HELLEN GELBAND AND GEORGE TYLER

Hellen Gelband is a lifelong animal lover, counting cats, dogs, ducks, turtles, and geese among her good friends along the way. She shares her current home with felines Garbo and Hazelnut and shares parenting responsibilities for Argan and Kittisue with George (who reciprocates for Garbo and Hazelnut). She also knits. A lot. George Tyler is an unabashed cat enthusiast (dogs—something about having been a paperboy in his formative years…) and BFF of the subjects of this book. (Oh yes—he also has three sons and three grandchildren, with another on the way.)

Hellen supports her animal habit with a career in global health, which has brought her up close and personal with some pretty big African cats. George keeps Argan and Kittisue in food and litter as an author, capping a long career as a political economist, from Hubert Humphrey to the Clinton White House. Argan and Kittisue encourage you to check out Billionaire Democracy: The Hijacking of the American Political System (2018) and What Went Wrong: How the 1% Hijacked the American Middle Class …and What Other Countries Got Right (2013).

Hellen and George are both members of the Board of Directors and enthusiastic volunteers for Bikes for the World, a non-profit in the Washington, DC metro area that collects unwanted bicycles and ships them overseas to Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, and a few other places. Partner organizations fix and sell them at low cost to “change lives, one bike at a time.” BfW has now shipped more than 130,000 bikes off to start their new lives.

George and Hellen have gone to St. John for a winter break for many years and are avid snorkelers. They plan to return for years to come and to continue supporting the St. John Animal Care Center, which quietly and unceasingly makes St. John an even better place.