The Pet Rock Fest Juno Hero Awards 2026 Announced

Every year, Pet Rock Fest honors individuals and organizations whose actions embody compassion, courage and a commitment to protecting animals. Renamed in memory of Juno, a beloved rescue dog and tireless symbol of advocacy, the Juno Hero Awards shine a spotlight on those who go above and beyond to make a difference for animals in our communities.

This year’s honorees reflect the many ways that advocacy and rescue take shape — from answering the call when injured wildlife needs help to using an everyday skill to raise money for animals and people in need.

Together, their work reminds us that protecting animals is a responsibility that belongs to all of us, and that acts of compassion — large or small — can ripple outward, improving countless lives.

Meet the 2026 Juno Hero Award recipients

Raptor Tales Rescue: When a Swan Needed Help, They Answered

For days, people watching a swan struggle at Worcester's Institute Park worried that something was terribly wrong.

The male swan had been spotted with a fishing hook and line around its neck, prompting concerned residents to contact rescue organizations, environmental officials and the city.

After consultation with wildlife officials, the city said the best course was to leave the bird alone and allow it to free itself naturally. Then, on the morning of June 27, the situation became much more urgent. The swan had become entangled in vegetation along the edge of Salisbury Pond. It was no longer simply swimming with fishing line trailing from its body. It was stuck.

That's when volunteers from Raptor Tales Rescue of Shrewsbury stepped in.

Raptor Tales President and Founder Jess Zorge and volunteer Matthew Lame waded roughly 10 feet into the pond and managed to cut the swan free. They emerged from the water with approximately 50 feet of fishing line, including a weighted sinker. The difference was immediate.

"It seems to be much more comfortable," Zorge said after the rescue. "It's night and day."

The swan soon made its way across the pond to rejoin its family.

For the Worcester residents who had been watching and worrying about the bird, it was the ending they had been hoping for.

For Raptor Tales Rescue, however, it was another day in a world where the endings aren't always as happy — and where simply answering the phone can sometimes mean the difference between an animal getting help and dying unseen.

“I feel like it’s our duty to give these animals a shot,” Zorge said.

Zorge, a Shrewsbury native, is a state- and federally licensed wildlife rehabilitator and educator who has worked with wildlife for more than 17 years. A certified veterinary technician and certified animal control officer, she founded Raptor Tales Rescue, a Shrewsbury-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to rescuing, rehabilitating and ultimately releasing injured and orphaned wildlife.

Her path to Raptor Tales began years earlier at the Tufts Wildlife Clinic, where she volunteered for about seven years — including while pregnant with her daughter.

“I was pregnant working with a black bear cub in there, so I tell her that she’s been in this field before she was even born,” Zorge said.

Today, Raptor Tales is one of just eight federally permitted wildlife rehabilitation operations in

Massachusetts specializing in birds of prey, vultures and hummingbirds, and the only one in Central Massachusetts, according to Zorge. The organization has assisted more than 550 birds of prey to date.

That expertise matters when the patients come equipped with talons.

“It’s specialized because these birds can shred you in a matter of seconds and I am very lucky to have the training,” Zorge said.

She has tried to prepare for virtually anything that might arrive at her door, combining her veterinary training with certification as an animal control officer and state, federal and educational wildlife permits.

“I tried to be as well-rounded as I can to be prepared for these situations,” Zorge said.

And there are plenty of situations.

Raptor Tales operates a 24-hour wildlife hotline, and Zorge said the organization has admitted a record number of local patients this year. On the day she spoke with Pet Rock Fest, five new patients had arrived.

Baby season, which generally winds down in September, can be relentless. Then comes what Zorge calls “trauma season” in October, when the calls are less likely to involve young animals and more likely to involve wildlife that is injured or seriously ill.

The hotline itself carries a weight that is difficult to switch off.

“When I don’t, things do actually die, which is a huge responsibility,” Zorge said of answering calls for help. “Many people are not aware of how to handle birds of prey or know that we are here.”

That can mean an injured animal is struck by another vehicle or disappears into the woods before anyone trained to help can reach it.

At 1 a.m., when animal control offices and other agencies may be closed, Raptor Tales is still there.

“It is all consuming, but when we get them here and we ease their suffering or help them get released back into the wild, it’s the best feeling in the world,” Zorge said.

The organization provides specialized care for animals injured by vehicle strikes, window collisions, fishing line and net entanglements, gunshots and poisoning. Some patients require months of medical treatment, specialized diets and rehabilitation before they can safely return to the wild.

The work is provided free of charge and supported entirely through donations.

Not every story makes it onto Raptor Tales' social media pages. Zorge said some cases are simply too upsetting to share.

“Some things are just so incredibly sad and depressing that I don’t feel like sharing those stories,” she said.

Many of those stories also have something in common: The harm was caused, directly or indirectly, by people.

“Nothing can prepare you to see some of the harm that’s inflicted by us humans,” Zorge said.

“I feel like we need to right those wrongs and work hard to prevent these injuries and educate and just keep talking and keep the conversations open about how these injuries and illness can be prevented.”

That prevention has become another major part of Raptor Tales' mission.

The organization advocates for poison-free pest control because rodenticides consumed by mice and rats can travel up the food chain when those animals are eaten by owls, hawks and other predators, sometimes with fatal consequences. It also urges people to properly dispose of fishing line and to stop and seek help after striking wildlife with a vehicle.

Zorge would consider fewer calls, not more, a sign of success.

“I truly hope one day that I’m not needed — that rodenticides will stop being used, that people will clean up their fishing line, they’ll stop when they hit an animal and that the intakes will slow down,” she said. “But historically every year the numbers go up.”

Beyond rescue and rehabilitation, Raptor Tales provides free wildlife education programs featuring Blue, a non-releasable barred owl, and even offers compassionate hospice visits. Zorge and her team also work alongside residents, law enforcement and state and local agencies responding to wildlife in distress.

Its philosophy can be summed up in four words: rescue, rehabilitate, release, repeat.

The Institute Park swan provided Worcester with a very public glimpse of work that usually happens far from an audience. When an animal was in trouble and waiting was no longer an option, Raptor Tales Rescue showed up, went into the water and helped.

But perhaps the better measure of the organization is everything the public doesn't see: the phone answered in the middle of the night, the badly injured bird that never makes Facebook, the months spent rehabilitating a single patient and, when all goes well, the moment an animal that arrived broken is released back into the wild.

For Zorge, carrying that responsibility is both daunting and a privilege.

“It’s a huge responsibility and also an honor to know we can help,” she said.

For its dedication to wildlife, its service to the community and its willingness to answer the call — whether it comes from a crowded Worcester park or in the middle of the night — Raptor Tales Rescue is a recipient of the 2026 Pet Rock Fest Juno Hero Award.

RAPTOR TALES RESCUE Shrewsbury, Massachusetts 24/7 wildlife hotline 550+ birds of prey assisted Specializing in birds of prey, vultures and hummingbirds Mission: Rescue. Rehabilitate. Release. Repeat.

Kara Kilian: Turning a simple skill into a powerful way to give back

The Hot Diggity Dog owner has made helping animals — and the people who love them — part of her business and her life

There is nothing particularly glamorous about trimming a dog's nails.

Kara Kilian has discovered, however, that a pair of clippers, a little patience and a willingness to give up some of her own time can accomplish quite a lot.

Through Hot Diggity Dog, the pet-care business she started almost by accident during the COVID-19 pandemic, Kilian has been holding charity nail-trim events benefiting animals, rescue organizations, local animal control departments and even families facing extraordinarily difficult circumstances.

She provides the time, skills and resources. People bring their dogs. And 100% of the money raised goes to someone who needs it.

Her goal now is to hold one fundraiser every month.

“I care so much about animal welfare and rescue and the people and communities we service, but running a business like this, you don’t have a lot of cash flow to be able to write a check to help these causes, so setting up these nail-trimming fundraisers lets me be able to raise money and give back, and I get to get out there and meet people,” Kilian said.

Then she offered another reason the model works particularly well for her.

“And honestly, I love people. I’m a yapper. I love talking to people. I love hearing their stories,” she said. “It’s fun for me, and so this has become a fun way for me to be able to give back to the community and people who have given me so much.”

It is that willingness to turn what she has — her skills, business, platform and time — into help for others that has earned Kilian one of the 2026 Pet Rock Fest Juno Hero Awards.

A need appears. Kara gets to work.

Jenn Grenier nominated Kilian for the award after seeing that generosity firsthand.

The two had only recently met when Kilian volunteered to help Grenier raise money for Cookie, a French bulldog Grenier was fostering through Webster Animal Control.

Cookie had come from a cruelty and neglect case and desperately needed expensive brachycephalic obstructive airway syndrome, or BOAS, surgery. Grenier was working to raise the money when Kilian came across her efforts in a local Facebook group.

“I have taken in many dogs, and a lot of them came from pretty bad situations and have some complex needs of their own, so I really felt for her and was impressed by what she was doing, and I wanted to help,” Kilian said.

The nail-trim fundraiser brought in about $500 toward Cookie's surgery.

“I was just so thrilled to be able to help,” she said.

Grenier saw something bigger in the gesture.

“What makes Kara so deserving of this recognition is that she doesn't simply make a donation — she gives her time, her skills, her business resources, and her platform to bring people together and raise money for others,” Grenier wrote in nominating her. “She asks for nothing in return and ensures that every dollar raised at these events goes directly to the cause.”

Cookie is far from the only beneficiary.

Kilian's recent events have supported Second Chance Animal Services and Safe Harbor, as well as a 13-year-old girl battling leukemia. She is particularly interested in doing more to help municipal animal control departments, where she sees significant needs and limited resources for the animals that come through their doors.

There isn't an elaborate process for selecting a beneficiary. Kilian pays attention.

“I’m in a lot of local Facebook groups, and whenever I see a need, I try to reach out and see if it is something that would be helpful for them,” she said.

The events began about a year ago after Kilian held one while participating in the Klem's Pet Expo. This year, having an experienced staff that allowed her to step away from some of the nail-trim work she had been doing on the road, she decided to devote more time to giving back.

“This business has changed my life, and I have been so fortunate to have the support I have in the communities we service, and I just want to be able to give those communities back a little bit of what they’ve given me,” she said.

When the cause is personal

One fundraiser in particular carried special meaning.

Kilian partnered with Andrea Castinetti for an event benefiting Safe Harbor, an organization helping provide a safe place for pets when their owners are dealing with circumstances that can make keeping an animal with them temporarily impossible.

For Kilian, who said she is in recovery from alcohol addiction and is also a survivor of domestic violence, the mission hit close to home.

“Having somewhere that people who are going through these situations can safely house their pets so they can get the treatment they need or get away from an abusive partner is something that is so needed and lacking all around the country,” she said.

She plans to continue helping the organization. The connection between animals and people in crisis is something Kilian understands on an intensely personal level.

“These dogs saved my life,” she said.

Kilian said she has dealt with serious mental health struggles throughout her life, and rescuing and working with animals gave her purpose during times when she struggled to find it elsewhere.

“It’s helped keep me sober. These dogs have given me far more than I will ever be able to give them,” she said.

A bad haircut and a new life

Even Kilian's career with animals began with a dog who needed some help — although in that case, the problem was a haircut Kilian herself had given him.

She had been working as a waitress and bartender when COVID shut down restaurants. By the time businesses began reopening, Kilian knew she didn't want to return to her old career, but she had no idea what would come next.

Then she took her dog Charlie to a grooming salon to have a professional repair the haircut she'd attempted at home.

Kilian did what Kilian readily admits she does: She started talking.

She told the salon owner she was trying to figure out what to do with her life. The owner looked at Charlie and told her the haircut wasn't the worst she'd ever seen. If Kilian wanted to learn, she could use some help.

An internship followed.

So did a realization.

Kilian might not be destined to become a great dog groomer.

But she was very good at trimming nails — particularly when the dog on the other end of the clippers wasn't so easy.

Hot Diggity Dog grew from there.

Years later, that seemingly modest skill has become one of the ways Kilian supports the animals and communities that helped build her business. And every time she organizes another fundraiser, she worries that nobody will show up. Then they do.

She remembers one woman in particular who has attended multiple events, not because she necessarily has a personal connection to the beneficiary, but simply because she wants to help.

“It just restores your faith in people’s kindness because, especially these days, times are tough for everyone, so when people take time out of their day to come and help me support these causes, that means so much to me,” Kilian said. “It just feels really good.”

Perhaps there is something glamorous about trimming a dog's nails after all.

For turning an everyday skill into an extraordinary commitment to animals and neighbors in need, Pet Rock Fest is proud to honor Kara Kilian of Hot Diggity Dog as a recipient of the 2026 Juno Hero Award.