by Kaycee Chance | Photos by Linda Earley
In conversation with Louisa McCune,
executive director of the Kirkpatrick
Foundation, it’s easy to gather that she is a passionate, fierce, and dedicated animal advocate who feels in her very core the importance of animals to our human experience. Her love for animals promotes visions of a safer, kinder, more humane world for animals of all sizes and all circumstances in Oklahoma and beyond.
At the Kirkpatrick Foundation, in addition to the day-to-day operations, McCune oversees the foundation’s three major programs: one that focuses on grantmaking; the Safe and Humane program, which
aims to create a safer world for animals in Oklahoma by 2032; and ArtDesk, a quarterly contemporary arts magazine.
It’s no real surprise that McCune has dedicated so much of her life to animals. Her love of these sweet creatures goes back to her childhood, when a favorite movie unknowingly gave her a glimpse into her future. “The movie Seems Like Old Times (1980) was the first movie I ever went to by myself,” McCune explains. “I was 10 years old at the downtown theater in Enid. I grew up in a household similar to that of the main character, Glenda — she had many dogs and many people, lots of coming and going.”
Sharing a Happy Home
Like Glenda in the movie, McCune has no shortage of puppy and kitty love in her life, with her current pack consisting of five dogs and one cat. “There is no shortage of dog hair,” she jokes. McCune and her three sons — Mac, 18, Rucks, 15, and Eddie, 13 — happily share their home with Margaret, nine, a Golden Retriever; Carl, sixand-a-half, a Catahoula; Helen, six, also a Catahoula; Luna, three, a Newfoundland; Tara, three, a Great Pyrenees; and Rocka Gray, six, their kitty. McCune adds, “it’s a full house! Thankfully, we have room for all of them to be themselves.”
McCune describes her pets with the intimate knowledge of their personalities that only a mother can have, focusing on the sweetest details of what makes each one irreplaceable. McCune describes Margaret, the eldest, as “the sweetest and most agreeable in the house,” someone that everyone gets along with, a beautiful golden girl who spends most of her days lounging on the porch of the art studio. Named after McCune’s mother, Margaret Peggy Rucks McCune, this sweet and loyal girl clearly holds a special place in the family. “My seventh Golden Retriever,” McCune says, “lucky number seven.”
Next in line is Carl, a handsome Catahoula whom McCune’s son Mac selected in 2017 when he and his mother couldn’t leave an adoption event at Pet Angels rescue without making a commitment to adopt the dog — a moment of true love at first sight for Mac and Carl. McCune lovingly describes Carl as a “bouncer, an arbitrator, a peacemaker.” She explains that Carl is not one for loud noises or scuffles. “He will insert himself into the middle to settle any perceived discord. I can appreciate that in a house full of teenage boys.”
Six months after Carl joined the family, another beautiful Catahoula, Helen, entered the picture — a sweet girl who had been through some serious trauma, showing up injured and in need of having a front leg amputated. McCune and her boys agreed to serve as Helen’s foster family after her surgery but very quickly realized that this loyal, demure girl wouldn’t be going anywhere.
“If I took bets, Helen would be everyone’s favorite,” McCune explains. “She is a hard win, a scrutinizing judge of character. For Helen to like you, you have to earn it.”
The next member to join the crew was Luna, whom McCune lovingly calls “our dark moon.” During the height of COVID, McCune celebrated her fiftieth birthday and decided just before then that it was important for her to do something meaningful to her. A longtime lover of Newfoundland and Newfoundland dogs alike, McCune thought it was time for a Newfy to join the pack. After researching and finding a reputable breeder in Ohio, McCune and her sons welcomed Luna into their family.
“She was among the cutest puppies I had ever seen,” McCune says, “a charcoal black furball with a pink tongue.” Now that Luna is all grown up, McCune describes
her as “a full-scale fire sign — a Sagittarius.”
Last but absolutely not least among the dogs is Tara, whom McCune and her boys agreed to foster from the Oklahoma City shelter in March 2023. (McCune now jokes that she will just have to claim them all as fosters.) “It became immediately clear that Tara was far too perfect to let go,” McCune says of this beautiful Pyrenees girl who resembles something otherworldly. McCune describes her as “the angel in our lives, a real goddess, a dakini, a messenger, I swear.”
To this day, the family remains in awe of Tara, explaining, “She just magically showed up, to spread her wisdom, calmness, and peaceability among us. Somehow, in her hands, everyone lives better.”
That brings us to Rocka Gray, the sole cat.
“My sister found Rocka Gray on a cold November night in Arkansas in 2016,” McCune says. “We visited my sister that Thanksgiving, and my children convinced me to let them bring the cat home with us to Oklahoma City. She is all gray and quite petite. She basically lives upstairs with the
boys, where she watches the dogs down the stairway from a perch of safety (a gate at the bottom of the stairway prevents the dogs from going upstairs; it took me years to figure out that simple trick). We feed her on the stairway. She is kind of gangly and not a hugger and although I’ve had many cats over the years, I wouldn’t call Rocka Gray the most charismatic in my history of cats. But we love her. For me, cats make a house a home.”
Finding Gentle Guides
McCune highlights some of the biggest features of pet ownership as belongingness, compassion, kindness, and a sense of home. Her views of animals as our teachers, collaborators, peacekeepers, love bringers, and gentle guides are worth noting and adopting.
And as for the McCune family and their companions, it’s hard not to imagine those joyfully chaotic but love-filled scenes from that movie Seems Like Old Times.
“In retrospect, I think my mother, my grandmother, and that movie portended my life today,” McCune says. “It’s still one of my all-time favorites.”
