A Field Of Joy

Picture a field, an open meadow, the kind that dogs love to roam. Picture a puppy wandering the field, chasing insects — full of adorable life. An adoptive family watches joyfully from the edge of the field.

Now picture another puppy, and another family. And another. And another.

Picture that field teeming with puppies and kittens — more than 2,000 of them frolicking, outnumbered only by the thousands more men, women and children whose lives have been changed and enriched by their presence.

That’s what Patsy Topping has done for the world.

Her Lifetime Achievement Award, presented by ARF on Saturday at the organization’s annual Bow Wow Meow Ball, which was held virtually this year, is well deserved. The Bridgehampton riding stable owner and horse trainer is well known in the equestrian community for her commitment to animals, but it’s her unwavering commitment to saving dogs and cats from euthanasia that will be her lasting legacy, along with the joy and love shared by the animals and their families.

More than a decade ago, Ms. Topping’s love for animals took a turn when she was visiting a shelter in South Carolina and learned just how common it is there for uncooperative or unwanted animals to be “put to sleep.” Her first response was to adopt animals in jeopardy herself, but she soon expanded her mission to helping to find homes for many, many more animals from the high-kill shelters in South Carolina.

Like so many philanthropists, Ms. Topping has the nagging feeling, even with all the success stories, that she could have done more. Her focus in recent years has been on legislation addressing the overpopulation in South Carolina shelters that has made euthanasia more common, but the “almost impossible” task has come up short.

“The hardest part for me is that I’ve saved roughly 2,000 dogs to ARF and placed more dogs on my own in the last 15 years,” she added, “but I’ve failed dogs, and cats, because there isn’t any legislation, so I feel that tremendous kind of failure.”

Awards are not likely to mean much to someone like Ms. Topping, who isn’t active in the cause to bring attention to herself. But if she ever truly wonders whether her efforts have been a success, she should stop and just picture that field filled with thousands of four-legged friends, surrounded by the scores of people who love them. It’s a legendary legacy of a generous soul.