Last Lick: The Power of Second Chances
Actress Kate Drummond on how—for both dogs and people—it’s never too late to start over
Actress Kate Drummond on how—for both dogs and people—it’s never too late to start over.
Actress Kate Drummond is a big believer in second chances. At age 35, she realized that though she loved her job as an elementary school teacher and had, by all accounts, a wonderful life, it didn’t light her up. When one of her grade three students asked her, during a lesson on
Martin Luther King, what her dream was, she paused then answered truthfully: to act. The little girl replied, “why aren’t you doing it then?”
This simple question sparked an epiphany that led Kate to quit her job and give up everything she had built in order to follow her true passion. She moved from Ottawa to a basement suite in Ajax, Ontario, a town just outside of Toronto—the most she could afford. She pounded the pavement, went to auditions, and persevered despite an agent telling her she was too old to harbour dreams of becoming a movie star. Ouch, right?
But Kate was to prove that agent and her worried family wrong. Building a career step by step, Kate became an in-demand actress. She currently stars in the new Hulu original series Utopia Falls, as well as appearing in the new reboot of the beloved 90’s children’s television series Ghostwriter streaming now on AppleTV+.
All of this is to say that Kate knows a thing or two about rebirths, so it’s fitting she’s a big proponent of animal rescue. Kate not only has an adorable rescue dog, Zelda, but she is a huge supporter of several animal causes, including The Snoopi Project, Playa Animal Rescue, Dogs in Better Spots or DIBS (the organization from which she adopted Zelda), and Bytowne Association for Rescued Kanines (BARK).
“Everyone deserves a second chance. Even a third or fourth chance,” says Kate. “Dogs who are needing to be adopted or rescued are not broken dogs. It just means that somewhere along the line, a human gave up on them, or they were born on the streets and didn't have a gentle human hand to nurture them.”
Given the chance, dogs—like people—can always start over and live the life they were meant for. “All dogs need a place to love, learn, and be loved,” says Kate. “There is nothing in the world that compares to the love and trust of a dog you've rescued.”