In Part 2 of Alex Bowman's conversation with WCNC's Ashley Stroehlein they discuss his passion for raising awareness about animal rescue and how he ended up adopting his dog Roscoe nearly 10 years ago.
Q: "I feel like people know two things about you: racing and how much you care about your pups. When I say Roscoe and Finn what comes to mind for you?"
A: "The fact that they're at home right now and sad that I'm not there makes me sad. They're great it's always cool getting home to them. They're like my best friends. Definitely wish they were here with us today, but they're hanging out at home."
Q: "Through adopting Roscoe, that's become a passion of yours, educating people on rescue pets and encouraging people to adopt. Why do you care so much about that?"
A: "I feel like there's just so many pets out there that need homes so just trying to help that cause means a lot to me because I know how much Roscoe has meant to me in my life. There's a million pets out there that need homes so any little bit that we can give back or help is really special."
Q: "For people who are visiting a shelter for the first time or going to get a rescue pet, what advice do you have for them or what can they expect?"
A: "The biggest thing to me especially recently kind of watching everything that's gone on in the world is like if you're going to adopt a pet, you're adopting a pet for their entire life. I feel like we saw a lot of people think that they could go adopt pets and then a lot of pets ended up right back in shelters after quarantine ended and everything. That was really sad to see."
Q: "Do you remember the first time you went to a shelter?"
A: "Yeah, it was to get Roscoe. I don't know what caused that, why I ended up there. Me and a friend that worked for the race team I was driving for, there was shelter right down the road basically and just ended up there one day killing time and ended up going home with Roscoe. That was a mess because I was 19, didn't really have a clue what I was doing trying to raise a dog. Roscoe is not the easiest dog to handle either so it was a little bit of cluster, but it's been a good time."
Q: "At WCNC we're part of NBC's big initiative to Clear the Shelters. I know you've been able to do some pretty special stuff at the Humane Society of Charlotte. Can you share that with me?"
A: "Yeah, for sure. Working with Ally and the Humane Society of Charlotte it's been really cool. Obviously, we've done a lot of different things this year. We partnered with Best Friends earlier this year and we're giving two thousand dollars to a shelter at every race track this year, which has been really cool. It's gone to ten thousand when we've won so trying to donate as much as we can there. That's really been the coolest thing about working with Ally, they're all on board for causes that mean a lot to me so just trying to give back a little bit. Obviously, clearing the shelters is a big part of that. A big adoption day coming up on the 18th of September, so hopefully, we can clear all the shelters out."