashley wants to do in the future. "I am leaning towards being a vet but if not, definitely something with animals."