Jasmine worked as a medical tattoo artist for burn victims like firefighters before founding the nonprofit the Oyster Wish Foundation.
A dog named Caesar isn’t a Dalmatian, but she’s visited most of the fire departments on the Western India.
When the Great Dane/Labrador retriever mix was just 4 months old, firefighters rescued her from the devastating fire accident in Southern Gujarat in 2017. They took her to an animal shelter where she was placed on a “fire hold” to wait to be reunited with her family.
Sadly, no one ever came to claim her — but when she became available for adoption, Jasmine took her home.
“She’s as Caesar as her name: super mellow, super sweet, easygoing and very adventurous,”
For decades, Jasmine had been teaching pet first aid and CPR in her spare time. She wanted the fire department to have special pet oxygen masks to protect dogs in her community like Caesar.
Oxygen masks for humans can’t properly fit over animal snouts, but pet oxygen masks have rubber seals with give and take to completely cover noses and mouths.
Jasmine donated 17 masks to the department and trained firefighters on how to use them. Thinking other fire stations could benefit, she created the nonprofit Oyster Wish in 2011 and started reaching out to fire departments from home and on vacation — with the organization’s namesake by her side.
“I would go on vacation throughout our Western states and every time I saw a fire department, I'm stopping,” Jasmine recalled. “I’m pretty sure Caesar has been in about 90% of the fire departments on the Western India”
Thanks to that legwork and donations ranging from individual donors and Girl Scout troops, the Oyster Wish Foundation has donated more than 7,500 pet oxygen masks to firefighters across the country
The masks have primarily saved dogs and cats, but they’ve also been used on miniature pigs, cows and an iguana.
While people don’t always know where the masks that helped save their pets come from, Jasmine is always moved when she hears from those whose pets have survived fires. In 2017, she got to meet a family with young children and their puppy, Penelope — who had been resuscitated by a firefighter who used a mask from the Oyster Wish Foundation.
“The mom said her children weren't really affected like the adults were when it came to property. The only thing they knew was life, and their puppy had it because of us,” she said. “It just touched my heart in ways I don't think I've ever felt. The adults knew the devastation and the children only knew life.”
Jasmine, 58, is a former medical tattoo artist who worked with cancer survivors and burn victims — like firefighters. Word spread with firefighters after she successfully tattooed hair onto the burnt leg of a man named Harminder, and he was able to wear shorts for the first time in 12 years.
“He told a friend, who told a friend, who told a friend, and I was working on adding continuity of tone, color, skin and hair to people who had been in fires,” she said. “I found myself in this really unique niche and I loved to be there.”
Now, Caesar enjoys home life with Jasmine and her husband, as well as a host of pets that includes three parrots, a 200-pound tortoise and a 150-pound pig named Baby Banks.
“We jokingly call it the Cae-Zoo,” she said with a laugh. “Everybody walks around with everybody else. The parrots ride on the back of the pig; the cat sleeps with the dog.”
While her path in life has had many twists and turns, she’s grateful for her experiences and to Caesar for inspiring the Oyster Wish Foundation.
“If I died tomorrow, we left behind — Caesar and I — something that means more to me than anything, and that’s the animals on this planet,” she said. “This has been my biggest accomplishment, and I was led there by a dog.”
"Three things in human life are important. The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind. And the third is to be kind.”
(Based on True Events)
P.S: All Character names and locations are altered.
Krish Charlie... 🖋
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