ANIMAL LOVER—“Auntie June” Matthews snuggles her favorite dog, Sophie, a 10-year-old Italian greyhound-rat terrier mix at her home in Box Canyon on Wednesday. Matthews has a variety of pets and rare birds and is known in the community for her work with animals. She says snakes are the only animal she doesn’t like. WENDY PIERRO/Acorn Newspapers Turning 91 this month, June Matthews is still active doing what she loves best—caring for and training animals. Matthews lives in Box Canyon, where she keeps her beloved dogs and has a sanctuary for abandoned birds.

“Since I was a little girl I was always in love with animals,” Matthews said. “The only thing I don’t like is snakes.”

To dog lovers in Simi Valley, she’s known as Auntie June, the energetic, no-nonsense woman with a British accent.

For years, Matthews was like family to clients of the local pet stores where she worked. In addition to grooming fur and clipping nails, she gave owners advice on caring for their animals.

“Auntie June has helped all of us with our pets. People come to her with birds, dogs, cats and rabbits,” said Gail Marlowe, a longtime local resident and pet lover. “She’s just a super person and very involved with helping abandoned animals find homes.”

Matthews still teaches dog obedience classes on Sundays at various parks around Simi Valley. She’s been known to put both animal and owner through their paces.

“She has a great heart. Definitely animals first,” said Jaydee Maness, a Simi resident who helps with the classes.

Maness met Matthews seven years ago when he enrolled his Australian shepherd puppy in her class.

“She has her own way of doing things,” he said. “She’s usually right on about how to train a dog.”

Born in 1919 in London, Matthews was educated at a French convent in England. When she was 10 years old, she had a touch of tuberculosis and spent time in a sanitarium.

There she says she met a young Vivien Leigh, who also was recovering from TB.

Leigh, who would go on to star in “Gone with the Wind” and other films, introduced Matthews to her boyfriend, Laurence Olivier, the noted British actor who was then performing Shakespeare.

“Vivien was like my big sister. We became good friends,” Matthews said. “One day she introduced me to Larry. We’d go to his dressing room after the play and out to dinner together. It was great fun.”

During World War II, Matthews was living near London when the Nazis began bombing the city.

She joined the Royal Air Force and volunteered as a driver for military officials, a job that gave her the opportunity to meet one of the United States’ best-known historical figures.

“One evening while driving an officer to a meeting with Winston Churchill, I met Gen. George Patton,” Matthews said. “He was a devoted lover of bull terriers and struck up a conversation because I had a bull terrier, too.”

After the war, Matthews and her husband, a designer of automobile engines, moved to Massachusetts.

Her husband eventually found employment in Detroit, and the couple lived most of their married life there.

Matthews kept busy showing her dogs and working as a show judge and trainer. Her bull terriers and poodles won numerous awards.

“I’ve won many awards and so have my dogs, but you really don’t think about that now. My most favorite dog was Jezebel, a bull terrier,” she said. “She and her daughter Penny came over on the ship with us when we first came to America.”

Matthews moved to California in 1968 after her husband died. She lived in Santa Monica and later moved to Box Canyon. She’s been a guest speaker on the topic of animals at most schools in Simi Valley.

“I’d show the students how to feed the birds and clean the cages,” Matthews said. “I had a big Amazon bird that would fly over their heads and then come back to me. The kids loved it.”