Andrea Sachs

Hi. I am an animal-loving journalist living in Washington D.C. I cover travel for the Washington Post, but whenever I can, I write about animals. For example, I have written about dog sitting around the world (I have taken care of dogs in Quito, Ecuador, and Malta), animal migration (butterflies, sandhill cranes, whales, tarantulas, brown pelicans, etc.) and how to help stray animals when you are on vacation. I recently profiled an amazing 10-year-old boy who makes videos of shelter dogs to help them get adopted. His clips attracted the attention of Disney, which created a series about his passion to save dogs. (His show is called “Roman to the Rescue” and it always has a happy ending!)

Whenever I travel, I always volunteer with animals. I have worked with shelter dogs in Thailand, Spain and Mexico, and volunteered at a horse, donkey and mule hospital in Morocco. I have also flown dogs from Colombia and Puerto Rico to the United States, where their chances of getting adopted are much higher. I also volunteered at a wildlife refuge in Namibia where we fed aardvarks (lots of ants!), entertained the meerkats (they are very curious) and even had a sleepover with baby baboons (like human babies, we had to change their diapers in the middle of the night). When I am home in D.C., I foster dogs. Since the pandemic, I have fostered about 30 dogs, plus several cats. My door (or window) is always open to animals, including a squirrel that chewed a hole in the window screen so that he could snack on the bag of bird seed I had accidently left out.

Animals mean so much to me that I became a vegetarian in high school and, a few years later, a vegan. I hope that through my writing and volunteering, I can encourage other people to appreciate, respect and, most importantly, protect them. 

Tips for writing: Write what you love (for me, that’s travel and animals), and write from the heart. Let the thoughts and feelings flow from your fingertips. Imagine that you are telling your parents or friends about something exciting you saw or did. Let your voice, personality, and enthusiasm shine through.

Picture of Andrea Sachs with her foster dog, Olive, on their trip to Virginia to get a bouquet of flowers.
Andrea with her foster dog, Olive.
Picture of a baby baboon Andrea met in Namibia.
A baby baboon sleepover in NamibiaÂ