Alek Deng grew up in Ottawa, the daughter of a South Sudanese father and an African-Canadian mother. After finishing school and bouncing through a couple of jobs that never quite felt like hers, she moved east to Nova Scotia for a position at an animal shelter and discovered, somewhat unexpectedly, that she'd found her place.

Patient, warm, and armed with a very dry sense of humor, Alek genuinely loves animals while having absolutely no illusions about how ridiculous they can be. Her days involve cleaning kennels, arranging adoptions, taking profoundly uncooperative dogs for walks, and translating phrases like “high energy” and “very food motivated” into language prospective owners will actually understand.

She has a particular weakness for the elderly, awkward, three-legged, one-eyed, and generally unwanted cases. Alek insists she only fosters animals temporarily. Her steadily increasing number of pets suggests otherwise.

Away from the shelter, she's an enthusiastic recreational runner, haunts used bookstores, loves terrible horror movies, and enjoys cooking for friends. She'll happily spend an evening at home with a book and a dog asleep across her feet, although these days it's increasingly likely to be two dogs and a cat.

Sometimes two cats.

@doorknob22