Episode 1: Welcome, we’re glad you’re here!

Hey, welcome to “Happy Tales of Happy Tails”, the podcast where you’ll hear stories of the way pups have touched our hearts and our lives. So for the next few minutes, let everything else go and just listen and smile. I’m your host, Julie Jackson. Oh my goodness, if you’re listening to this, that means I did it, I really did it. I launched a podcast! And in the spirit of full transparency, that was scary. When I first thought about doing this, I thought this would be fun. And I know how much I love hearing dogs stories. I love sharing dog stories. And I thought, “Oh, this will be great!” And then the fear and the doubt crept in. And I thought, “Who am I to do this?” I felt like an imposter. I’m not a vet, I’m not a dog trainer. I’m not even a dog professional. But I do have a lifelong love of dogs. I have been rescued by many dogs throughout my lifetime, and I am usually surrounded by a pack of dogs. So I decided, if I didn’t do this, that was going to be a decision that was based in fear. And I know never to make decisions based in fear. Fear robs us of joy, and it prevents us from doing what we were really intended to do. So here we are. With this podcast, I just hope to provide you with a moment of joy, and maybe a little bit of peace every week, just a little chance to tune everything else out and listen to something that is simple and beautiful and heartwarming. Sometimes I share stories from my home, about our dogs. And so let me just clarify right now, many of my stories involve property damage. So I am not condoning property damage. I don’t want you to think that I’m minimizing it, I don’t want you to think that we leave that unaddressed, we always promote being responsible dog owners and courteous thoughtful neighbors. So please know when I tell stories about the dogs doing things that involve property damage, we do make it right, I just don’t share that part on the podcast. But I am not out there, letting them run amok and not trying to do right by the people around us. So some of the stories are also conversations with other people. None of the stories that any of us are sharing our stories like “My dog pulled me from a burning building during an earthquake!” or “My dog rolled the car off of me!” Although if you have those stories, that would be so great. I would love to share those! But most of the stories are, they’re simple. They’re everyday stories of people’s lives with dogs. And I’ve got to tell you, they’re really sweet. So I hope that you can see the beauty in that. And I hope that you are as touched by those stories as I am, I really hope that I’m creating something that you enjoy and that you look forward to. I have to admit, though, if it ends up just being me here by myself every week, it’s totally been worth it. Because I’ve met the most wonderful people and had the greatest conversations. And every single conversation, there’s

been a part of it that I go back and I revisit it in my mind. And some of the things, the more I think about them, they just become more profound. I’m really amazed, every time by… you never think that dogs can amaze you more. And then I hear these stories. And I think back and I think “Wow! That that was something so significant in such a small thing.” And I hope that you get that out of this too. That being said, please be patient with me. I am learning every bit of this process as I go. I don’t do any of this stuff by trade. And I’m learning through the kindness of friends who know what they’re doing and have helped me or just a lot of Googling or just trial and error and trying to figure it out. So you will hear me repeat stories a lot. That’s just who I am. It’s what I do. You’ll hear me snort when I laugh. You will hear me say stupid things, all of these are part of who I am. So please, just, I hope you can get past that. I hope you either find it funny or charming or you can just overlook it so that you hear the sweet takeaway messages from all of these stories that people are so kind and generous to share. If you have suggestions, if there’s ways that I can improve, I am really open to that because I really do want to make this better. I really do want to make this something that you look forward to. If you have a story you want to share… and I’m telling you, if you have a dog you have a story. And I would love to hear it. And I would love to share it. If you know of someone that would have a great story to share, or also work with or know of people that work with rescues, foster groups, transport groups, shelters, dog related businesses, anything like that, I would love to have the opportunity to share their stories and make more people aware of what they do. So that, you know, maybe someone isn’t in a position where they can go volunteer with one of those groups, but they would like to support them financially, or vice versa. Maybe they think I’d really love to help people and help dogs, but I don’t know where to go. But I have some time and I would love to go love on dogs or read stories to dogs or walk dogs. So please, please share that with me. Because if I can connect people through this, that would be such a blessing to me and hopefully to others. You can reach me at my website. HappyTalesofHappyTales.com. So the first Tales is T A L E S, like stories. The second Tails is T A I L S, like the kind that gets wagged. Head over to the website, even if you don’t have anything to share, because I’ve got a free gift over there for you just for visiting. I would love for you to go and get that and hopefully enjoy it. But also reach out to me there on the website. If you would like to be a part of this. If you would like to make some suggestions, I would request that they please be kind and gentle because I really am trying. But also if you know of someone or you know have a story that you want to share all of that I would love to hear about. You can also visit the social media pages- Facebook, Instagram, also Happy Tales of Happy Tails. I will be posting pictures there of the pups that you meet every week, so you can see them for yourself. Sometimes I’ll have some video bloopers and little funny moments that happen while we’re having our conversations. If you would like to hear these episodes, “automagically” without having to go search for them, please follow or subscribe in your pod catcher. And that way they’ll just come to you each week when they drop, and you look down and there it is. And you can just have a little moment where dogs can make you smile. Finally, if you would like to support this and would be willing to like and share the podcast with other people, I’d be so grateful. It would be great to get the word out. That’s how we get more great stories and also just share more smiles. And also if you have a positive comment and you like what I’m doing and you want to put that out there I will NOT be mad about that. That kind of fuels my tank to know that I’m doing something that made someone happy. So I would really love to hear from you. All of that being said, please remember that you really are as great as your dog thinks you are. And smooch your pooch! Thanks y’all!