Donna Lucerne Mettling (Nee Somers)

November 13 1949 to February 29 2026

Donna Mettling passed away on Saturday after a stroke while washing her semi-feral rehabilitation foster dogs Molly and Billy at a Car Wash in Yucca Valley California. She is survived by her husband Rich, son Walker and sister Debbie.

She grew up on a farm in Mulvane, KS, went to Mulvane High School and Southwestern College in Winfield. She worked as a teacher in Wamego KS before moving to California in the mid 1970s. A feisty community hub of a person wherever she went, she worked at Wheeler Printing in Vallejo, Avila Hot Springs, and many shops in Pismo Beach where her creativity sparked on making Teddy Bears by hand in the early 1990s. This lead to her involvement in Teddy Bear classes and shows, distributing fabric and co-founding the Bruin Sisterhood— a powerhouse group of Bear-Making friends who would travel to shows and exhibit their bears together. She distributed fabric as Mohair Maniac and took the helm of Edinburgh Imports in 2016 and moved the operation to the High Desert near Joshua Tree.

Donna loved weird art, adventure, and fun. She was a friend to black labs and old cats, goats, peacocks, cocker spaniels and mini-poodles (reluctantly), and mutts of all species that wandered into her life. For the last year she has been wearing down the feral frightened defenses of a pair of desert foster dogs who eventually fell in love with her and a hutch full of goofy chickens inherited from a friend who moved far away.

She went out strong beautiful and brave! Long Live Donna! 

In honour of Donna, we ask that memorial tributes be made in the form of charitable donations to Animal Action League. This cause was close to Donna's heart as a she loved rescuing and rehabilitating dogs, experiencing help from Animal Action League more recently with her new foster puppies Billy and Molly. `

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