Today is the day we pay tribute to Ranny Green. Today, November 9 from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m., friends and family will gather at a memorial service in Seattle for the legendary Ranny Green. He left this life on earth two months to the date – September 9, 2024. The AKC remembered him in a beautiful tribute. I must admit I’ve been pondering how to pay tribute and decided to write something on his special day. Even after two months, it is still hard to comprehend he is gone. We posted his most recent interview here, but what says it all about him is the answer to the last question, “Did he have anything else to add?”
Finally, the key to any writer’s success is a supportive family. In that respect, I have been very fortunate with my two daughters, Tamara and Stacy. The support of my late wife, Mary, has been incredibly key to my career. Her love of pets — we owned both dogs and cats — her care for them and her constant encouragement for my writing career has been highly important. Having someone understand and respect the time it takes away from family to sit in front of a computer and craft a feature while she is caring for pets and family is very humbling. For that, I will be always thankful.
– Ranny Green
Ranny was indeed a very special person. As others have said, he never had a bad word to say about anyone – but loyal, you bet. Although I haven’t known Ranny as long as some of my colleagues, especially David Frei, our association began well before he became a feature columnist and writer for Goodnewsforpets.com.
Ironically, my first association with Ranny came in the late 1990s from my writing about another legend, Dr. Jack Mara upon his retirement from Hill’s Pet Nutrition. Dr. Mara was lauded by many media publications in veterinary medicine, but the one that was most precious to him was Ranny’s then tribute column in the Seattle Sun Times. Dr. Mara said, “Ranny Green – wow!” and followed up with me with a personal note reiterating his delight.
In 2000, the same year as we launched Goodnewsforpets.com, I finally met Ranny in person at the Dog Writers Association of America dinner and awards banquet. At that time the dinner was held the night before the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in New York City. We “bonded” in subsequent days (and years) as he co-ran the Westminster Kennel Club newsroom at Madison Square Garden under David Frei’s tenure. Ranny was the supreme professional, suggesting helpful story ideas for the fledgling website.
Finally, in 2014, in his “retirement,” he officially joined Goodnewsforpets.com as a feature reporter and columnist. But this wasn’t an assignment-based job, although he did edit some special ACVB columns for us. No, Ranny had his wonderful ideas and would always come to me with something special – a book he liked, a story angle he wanted to pursue that he thought was just right for Goodnewsforpets.com. He would help us cover the AVMA conference and frequently had many story ideas related to Westminster.
We won a DWAA award together for a story he wrote on Goodnewsfoerpets – he as the writer, me as his editor, and our staff reporter, Zinaejah Ozier. He was always so kind with his praise of any work we accomplished together, and even though he was the writer he made sure to commend me and Zinaejah on our work at the time. You see, promotion wasn’t for him. It was the writing that gave him pleasure, but he was very pleased with whatever promotion we did for his work and, more importantly to him, shining a light on the subject he wrote about.
Ranny, thank you for all you have done to shine a light on dogs and the people who cared for and about them. You were a dear friend to all. You are and will be so missed, and always, always remembered.
Rest in peace,
Lea-Ann
