Robert Rozak is a man on a mission, and that mighty good mission is helping dogs, cats and occasionally other wildlife.<\/p>\n
Rozak and his husband, Jay Martinez, are owners of Mighty Pawz, a private doggy day care and boarding facility at 937 Stefko Blvd., Bethlehem.<\/p>\n
The humane society division of Mighty Pawz, called Special Operations, focuses on animal rescues locally and far beyond the borders of Bethlehem. It\u2019s why Mighty Pawz was recently recognized by Astound Business Solutions as a grand-prize winner in its nationwide Community Impact Awards, which recognizes exceptional small businesses and nonprofits across the United States for their community contributions. As part of the award, Mighty Pawz is receiving one year of free internet service.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re grateful to be honored by our community. It\u2019s great they support and help us,\u201d Rozak said, noting someone from the community nominated Mighty Pawz for the award.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are not so much proud as we are honored to be entrusted by so many customers and animals,\u201d Rozak added. \u201cThis high level of trust has enabled Mighty Pawz to continue and expand our mission from when we first opened, to where we\u2019re now striving to provide the highest-possible quality care to animals and their owners within our local community and beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe developed the Community Impact Awards to recognize small businesses and nonprofit organizations across the country who have demonstrated their exceptional commitment to community service,\u201d said Patrick Knorr, Astound Business Solutions chief business officer, said. \u201cEntities like Mighty Pawz deserve to be applauded for the inspiring local impacts they make every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mighty Pawz Special Operations is led by Rozak, chief of operations, and comprised of volunteers who train in animal behavior and medical emergencies, as well as fire department training for rescue. It currently works with the American Red Cross and Lehigh County and Northampton County animal rescue teams.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re structured like a fire department,\u201d Rozak said, noting his title is \u201cchief\u201d and not \u201cdirector.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rozak is in charge of emergency services with the borough of Macungie, where he is a longtime council member and candidate for mayor. His experience includes years as a firefighter in Catasauqua and North Catasauqua boroughs, as well as the former Macungie Fire Department, which was eventually shut down when the borough contracted with Lower Macungie.<\/p>\n
Special Operations jumped into action the morning of Sept. 6, when a 5-month-old female kitten was trapped in the sewer between storm drains at Whitehall Mall.<\/p>\n
Amber Fuschetto and Kayla Galloway were going to the nearby Thirsty Turtle Tavern the previous evening when they saw the kitten running and followed it, then spotted it going into the storm drain. They contacted Whitehall Fire Department, which was on the scene for four hours. They stayed with the fire department until 2 a.m.<\/p>\n
With the kitten still running through the sewer, Fuschetto said they found Mighty Pawz Special Operations through a Google search and called them the next morning. Rozak and his dedicated volunteers arrived 9:30 a.m. and were subsequently on site until the kitten was rescued later in the afternoon.<\/p>\n
Special Operations leaped into action by setting traps at each storm drain. At one point, Elena Frye, who has been a volunteer for two months, was feeding the kitten by hand, but the fast moving feline turned around and ran. Frye spent so much time peering into the sewer hoping to spy the kitten that the others nicknamed her Ed Norton, who famously worked in the sewer in \u201cThe Honeymooners.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe confined the kitten in the sewer system to one area, then requested Whitehall Fire Department Station 38, Hokendauqua, who were nearby at an event, to assist with putting some water into the sewer to push the kitten into the trap,\u201d Rozak said.<\/p>\n
The kitten was then seen by Rush Veterinary Urgent Care, Allentown, and subsequently adopted by Fuschetto.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese people have amazing credibility,\u201d Fuschetto said, as she kept a watchful eye for the kitten along with Special Operations. \u201cYou can tell they genuinely care. I can\u2019t say enough good things about them.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI do it for the love of animals,\u201d Frye said of her volunteering with Special Operations. \u201cI love animals so much. That\u2019s how I ended up with so many of my own,\u201d Frye said, noting she\u2019s had animals in her life for 40 years.<\/p>\n
Other volunteers included Barry \u201cChewy\u201d Jones, who has been a Special Operations volunteer for a year and two months and has decades of experience in emergency medical services and fire service.<\/p>\n
\u201cI volunteer because I\u2019m retired,\u201d said Jones, who has four cats and a dog. He has Parkinson\u2019s disease and said the constant movement that comes with volunteering helps.<\/p>\n
Jake Rodenbach, captain of Special Operations, was also on hand. Special Operations benefits from the help of several humane society officers, including humane society police officers Sgt. David Saltzer and Officer Kristine Glant, both of whom are sworn in as officers for both Lehigh and Northampton counties.<\/p>\n
Misty Evan and her fianc\u00e9, Kemmerer Meitzler, both of whom serve with the Whitehall and Fountain Hill fire departments, were on the scene as well, with Evan joining Frye in trying to coax the kitty out with cat food.<\/p>\n
The tale \u2014 or tail \u2014 of Mighty Pawz began when Rozak and Martinez, who married in 2019, opened the business, which celebrated its five-year anniversary Sept. 13. Special Operations started in December 2024 and became an official humane society Feb. 22. Martinez, who is operations manager for both the private and humane society kennels, had worked there when the site was previously home to Buddy\u2019s Pet Resort.<\/p>\n
It comes as no surprise that Rozak and Martinez have three dogs of their own: Nala, a 10-year-old pit bull; Rosie, a 6-year-old greyhound\/coonhound mix; and Penelope, a 2-year-old pug\/maltese mix.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe day care funds the humane society directly,\u201d Rozak said. \u201cWe need community support as much as they need us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mighty Pawz also provides free transportation for the elderly to veterinary appointments.<\/p>\n
Rozak emphasized Special Operations is 100% volunteer.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery dollar we get goes directly to the animals or equipment that saves the animals,\u201d Rozak said.<\/p>\n
Rozak said they get about 70 calls a day for things like rescues, strays and medical transports. They provide comprehensive veterinary care, including for clients who can\u2019t afford it.<\/p>\n
Special Operations often assists the state police, such as in Monroe County, where there are no after-hours shelters. They will provide medical transport all the way to Schuylkill County.<\/p>\n
Examples of their work include providing temporary housing to two dogs and a cat after a fire on 12th Street in Allentown.<\/p>\n
Sometimes, Special Operations comes to the aid of wildlife, too, such as a fox that was hit by a car. Volunteers took it to Cricket Wildlife Rehabilitation, Alburtis, and it\u2019s on all fours now.<\/p>\n
The organization is a critical response partner with the ASPCA (American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) national team and may deploy up to 14 days at any given time to places as far away as California.<\/p>\n
Their work extends far beyond the Lehigh Valley, such as helping with a large animal cruelty case in North Carolina, where Special Operations volunteers aided the animals with such things as medical care and sheltering. They were also in North Carolina to provide temporary shelter and 7,000 pounds of dog food after Hurricane Helene.<\/p>\n
Five members went to help during the California wildfires and helped with an influx of animals this summer in New York City.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur reach is a lot. What we\u2019re doing has never been done before,\u201d Rozak said.<\/p>\n
Special Operations definitely has wheels to keep its mission rolling, with a fleet consisting of a firetruck, two police cars, two ambulances and a pickup truck.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are 100% volunteer and need the community\u2019s assistance to continue to function via donations,\u201d Rozak said of Mighty Pawz Special Operations.<\/p>\n
From an animal health standpoint, Rozak believes Mighty Pawz is the first business of its kind in Pennsylvania and, to his knowledge, the entire United States.<\/p>\n
In addition, since September 2020, the local outreach of Mighty Pawz has impacted members of the Bethlehem area community via food donations and back-to-school giveaways for Boys and Girls Club Bethlehem.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve dedicated my life to public service,\u201d Rozak said.<\/p>\n
It seems he\u2019s certainly succeeding in that mission, with some doggone good help from his friends.<\/p>\n
For more information, visit mightypawz.info. Mighty Pawz Special Operations\u2019 emergency hotline is 1-888-542-6522 and the nonemergency number is 484-937-3720.<\/p>\n
Elena Frye, left, joins Misty Evan, of the Whitehall and Fountain Hill fire departments, in trying to lure a kitten out of a storm drain with cat food at Whitehall Mall Sept. 6.PRESS PHOTO BY TAMI QUIGLEY<\/p>\n
CONTRIBUTED PHOTOMembers of Whitehall Fire Department Station 38, Hokendauqua, and Barry \u201cChewy\u201d James, Robert Rozak and Kemmerer Meitzler of the Whitehall and Fountain Hill fire departments, gather for a group photo at the scene of the rescue. Rozak is the co-owner of Bethlehem-based Mighty Pawz and chief of its Special Operations division \u2014 a humane society focused on animal rescues.<\/p>\n
CONTRIBUTED PHOTOHello, kitty! The 5-month-old feline surveys its surroundings before receiving medical care at Rush Veterinary Urgent Care, Allentown.<\/p>\n
PRESS PHOTO BY TAMI QUIGLEYRozak, left, joins Amber Fuschetto and James in watching Frye try to coax the kitten out from the sewer. Fuschetto called in the cat\u2019s plight, and James and Frye are volunteers with Special Operations. Fuschetto subsequently adopted the kitten.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Robert Rozak is a man on a mission, and that mighty good mission is helping dogs, cats and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19809,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120],"class_list":{"0":"post-19808","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-allentown","8":"tag-allentown","9":"tag-allentown-headlines","10":"tag-allentown-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19808\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}