Drago is a BIG lab name after Ivan Drago of Rocky IV fame who does customized design work on the house, steals the blankets and loves BIG. His mom and I also had great conversation about the important role dogs play in our families and some heeler chat too.
Transcript
Hey. 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. Hi friends and welcome back. This week, I’m sharing with you a conversation I had with my friend Phedra. Phedra and I actually met through a dog group on Facebook that she moderates that’s dedicated to Australian cattle dogs or Blue Heelers. So we have that in common our love of that breed. But as you’ll hear, Phedra has a long history with many different dog breeds, and also just many different animals. She’s very, very knowledgeable on all kinds of traits of breeds. And this conversation was so great, because even though we’ve never even met in person, I just love how when you connect on something that you’re passionate about. And of course, in this case, I assume it’s dogs for everyone, you can just really click and the conversations just flow, you immediately discover different things that that you have in common or that you can appreciate or understand. And I one thing I just really love about dog lovers, some people are passionate about rescue, some people are passionate about specific breeds. Some people love having their dogs on the furniture, some people don’t allow it, everyone has different things that is their comfort level. But one thing that everybody shares is their love of the pups and how those pups have enriched their lives. So thank you for joining. It’s a longer conversation this week than usual, but I hope that you will enjoy it and just find things that you can relate to and appreciate and that it just helps to bless your week have a good one. So I think it’s funny, you’re like you call the puppies the floofs and I’m like… It’s a great word well, and see here, here we go. I see when I see a new floof. And originally, I never intended to use the video. And if you’re cool with it, I might, you know, post some excerpts. But one reason that I started thinking it is because like one day I was talking to someone and all of a sudden Barney comes flying in. And then he leaps over the chairs behind it was like a whole show going on in it’s like I was doing, I was doing an interview for work. And it was like a live stream thing. And I’m just in there interviewing me because I’m going up. So for my job, I work at a nonprofit and you know, they’re following my journey getting diagnosed with arthritis, because Oh, do you know? So they’re recording me and they’re asking me like my fears and concerns and all this and the entire time. This one high drug is assisting Oh, he’s barking the entire time. And every time she asked a question, he’s just barking away. And I’m like, Excuse me. This is about me right now. Like, thank God, the audio engineer, he was able to like go through and like clean it all up. Because they use this for social media stuff. And I’m like, and you see me while she’s talking? You see me like doing like a mom is like you shut up, you know, unmuted. Park, you know, you see banks hiding him and rubbing his chest like stop barking, you know, kind of thing. And I feel bad because they’ve muted so it’s like really out of context. So it just looks like I have crazy eyes going on in the background. It’s funny. I wonder how many, like how many dog people can watch this and be like, Oh, I know what’s happening right there. I know what’s going on. Like, you know, ya know, that look? Yes. At work. Um, it’s a privilege to be able to work from home sometimes. And so I get to do it one or two days a week. And usually they’re great and they just do their thing they usually crash and that’s why they take their puppy naps and everything’s wonderful. Yes, every now and then No, all of a sudden out of the blue they’ll just decide to have like World War Three is going on. And I’m on a call with say a doctor’s office or a patient and I realized I need to start keeping things on my desk I can throw at them because yes, they’re just out of reach and I’m like why don’t wanna throw a water bottle because that’s hard and I and so I need to keep like some of those stress levels or something Yeah, if they’re a Koosh balls from back in the era yet oh my gosh, that would be perfect. Yeah, and then it always happens when I’m not where I can ever do I think they just like they know like Apollo will come and I’ll be on a video call and Apollo will almost always want to come and like sit like right on my chest like and I’m at my desk and so he will have to like literally like walk over and like you know lie on me and I’m like why? Please know and I have like a heating pad on like on the kitchen because my offices it kind of like kitty corner kitchen. It’s you know, you know all Like in the 70s, they had like the little nook area for where the little table was near the kitchen. So that little nook areas were at my my desk and stuff. See the kitchen behind me. So the cats have like a whole island area where it’s just heating pad and food. And they like lie there most of times, but sometimes they like to wrestle in the background. So I’m on a meeting. And here the cats are like wrestling in the background. Or they come over and they want to lie on me or like join me. Or then Drago wants to assist and sometimes he likes to cram himself underneath my desk this morning. So my pound dog and I’m like I have no room for you. Yeah, and yes and no room is not something they comprehend as a smart now, even the smartest animal they don’t know that. Yeah, I tell them I’m like there’s no room at the end right now. I am sorry. No room at the inn does not compute. Yes, no. We’re gonna be right here. What are you talking? Oh, yeah, exactly. So. So who are you going to tell us about today? I’m probably Drago because I have so many stories about Drago. I mean, I don’t know where to begin. I mean, it’s just he was I’ve done. So I had many many dogs my entire life like I was raised English bull terriers. And then we had lots of like terriers, like Bedlington Terriers and stuff like that. Airedales you know, I’m very familiar with bullheaded, tenacious, stubborn, intelligent animals. You know, I’m used to that. And then we went on and we did Border Collies and standard poodles, you know, so I’ve had like, you know, when I didn’t rescue so we just did different breeds throughout my life. Before I got this thing, you know, I had, I thought I Allah was difficult because I’ve never had a healer before in my entire life. I didn’t want a healer when I was fostering. I found Isla off the side of a road and highway on Arizona. And I didn’t know what she was. Nobody knew what she was. We thought maybe she was an Aussie mix. She’s so stunning to she assumed beautiful, but she is so like, it’s she’s still reactive with the healer bit. So that’s the things I learned. So as I was like, as she got older, I’m like, she’s less. I’m like, she’s not an Aussie, like her behavior is not an Aussie it’s not a border collie. What are you? And finally it like clicked and like, she’s, she’s a blue healer, she, you know, like, I never had good experience with blue hair was before and so I had Isla an eyelid taught me a lot. You know, like a lot. I thought I knew dogs before, but I like taught me a lot. And then I come to find out later. She’s heeler and Chow Chow. Primarily heeler and Chow Chow. So she’s like, double dose of independence, stubborn, difficult, but she’s also the most amazing dog ever. You know, she’s just I love her to pieces. I think because of her. I’m obsessed with heelers, you know, let’s just that’s she’s my segway dog. You know, she did that thing. So, you know, here I am. I have when I met Greg, I have Isla, you know, my heeler, chow chow, whatever mix and she’s also got like, Malamute and Husky stuff and art too. So she’s like a mix. Yes. And then I have Morgan my aging Border Collie. And when I met Greg, he had had a very old Labrador. He was like 15-16 years old use any as a real because he had valley fever. And, you know, his nose was all barnacles and everything and you know, either all bad. You know, he was half blind, but he was he was Greg’s dog and Greg adored this dog. So my husband’s a big rocky fan. Everything rocky everything Sylvester Stallone. So his dog’s name was Sylvester sly. So when sly passed, I promised him that we would get a Labrador in the future. You know, I promise because that was his heartbreak. So fast forward two years later, we have house and you know, Washington, we finally have the means to get said Labrador for him. And we hunt for a reputable breeder, because we want to make sure it was a healthy breed, you know, because they the breed can come with, you know, did on it. Yeah. So yes, yes. So, we did all of our due diligence, and we found a breeder and the breed, the breeder had a dog, you know, a bitch, and she was going to have puppies. Well, she gave birth and she only had three, which is very rare for Labradors. It’s, you know, so you only have three. One of them was this stunning white puppy, like, you know, you know, cream colored like English cream is, you know, rare enough, but this one was like, pretty much like a polar bear from the beginning. Greg wanted him but we were third on the list. There was like, didn’t think we didn’t get him. So we go to get this puppy, knowing that we have one of the two boys one Drago and the other one was like another one. So we go and we pick we have no idea which one we’re getting until we get there. Because we were not first pick. We get there. And there’s the white puppy that my husband wanted his polar bear puppy. And I guess they told us the time. The reason that they didn’t pick him is because he was playing in his water bowl. And he was very rambunctious. I’m like always The puppy got a big steer where I’m going with. I do I do, but keep going. Yeah. So my husband is obsessed with this puppy. It’s everything he wants is his heart dog, everything that drove like he, like, I’ve never seen a man more enamored with a dog in my entire life. He was just obsessed with everything. And the reason he called them Drago was again harkens back to his love of Rocky. So Rocky, I have an Apollo cat. And I was Apollo when I rescued him, you know, and so we have an Apollo you had a sly now we have Drago. Drago in Rocky for was you know, Yvonne Drago. He was the big Russian guy. So when we got brought we’ve got Drago and all of my pets have voices. I’m just gonna be full disclosure. Here I am that person that speaks for my pets. And so all of my pets have their own individual voices. And I speak for all of them. Love, I think, yeah. So Drago since he was baby, had the Russian accent is throngs of people. No, that’s copying the world. No, that’s that’s how we speak for him. And we got a caller when he was a baby. My husband went out of his way to find a person who would make a caller that had the little Russian sickle hammer and sickle Yes. Because you know, this is back in the USSR days, we’re not going to. So he had hammer and sickle on his collar and he was you know, best puppy in the world. And when we sang for him, it was the Russian national anthem to drag us with struggles people. This is what we raised. Now, I mean, the name alone was foreshadowing, wasn’t it? My dad calls him Putin puppy. Just to let you know, like, that’s, he is. He used to make me cry. And the reason like I gave that whole backstory about all the breeds that had before is to give an idea of how much experience with dogs I’d had before you know, yes, I’m very experienced with puppies very experienced with very difficult stubborn, intelligent animals. Drugs I used to make me cry on the constant like we would we had them crate trained. We had everything we took them to, we took them to Puppy Obedience. By the second to last one, the teacher had to take us aside and ask us not to come back. Because struggle was distracting the other dogs so he was so stubborn, like she couldn’t even deal with them. And she’s a professional trained like, like he we even she couldn’t deal with him. He was just so much dog. And when he was a puppy, we kept him in the spare room you know, during the day because we didn’t want to lock them too much in the crate and we’d come home and it would just be dreading what the truck would do in the room because he was getting too big for the crate and so we didn’t want to give him the big big crate until you know he got to a certain point so it was like the in between stage yes he ripped up and ate all the carpet and the guest room which was fine because we were going to learn model it anyways but it just kind of sped the timeline up. He customized when he got older. He customized all the wood trim around the house so almost every single piece of wood trim in my house has been customized by Drago. I have a cat right now. Yeah, hi Apollo may would mean kitty. Oh sweet boy. I love that he customized the customized just for you to customize this. Yeah, my hope chest the cedar Hope Chest customized by Drago the corners. nibbed Yes. Yeah, I love this. Mm hmm. I’m glad somebody loves this because I didn’t. Well, I appreciate your I appreciate your outlook on it. I have you know, yes. You have to it’s it made me cry. I mean, I like I said I used to go to bed crying because he wouldn’t let a slip. He was always whining. He was always just obnoxious. I mean, but he was but as he got older, he became an amazing amazing dog like i He’s my head I am sorry. Full disclosure. I swear a lot like he is my head I love him, but he drives me nuts. But he is my baby boy. And sorry, I am odd this word here I have no idea. No. It’s okay. I’m gonna try to make it family friendly. So I’m silent now that we put out yes fine all right. No Either way though cuz we’re good cuz either way yeah. Um so yeah he’s just he’s a big jerky dog so that was my story of him growing up now now um when he was you know like other dogs like he you know they have their stuffy stage where they go through to destroy all the stuff is in the world that thing can survive he has certain ones that are has babies so he takes like certain stuff peas that like we have one we call pumpkin bear which is basically like looks like a Labrador dressed up in a pumpkin outfit. And he said pumpkin bear since he was a baby, and that’s one of the like, one of the few that has carried over since he was baby is he suckles on zero very, very, you were here you have this dog. Who is nothing but trouble. He’s suckles on his babies. Well, and funny too, because when they do all those, like we say bad things, or whatever, it’s, you know, it usually is no reflection of their personality at all. As far as like, they’re, you know, they’re usually still so sweet and affectionate. Or busy or mischievous. Or yeah, yes. Yeah, exactly. And I know that you know, things can we easily director of her ham one of the big things because he is a lot but I’ve never had a lab so I’m still learning. Like, I’ve never had a job that I did was called I call it a recce of love. So aggressive love but I let in the morning she’ll come and she’ll greet me she gives me kisses and she you know she called see known that’s her thing you know when I Allah wants attention she’s get certain when she’s done she moves on you know, I think that’s very healer like thing they want their attention on they want it and then they’re done. They move on. They do their own thing. From one job Oh, one tension. You have 120 pound Labrador all up in your face. And he does this thing where he takes a big huge knob ahead and he loves Jesus loses the wiggles his whole body but presses the kids. Geez, what are you doing? And then he comes over and he washes you and it’s very like, I am loving you love me, you know and I’m just like, it’s it’s just like in your face. And I found out Oh, that’s normal. That’s a lot. That’s that’s normal like I I’m learning this aggressive love. I’m learning that. I will go to sleep and I will have this dog that comes up or cuddles and he will like cross my chest and I will have 100 squat a pound would he call my go weighted blanket? Like? Yeah, no. Three names. That’s my son. Um, you know, and I get used it’s, you know, he steals blankets like I’ve never had a jogger still. Let’s talk like it as much as this one does the He’s terrible. My husband loves him slipping in me. I’m like, Give me space. You know, like, because it goes. Pushes, you know, it’s it’s typical, but yeah, you’re hanging off the side of the bed shivering is Drago has all the blankets. Greg like, trouble can do no wrong. Drago can take off his blankets and gray walls. So be like, it’s okay. He’s comfortable. You know, I got lamb was like good and bad. You know? I’m freezing. I guess. You know, like, just get him off the bat. You know, maybe he’ll come back. Like don’t disturb him. He’s sleep. easiness you know, I tease Ricky my husband all the time. I was like, one day I hope you talk to me like you talk to the dog. And it’s funny because he’s the same way with he’s he’s a self professed, like dog person when I first met my husband, like he tolerated cats, but he wasn’t a cat person. So when we went and we rescued Mila, I told him I was getting a kitten, you know, we I am not a single cat person. Like I have Apollo. But he needs another cat friend like me is another one. So he was like, Ah, so we went to the Humane Society. And we got we went to go pick up this kitten. And I was going to choose this one floofy little tabby. And he’s like, whatever. And he goes over you see this little kitten in the corner. She’s in a cage and she’s batting through the cage. And he’s like, you know, poking his finger and she’s batting and next thing I know, we come home with that kitten. That’s the one that Greg chose. And so Greg had never had a kit and so it was just like, you know, raising with that. So to this date when we when he got Mila it was we have to get a cat toy for Mila. We have to do this for Mila. So yes. You know, it’s it’s funny because he has to get the finest things for Mila are the finest things for Drago. But it’s like, oh, Apollo and you know, ilm, whatever, we’ll just go whatever. But it just cracks me up. It’s just like, you know, like there’s secondary. But it’s babies are like first come first serve everything. So yeah, it was funny because I had our healers before Ricky and I started dating. And I had three at the time that just we lost a little Roscoe in November. But so it was so funny though, because Eleanor, Eleanor and Lily are our seniors and their littermates. And Eleanor, we call her the office manager. She’s always very serious. And she’s the one that keeps everything. Like if if it starts getting out of control, she shuts it down. So she’s Andrew on the office. That’s that’s her like, kind of Yes, yes, exactly. And only she’s probably not quite as well. So tightly. You’ve kind of got Yes, yes, but very, very serious all the time. And I don’t know if you ever watched the I guess it was from the 2000s Phineas and Ferb. I don’t know if you ever saw the cartoon. Yeah. Perry the Platypus. That’s always like very stoic, but has the one lazy eye. That’s her. She has the the lazy eye and who you know, and we even joke, we’ll call her agent II. Because whenever she’s done, she’ll just retreat to wherever and you know how they would always be like, where’s Perry? And he’d be off being Agent P. So we’d be like, where’s Eleanor? And we’re like, oh, she’s agent II right now. But it was so funny because she walked up to Ricky, the very first time He came over, and immediately sat down and just stared him down. And then she just put her paw up on his leg. And like, yes, and from that moment on, and so then it was funny because, you know, then once we married and he moved in here, and every night when we go to bed, even though she’s very serious. She’s not highly dramatic like healers can be. She hops up next to my bed every night, every night and she flops across his chest. Oh my sir. It’s like Miss Piggy. Something Miss Piggy would do in the Muppet. Oh, and so we call her? Yes, it’s very true. Have you ever seen it for heelers? That’s extremely dramatic like that’s not normal? Yes, I guess I’m envious like I used to mock the heeler page people who have like their dogs and like you know can flip them over on their back and cuddle them and I’m like why would you do that with a velociraptor like well no no raw people yes Roscoe would do that Roscoe love to get up and he loved to lay on his back and our arms and now he would never he was small. He was a tiny healer but he would never let us pick him up because in his mind he was not a tiny healer and you don’t go picking up big dogs but yeah, super snuggly and everything but these two they of course very healer always want to be there. But it was so funny because of course even though they were here before Ricky Ricky Of course now how can he resist that when they you know, just so especially l&r, so obviously is like you’re my person. You know, you’re my love for that. I mean, I let one it’s funny because Morgan immediately loved Greg like that. Morgan claimed Greg as his like, he became his guest and it was funny. Like I had this is my dog same it was mine my baby like my soul puppy like he helped me through like, like when I bro had a really nasty breakup before I met Greg, and like I was very very depressed and I got Morgan Morgan helped me through like he was mine. Yes, one look at Greg he’s like your mind your mind like and I and I was just chopped liver my Isla however my eyelids sky. She she actually grow but him the first time you know, but But ya know, but she she still gives her the betrayal. Because when Dad comes over, and Dad wants attention, she just she flirts. flirts and cracks me up just had a little tail. You know? They’re so sweet. Yeah, graders. I have said that too. I’ve been like little Benedict Arnold’s. Yes. Yeah. And all of Roscoe to Roscoe became Ricky would call him his wing man. And, you know, you may know him from Facebook, but Roscoe only had three legs. And he had the face of a baby seal. And he had a little underbite. And so he could do whatever he wanted. He was just cute. Yeah, yes, he could do whatever. And he actually now when he was a puppy, he was pretty precocious and mischievous. But he you know, as he grew up, he was such a good dog, too. But yeah, so dramatic. He very athletic, very capable, very fast, great jumper, it was one of his hind legs that was missing, and did not stop him at all. But boy, if he did not get his way, you could suddenly hear Sarah McLachlan in the background. And the lamp would be so heavy and heavy limp, and he’d get to the door. And then he would turn and look to make sure that everyone was watching. And then he would heavy limp out of the room. So and it was so funny. And so I used to tease Ricky and I said because Ricky would say that’s my wing man. He always referred to to Roscoe is his wing man. And I used to tell him, If I ever see the two of you leaving the house without me, then I know that you are out to cheat. Because he is a chick magnet. Zed you have? No there’s no way you could go out of this house with him without attracting underbite Yeah, yes. Yes. Always. So that was always the joke. But he immediately took to Ricky to he, but he he would still just like now, you know, they they all adore him. But I came up here and the healers came with me. Yeah. Same with me because my husband he gets like a little little butthurt sometimes because I work from home. And ever since pandemic I’ve pretty much been home with the animals. So you know, and when that happened Dragon was about like one and a half two years old. So he’s been with me pretty much every day and he’s of course he’s barking right now. He’s been with me and I’ve always been with me almost every single day you know like there that’s so we have our own pecking order for sure because yes, it’s mom you know I have to work so you know, we all figure this out and it’s funny because Greg comes home and dribble loves Greg like drug was like still his dog but he listens to me more. Oh, right. Because you know, I I’ve established it you know, like this is I have to so he looks at Greg Moore’s like a toy. I tell him that like he’s Greg toy you know he comes home and look as they run So on the ground, they put it together and do all that, you know, he gets drugged with every once. But you know with me, it’s like this mom, you have to listen to mom. And so I think sometimes the husband gets jealous because struggle will come over and cuddle with me more and stuff because that’s what we do sometimes, like during, you know, for a break, I’ll have my coffee or something and I’ll sit in the couch with them and they come snugs you know, whatever, lunch, so, and when I tell them to shut up, like he listens, so It cracks me up because everyone thinks that when a dog gets to be an adult, you know, because puppies sleep a lot, right? Everyone, you know, that’s just normal. They’re toddlers, puppies, sleepless. But people forget that even adult dogs need sleep a lot. It’s very, very normal for adult dogs to sleep even, you know, herding breeds like they will do their job, but they’d still be asleep. Yes, Drago does not get a nap. He is like an overgrown toddler and he will throw temper tantrums. And there’ll be times where he’s throwing a temper tantrum. And he won’t respond to the normal like, you know, people say to ignore it, that doesn’t work. People will say to do X y&z doesn’t work. I’ve been like, single training thing that you can tell me to do. I’ve done it doesn’t work with him. So what I have to do is I have to raise my voice and mom voice and get real snarly with him. And then he looks at you like like, nobody wants you here. Go take a nap. You know, go lay down like nobody likes you right now. And he’ll look at you like why would you do what rightly Roscoe thing he will take himself very dramatically from the room. And you know, when he goes in, he puts himself to bed in the bedroom and takes a nap in the bedroom. But if he’s feeling very dramatic, he will go into the hallway. You can hear him collapse. You know, I’d love to collapse the heavy side. It reminds me in many ways of Napoleon Dynamite. So that is my dog just so dramatic. Everything’s terrible like my life is awful. Like just you know, why don’t you love me? galley stop barking he’s like you’re talking about doing this is what he was doing where my interview just barking non stop. There’s no reason for him to bark. He’s gotten potty. He’s had treats. He’s just sorry. Nope. Are you done? Ah, that’s that’s her biscuit. You leave it alone. Oh, this is another thing. Nobody taught me about labs. They throw temper tantrums if there’s food. Like if he sees Isla has a trait and she hasn’t eaten it like because she doesn’t eat it immediately. Shouldn’t she like wait, sometimes, you know, he will throw a meltdown. If there’s something on the ground and he wants to get it like a phone a treat or something and she’s just buy it pay can’t get he throws a meltdown over it. And the net my people Mike. Okay, so another quick story about Rob. He. I call him my savant because he will act like he will act like an idiot 90% of the time, like just like some think there’s something going on up there. But it’s not quite computing. Like he just he’s special. You know, you just Yes. However, if food is involved, all the sudden he is just like Stephen Hawking puppy. He will figure out equations like okay, so he will please Oh, oh. Oh, like he’s been a puppy calculus over here like trying to figure out like how can I get my sister’s food you know, without her knowing. So he will go to the door and he will bark we can use to go outside to go potty. And so whenever they go outside, I always ask I really do want to go with him. You know want to go potty. And I will of course be my good girl. abandon her food and come with me to go potty. Well, Drago will double back and then go over really quick and run run over sneaky to the thing and eat her food as quickly as possible and I have to run from the door over intercept. Go to touch her dip. And he’s a lap so they will Ciao but he’s gonna slow Peter for a reason. I never I again. Labradors. Yes, volume and which they inhale food. And he knows because I was you know the healer and Chatto Are you my buddy? So he knows, he knows because if I LS sees him because the healer she will go after him. You know like i are the healer but like people don’t talk about when they go they go they’re like cobras they will strike and they’re merciless. Yeah, yeah, yes. So I had a yellow light AB named Daisy, that lived to be 16. And yes, she let’s see last her probably it’s probably been about six years now. And I used to laugh because so stubborn. And so that year, people probably thought it was a little bit morbid bit, they would say how old is she? And I was like, well, she’s 16. I suspect that this year, she’s either gonna pass away or get her driver’s license. Because she was so independent and so stubborn. And she would just do whatever. And she would, up until the very end when she couldn’t anymore. She knew better, but she would counter serve. And I would come in the kitchen. And it was that same thing that you were talking about. The inhaling of the food. Yes. And you know, it’s most dogs. If they are busted, they will, you know, will jump down and oak or something. Oh, no, she would try to grab as much food as she possibly could. Before I can make it to her. Yes. I guess we’ll talk about it. But until you see it in action, it’s just like, it’s yes sign. And there’s and they’re, they’re defying like laws of physics while they’re doing it. And the other thing, she as she got older and started losing mobility, she had a big bed and she would lay on that bed. And it was so funny, because like one of her things, sometimes she would start doing the incessant licking. And finally, I’d be like, Daisy, stop licking. And she’d look a few more times and then I go Daisy, stop licking. And then you hear this big old paw slam on the bed. And that became her thing is anytime if she couldn’t, she couldn’t protest any other way. She would finally do whatever I was telling her to do. But she would do really loud dramatic pause lamb like, to make sure that everybody knew I’m doing it that I’m not doing it willingly or Josie Isla when she barks, because, you know, when, when when the healers bark, it’s like World War Three. It’s like, she’s just, she, it’s and she’s my guard dog. Like she takes like she takes very, very seriously, but will tell her, you know, okay, that’s enough. And then she just keeps going enough, you know? And so what she does, is she was very quiet, just so you know, it’s like a last word. You’re like Isla are very quiet grow. You know, just just but that’s her little defiant to the end has to get the last word. Just, every time cracks me up. And that’s the thing that’s funny is that when they do those things, and they’re the they’re those I know, I shouldn’t laugh, but I can’t help but laughing Yeah, you’re covering your mouth or, like at all. Because, you know, because you’re trying to be you know, trying to be the firm parent the same time. They do things that are either so cute, or it’s just like, Why? Why are you doing this? Why? You know? So we have a joke. One of my dear friends actually she’s also she’s the one who got me on onto the ACD page. And I’m sure you’ve seen her all the time on there. Michelle matter now ski is her okay. And she’s she’s like family to me. And she and I joke because when you were saying this earlier, too about Drago barking for no reason. That’s our joke. Whenever the dogs do things, we always laugh we’re like, well, we’re not capable of understanding why they’re no threat right now. Yeah. Yes, yes. We’re not capable and so are we will just say to each other anytime anything like that happens. All we’ll say is reasons. Yes. Reasons. Reasons. Yes. Yes. Exactly. Like I’ll be in a meeting and you know, to like, though, nothing happened. I’m like, I’m at home. I’m so sorry. There’s obviously a threat going on. I apologize. Maybe something’s getting delivered. There could be a leaf. Who knows? Bliss? Oh my God. When we first moved to Washington, and I love coarseness, she was Arizona. She landlocked puppy. She didn’t understand the concept of boats. So, when we because we, you know, our apartment at the time was in looked over the Narrows. So which is in you know, part of Puget Sound. So I didn’t understand the concept of sailboats. So in sailboats will go by Oh, meltdown and a half that gives a huge threaten, you know, they’re far away like they’re not like by me like you know, you can’t reach out like we’re on a cliff kind of thing like looking over this. So it’s like quite a ways away through the foliage, you know. Just it just it is just funny things like that of all things. Boats, or when I I attempted the other day to put on you know like we have like puppy TV like on YouTube or something you know things to relax them drive out so I tried putting on like dogs playing to see how they would be drug and flipped out dogs on TV was not an option really? Oh no not an option so I thought I’ll go safe so I found like this one had like pastoral so it had like sheep grazing and had very soft music I thought this will be good you know it’s something visual. Drago had a meltdown over sheep my Labrador meltdown like I can understand the healer no Labrador meltdown sheep were not okay like he went like ran up to the TV and was like rattling but hackles they knew was serious when the book first go up. It’s serious. Like my healer it’s the tail the tail goes up. Oh she can curls over that serious like when threats you know threat averted toe goes down with Drago. But for action, the hackles in the buffers the full Mohawk It cracks me up like you know. And of course, like he learned he realized, you know, it’s just the TV but even so. i It’s cheap. Yeah. What is this cheap kind of duty? What what? Well, like, and even though the sheep were in the TV, they were a threat until he took obviously scrapey there. I mean, I could have been hurt. You know, something that happens. You have no idea what you avoid? Yes. Foot and Mouth Disease scraping I’m, I’m safe. I’m obviously some boy Jocko. Good boy. Thank God, thank God, you know, but It cracks me up because, you know, I work from home and there’ll be days where I work late. And then I’ll be nights where I work on homework or something. So because I’m doing grad school, so I will have really late night sometimes like 10 o’clock at night. I was taking herself to bed. My husband’s taking himself to bed. Drago will sit with me and on his little nest his little bed and he will be with me. And he’s saying the entire time like we go to bed yet. Like he like he’s working late with me. It just cracks me up like everyone has gone to bed. But Drago is with me. But it’s like he feels like he’s working late. Yes, he’s exhausted. Does he sleep late the next day? Oh, yeah. Like there’ll be times like my husband because he has to get up at work at three in the morning because he has been there by five he’s a delivery driver says to go really early. So he will take the dogs out in the morning. And then bring them back in. I’m like, passed out to the world. Like I’ve no idea what’s going on to my husband comes over and like gives me a kiss. Goodbye. But sometimes if Drago has been up late or something, he won’t get up for that potty time. Oh, he’ll be awake to take the treat from Dad’s hand. But that’s about it. You know, it’s it’s like it’s normally like, buddy, it’s a treat real quick that goes back like he passes out, you know? Well, that’s just overtime pay. Because you know, you had him have worked hard last night, you know, he assisted he was there. Well, as far as you know, he was actually doing the work and you were assisting. He had to alert for danger. Like there could be things that happen in the night. You know, we have raccoons that come out and eat the food, you know, for the capital. Yeah. Oh, if you hear so we can. It’s funny. I didn’t know this about raccoons. I didn’t know that they have like little families that they’re in like little Coney. Yes. And I guess that they are by like male and female. So we have this group. And I saw them when they were babies. And they’ve grown up together. And they’re sisters. And they’re all together. And then there’s like a couple others that come and go. But it’s primarily the three sisters and they come in and they eat drugs always knows when they’re there. Because we’ll be out here at like nine o’clock at night. You hear me just, you know, just get very upset. The sisters are there, you know, and they’re not gonna do anything. They’re just either there for the cat move. They’re gone. Now, yes. But it just cracks me up because they’re a threat. So what do you think you’ve learned from your dogs? I mean, everyone talks about how, you know, when you become a parent, you know, it changes you and all of this stuff. You know, I’m not a parent, I, my husband and I, we’ve tried for many years, it just it’s not in the cards for us, unfortunately, you know, but, you know, but I’m an I’m an aunt, and I’ve taken care of my niece and nephew many, many times when they were younger, like stayed over at my house. Like nobody talks to you about how much kids eat. Like, they may never tell you that, like they eat all the time. Like small monthly snack all the time. Like it’s like they will, if anything, that’s where the money goes for snacks for the children, you know, because they never get the same thing, especially if one has ADHD like my nephew does, like me. And it like it’s not the same thing as the other one. You know, it’s different snacks, you know, so be prepared for that. But nobody tells you how similar certain dogs are when they’re puppies, they command that same amount of attention. And this is something that people have been like, oh, it’s not the same. No, it’s not the same. But they humble you. So dogs are wonderful. And like children, they will humble you, you think you know everything you think you have it figured out, but you don’t. You know, you think you’re prepared. Like I said, like, I thought I, you know, 20 some odd, you know, like, God, 30 some odd years on me, you know, when I had dropped, you think you’re prepared? You think you know, you? Don’t they humble you. So I think that’s one thing that my dogs constantly teach me about myself is, you know, how resilience kind of thing like you become very resilient. When you have dogs, the you know, especially during the pandemic, where I, you know, I didn’t know that I could be that person that stays home every single day. But because of my dogs, I’m okay with that. Like, I’m totally fine. Like, some people will, we’re just like, climb up the walls. Like, I’m an introvert. I’m like, I’m totally fine with this. But they taught me that they’re the best coworkers ever. Like, sure, you know, they have their own, you know, drama and everything, but they’re awesome. coworkers. I would have them any day of the week over the politics of office spaces, you know, like, just any day. I can bribe them with food. It’s not that hard, you know, so. And it all comes back to the snacks. You know, it’s critical. It’s like, those hours feeding him, you know, just well, you understand? So yes, yes, totally. And, you know, it’s funny, because I, I mean, I don’t know, I, before I was a parent, and even after a parent, I always hate it when people are like, Oh, but you don’t know if you don’t have kids? Okay. It is a different experience. I mean, that is a unique experience. But there there is something just as, like, the responsibility is no less. Absolutely no, no. And I, it makes me wonder, like, if you say that it’s not respect, like, what kind of a dog parent? Are you? Why? Well, when you say things like that, yeah, the thing too, is, I mean, the dogs are brilliant at learning to communicate with you. Yeah, but your dog is never going to learn English and eventually, one day be able to tell you My ear hurts, or my stomach hurts or my end, you know, so and I know that there are some parents that that don’t ever have that happen and that they have that’s a different nonverbals Absolutely. But But for many for the most part, eventually, it becomes easier with kids, you know, and but with with your little furry people, it’s always that you always have to stay in tune to Yes, you know, and always have to be paying attention. And kind of like, okay, what are you telling me and what’s going on here and interpret, learn to interpret what they’re, you know, what they’re saying and what they’re communicating, right? And it Yeah, teach, it teaches you the communication and communication part for sure. And then, you know, at the opposite end of the spectrum, to and this, you know, people probably will think this is insensitive to but like, I’ve had a lot of loss in my family, my, my mom, my dad, and my only sibling, I lost all of them to cancer. And so I’m not saying this from Thank you, thank you. But I’m not saying this from a place of not having experienced it. But when I’ve lost dogs to, you know, people, when someone loses a dog, I think a lot of times people tend to kind of minimize that. But one thing that always well, it is but you know the other thing too, and then once again, not minimizing the loss of a person either. But if you lose a family member, that is not someone that lives in your home, that you spend all day, every day with or many hours every day with, it’s a different kind of loss. And when you lose one of your pets, that’s a huge that’s a void in almost every single thing you do. Absolutely. You know, it’s I mean, like with my parents, I talked to them on the phone all the time. And of course, I you know, and spent lots of time with them and all that. So, of course, I missed all those things. But, you know, like with Roscoe every single night Roscoe, who eventually crawled up and curled up to me and snuggled next to me and that was something like every single night and every single day when I would come home from work, he would come around the corner and so I mean, they’re they’re such an integral part of your every day that I hate to hear to when people minimize those losses because it’s a it’s a different loss, but it’s equally huge. When I lost my Morgan Um, it it, it shattered me, you know. And it’s not even just dogs, like, you know, when I was younger when I was 18, I had rescued this mom and her brand new litter of kittens. And, you know, I rate them in the remaining kittens, you know, because, you know, kittens pass, you know, things happen. So, yes, the mom would love my brother, but I had the three boys and I had my boys, my three huge cats on your beasties, from when I was 18. Until, you know, early 30s. You know, like, they were my boys, they were my world. Yeah. And they weren’t, they were there. They were consistent for me, you know, through all my heart aches and everything, and like learning lino, because I didn’t get diagnosed with ADHD until I was 39. So I went through my entire life, you know, feeling like something was wrong with me. And the only animals the only the only ones in my life that were consistent, who didn’t feel like were judging me or anything? Was my pets, you know, so it was very difficult for me when I lost them. Because they all didn’t die at the same time. You know, it was just like, you know, what, you know, a lot, you know, different periods. But it’s, you know, and it’s been over 10 years, but I still, I still can’t talk about them. Well, you know, it’s not what I saw it, a meme of all things, you know, of all the things recently, but it was interesting, because it was a, it was illustrated with like a ball and a mason jar, and it had a sequence of the ball with the mason jar in it and the mason jar, the ball keeps getting smaller and smaller, but the jar stays the same. And then there was another one where the ball stays and the jar keeps getting. Anyway, I can’t describe the visual. But the point was that it was saying, people tend to think that over time, our grief gets smaller. But instead we just grow around our grief. I think I agree with that. Yes. And you know, it’s, there was one I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of it, but it was it was something that I came across, like Apollo so he’s he’s he’s hunting right now. So he’s Oh, oh, thank you. He he kills his little stuffed aliens. So my cat brings me things so he’s come up on he has a stuffed alien right now that he carries around. He’s killed it and he’s bringing your so safe. I have no aliens. No, she. Oh, it’s not even just that. He has stuffed dinosaur. So dinosaur is an alien that he kills and he brings them to me. So yes, I save every night from like a galactic invasion or from dinosaurs. You know, like dresses are gonna happen on his rock, Drago and sheep and sailboats, think about all of it. I don’t want to leave my house, because Thank God, you know, all these threats, but often so. But sorry, getting back to what you were saying it was there was a poem or even a poem, a little story I heard years ago. And it was about how dogs aren’t, aren’t dead. They’re napping in your heart. And it was, you know, sometimes, you know, when, in the beginning of grief, you know, they’re so close to your heart that their little tail was wagging and it was beating against your ribcage. And that’s why it was hurting is because they were wagging their tail so much. But then they would settle down in nap. And sometimes they would wake up again and they hear you when they beat you know, and then they would settle down again. And so it was just this visual thing of you know, they’re not dead. They’re napping in your heart. And when you think about them, sometimes when you feel that pain in your chest, it’s them just beating their tail thinking of you. That’s a beautiful. You don’t even know I’m just like the field. I know. I get it. Yeah, like it’s Yeah. Lock it down. Yeah, it’s just, you know, it’s grief. Grief is grief. It doesn’t matter who it is what it is, if it touched your heart, you’re allowed to grieve and whatever way you need to afford as long as you need to grieve. Yes, yeah. Minimizing grief is just that’s just a very selfish mentality for people to have. All right. Yes, I totally agree. And I and I feel sad too, for people who minimize that grief of the loss of a pet. Because I’ve know that they’ve never acts like they’ve missed out on something. They know, thank you. If, if somebody is not grieving the loss of a pet, and the same way it would, or just anything that that means to me that they may need to work on something in themselves and maybe this could be they have their own trauma or something or just the way they were raised, you know, and I’m not going to judge anybody for what that is, but you don’t like I just you don’t get to tell somebody how to grieve, like keep right, don’t do that you don’t have that, right? You don’t know that relationship, you don’t know the situation around it, you just don’t get that mentality the same way to me, like you don’t get to minimize, like, my relationship with my pets. They’re my children. And I know the concept of Furbabies. Like, it offends people, but these are my children. I’ve tried, you know, and this is what I have, in someday, maybe my husband, I walked up, we’re going to try that. But adoption and fostering, it’s extremely expensive and very difficult that people don’t realize that like, no, that’s hard. It’s really hard. So to me, it’s like, we as a society need to understand that we having children is a luxury, having the ability to raise a family is a luxury. So for some of us, this is all we’re gonna have. And it’s not just, you know, cats and dogs, it could be horses, it could be, you know, you know, snakes, it could be whatever it is. It’s that’s, you know, people have connections with other animals, and we can’t, like, you know, judge that or minimize that, because it doesn’t fit into our ideals, right. No, exactly. And, and having it’s really not even just having that it’s not a just, you know, what I mean? Like, it’s, it’s equally powerful. I mean, you know, very, so this is kind of on a different note, but a little bit more. I’ll leave you with a little bit of humor, sort of maybe, I don’t know if many podcasts or not, I bet no, a couple. Yeah, I would work I have to do them. So I help with the whole like, there’s a lot of work of podcasts, people don’t realize there’s a lot of work behind the scenes. Yeah. So one of my favorites. There’s a radio station here, and I’m in the Dallas Fort Worth area, and it’s a country station. And it’s ks ces 96.3 been here forever. And they do a bit every Monday through Friday called second date update. Oh, yes, I love second date update. We just have an Arizona Yep. Okay. So they actually I think are the ones who started it. And I always have to, I always have to qualify the statement, though, that if you search for the podcast, there are radio stations all over the country that do it now. And I get caught up on the one here. And so I want to hear more. And I’ll listen. And the one here is much more family friendly than a lot. So a lot of them I’ve listened to you from other markets, and I just can’t because it’s like, I feel like I need to take a shower after some of these stories. But the ones here, so so there’s the graphic that actually looks like a like a comic strip, graphic art, cover photo, and it’s new country second date update. So anyway, there was one last week. And the girl called in because they had a great first date. And she couldn’t understand and why they didn’t go out again. And she said that she even talked to the guy when they were on the date and was saying that she wanted to adopt a puppy and asked him if he would be willing to go with her and help her adopt a puppy. And he said, Yeah, and so she’s like, I thought we had plans that we were gonna go and he was gonna help me adopt a puppy. And so they’re like, Okay, so they get him on the phone. And they asked him what happened? And he’s like, yeah, she asked me if I would pay the adoption fee for her to adopt the puppy. And they go, okay, she didn’t tell us that. No, yeah. And he said, If she can’t afford the$75 adoption fee, she doesn’t need to be adopting a puppy. And so they bring her back on the line. I thought my head was going to explode the whole time. She’s like, what’s the big deal? Well, no, I can’t afford the $75 adoption fee. But puppies aren’t expensive. It’s not like I have to start a college fund. I’m not gonna it’s not going to cost anything. But I got, um, my eyes are like rolling right now. And I’m just like, I know, I know. And I listened to it on the podcast. I didn’t hear it when it was live. But I thought I’m really glad I didn’t hear it was live because I think I would have been in a raging in my car. Yes, I might have actually been pulling over and calling the radio station and I think they even acknowledged afterwards. I think they even said to her, you know, maybe you should not be adopting a puppy right now. While but yeah, so when you were saying that to just about how some people think, well, it’s not a big no, no, it’s a thing. It is a thing. Like you have to like just and I say this as somebody who used to work in rescue, like I understand, you know, like, i i You know, I I remember being I’d never had a lot of money myself, personally, like, I understand being the poor college student, you know, wanting to help with animals. So I get that some rescue fees can be very, very, like extreme. Sometimes they’re just like, they’re very expensive sometimes like and they want, you have to like a poster or they want to have X, Y, and Z. And they want to have all this stuff and you’re like, Look, I just want to help a dog. They don’t want to, I don’t want to spend 600 bucks to, you know, rescue a dog like, yeah, just, you know, some of them I think can just be a little extreme. But that said, I agree that if you can’t spend $75 to rescue the dog, how are you going to find the food? How are you gonna afford this? Because Are you gonna feed them old boy, you know, and if that’s all you can afford, there’s no shame there. But like, you know, most people tend to try to do a little bit more than the bare minimum. Well, and you, you don’t ever plan for an illness you don’t ever plan for I mean, I mean, you could plan for it. But you don’t ever schedule it. You don’t ever say, Oh, yes. When this happens, you know, the things happen with them that you don’t ever when he was a puppy, we were always at the vet because again, Labrador, nobody talks about it. They eat everything they don’t see. There’s like children, every they pick things up with their mouths and their mouths, or their hands. And so it was always just what the drug would get into. And it was diarrhea. And I was going back to that. Oh, yes. Giardia because he had you know, something. And so it was deal with that. Then it was after that would be fixed. Something else was picked up in his mouth. And he’s got diarrhea again, because it was constant. Diarrhea, like people don’t talk about how sensitive their stomachs are, when they’re sensitive. They just they put? Yes. And sometimes that means a special diet. Yes. And so he was for a long time on a very special diet. He’s a lot better now. But it was as a puppy. It was just he was very delicate, you know? So it was just, and the vet things that the vet things are expensive. Yes, there are not cheap, because it was almost always an emergent vet situation. So wait, so I know you’re very knowledgeable about I know, I’ve seen people ask breed questions. And I know you’re very knowledgeable about those things. So here’s an interesting one in our household. And tell me if you’ve ever heard of such a thing, but Lily and Eleanor are the healers. And summer before last. We were taking them to the vet now we’re Texas hot summer. Yeah, we were taking them to the vet. And it was in the afternoon. It wasn’t as 1015 minute car ride. And we had Roscoe and Lily and Eleanor. So this is interesting, too. With Lily. She’s pretty much completely blind now. And I know bless your heart. I know. I know. And she smiles all the time. Like she’s the happiest best nature’s best though. I love I love puppies. The great Nicole wooden. Yes, the frosty face. So ever since she was little though this is a healer. Ever since she was little she has not liked to go outside. She’s almost been agoraphobic. She likes her backyard. Yes. But then as she started losing her vision, it was gradual. I almost wondered if maybe there was always something about her vision that made her feel vulnerable when she was outside. And that’s why she didn’t like it. It could be because she’s fine going out in our backyard, but could never take her out front to go for a walk. And at our old house, she didn’t even like going into backyard there. You know, it could have been something because that she doesn’t know her environment. So that’s why she was hesitant to do it. That could have been something that maybe scared her. So we’re making this vet visit. And like I said, we don’t we didn’t take little we don’t take her a lot of places because it is traumatic for her. So Ricky was taking Lily into the vet and I was getting Eleanor and Roscoe because it was going to be easier for them to be managed and he was going to take her. So I opened the door to the vet. And Ricky is on the floor in the middle of the waiting room. I’m trying to process what’s happening. And Lily is having a grand mal seizure. Oh, and as I’m watching this, all of a sudden I feel tugging on my leash and looked down and Eleanor is having a grand mal seizure. It was the strangest and most terrifying thing I’ve ever seen. Oh my gosh. So the vets they run out they take care of them. Get them out, you know? Yeah, cuz all you can do at that point is just wait it out. Yes. And then we get them drinking some water and settle down and clean them up because of course bless their hearts. They tinkled everywhere and you know, salivating? Yep. I don’t have a border collie who had seizures a lot. And it was just it’s the worst. They they’re out of it. They just they don’t know what’s going on. And you know, and it’s not everyone always thinks it’s gonna be the shaking sometimes, but it’s really not all the time. Like, you know, when When Sasha had hers, it was just she would just her eyes would be on Focus and she’d just like, look around. So kind of her sort of kind of more like the absence seizures. Yeah. And it was just, you know, but she didn’t. And she would, you know, urinate and stuff like that, you know, and she would be very embarrassed afterwards. Oh, yeah, came out of it. But they would last anywhere from a couple seconds to sometimes up to a minute, you know, and she was on an iguana, phenobarbital and it helped her a lot. And she’s much better, but she was a rescue. So yeah, yeah. You don’t know the history. You never know where Yeah, so anyway, we chalked that up. That was a couple summers ago. We chalked that up to the heat, we thought that the heat could be the heat stress. Yeah, right. Well, that time we thought well, so then we were like, okay, We’ll reschedule again for the fall, and try again in the fall when it’s not so hot. And it happened again. So very short, we cannot take either of our senior girls to the vet, because as soon as we take them out to the car, they both start having grand mal seizures. So it has taken us it’s it took us over a year to find a mobile vet in our area. And so now they will come here. So just talking about vet expenses that you don’t plan on and bless their hearts they have. So I had a vet vet that did house calls for decades. But he would always bring his his table into the house. And so the dogs never had to leave the house. Well, this is a father daughter that are both vets, and they have a van and it’s all set up with their treatment stuff. And they came a few weeks ago. And even just taking the girls out into the van, they both had seizures out in the van. So the good thing is this, the vets were super sweet and said we’re so glad we saw this so we can see what you’re talking about. And next time we’ll come in and they said obviously, we know that there’s some things we just aren’t going to do. Because it’s so stressful happens. You never know. Until it happens. Like you just don’t. You don’t know. It was so bizarre though that both of them that it both of them do it and both of them it happens. But I never in all of the debate. There’s like a gene, I think that can be associated, did they ever get a genetic test or anything like that? Okay, because I know that there can be certain genes that can be responsible, or sometimes have a relationship with dogs, developing epilepsy or having epileptic, you know, type events. So interesting. Well, yeah. And, obviously, obviously, these are triggered by the stress of, yeah, and it could just be something that as they’ve gotten older, they’re just their tolerance for certain things. You know, like every, it’s an it could just also be I hate to say like learned behavior, but it could just be some their body. That’s how they compute it now. Like, that’s how it used to be. Maybe they had like a threshold, but that thresholds gone. Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, I know that’s the way with people, you know, sometimes like they’re fine was something until something makes them faint. And then from that point on, whatever that something was, will always make them faint, even though up until they develop an allergy to something as you get older sometimes, yep. It’s just your body’s like, you know, like an autoimmune response type thing. It could be a million different things, you know, and without knowing the physiology of what’s going on with your dogs, it’s just, I would say, in this case, it’s just it’s a stress response, most likely, yeah. Well, if you ever hear anything of anyone else experiencing that, I’m gonna share my name. Yes, I will hunt start hunting, because I think like, you know, again, like my nerdy, like, people don’t know, I’m a science person like that. That’s my thing. Like, I love the science that I like to dig into things like that. So I will kind of go down that rabbit hole for you and see what I can find. Oh, well, yeah. And please don’t feel like you have to but if you ever run across that, or Oh, no. Well, thank you. Yes, yes. Because it has been a crazy, crazy thing. And, of course, I feel, you know, we feel like horrible pet parents, because we got to the point to where we couldn’t give them their heart guard, because we could literally Yeah, you know, and it’s like, no, we really can’t take them to the vet. We really cannot do you can’t do anything, just type people that recognize like, it’s not just the bad like, I’m sure you probably can’t go on vacations easily anymore, because you can’t afford them. unless somebody’s at the house with them. You know, that’s what we’ve we have to board. Yeah, yeah. So I’m on board with it. Oh, that’s another thing people don’t understand. Like what pet boarding is expensive. People talk about like daycare at boarding is like the same like when we were gone for like two weeks cost like two or $3,000. For the dogs. Yes. The cost of the vacation. It doubles the cost of your vacation. It’s people don’t recognize that. Like it’s you know, having pets is like children, it’s a luxury. You don’t realize it, you know, it depends on like, I mean, if you don’t really care about your dog and you leave them outside and the leash you know needed a lot cheaper, but you know, like, you know, I take care of my babies, they come home, they have, you know, piles of toys. Oh, that’s their life. I guess she knows she’s guarding. She’s using the flu. So yeah, but you know, and I spend money, you know, getting there, like, you know, entertainment things that you know, because dogs need to be stimulated, you know. So they’re busy toys and things like that, like I prepare them and I, you know, just like having children. So I’ll cut all this part out, but I’ll share with you that the podcast is part of a dream that I am working towards. That’s awesome. Good for you. Thank you. Well, you know, the good Lord willing, we’ll see. But what I would like to do is what we want to do, and Landry our daughter’s in her first year of college, we want to get her through her second year because she’s doing that from home. And then when she moves out, we’ll have a little more freedom to move. But my dream is to open an RV park with a full service doggy daycare. Nationally awesome. That’d be cool. Oh, we love national parks. And of course, most national parks dogs can only go where cars can go. Yeah, so if people want to vacation in a national park, and if they want to vacation with their dog, it’s very hard to do everything. So we want to have mostly RV sites but also have about half a dozen cabins and make everything completely dog centric. So like everything verse, you know, where a lot of places you can take your dog, but there’s a pet, you pay an additional pet fee every day. They have like limits on the weight, which is never for big dogs. Yes. Yes limit? Yeah. Yeah, yes. And so we want to have like the cabins would actually be the joke. The tagline is where we like you, but we love your dog. And it’s going to be a people friendly pup resort. So they can bring their people as long as they promised their people will behave. People behave. Yes, please. Yes, yes. So that’s what we’re, we’re, I’ve been working on a business plan for about a year and a half. And that’s what we’re kind of hoping to do. I think that’ll be awesome. Yeah. But while we’re kind of in a holding pattern, I was like, You know what, I want to use this time to maybe start trying to build a community and just kind of start establishing a brand. That’s the way to do it. Like my my boss, like the way that she started was, she wanted to bring attention to the fact that the you know, arthritis, for example, there’s a lot of autoimmune issues that come with certain types of arthritis. And so, over time, like she’s sort of doing her own thing where it was, you know, she’s sort of doing like bracelets, like, I’ll make a bracelet to bring awareness to it. And then the next thing she knows she’s getting all these orders for the bracelet. So she creates a foundation. And now she’s got this, you know, international foundation that she’s running and you know, we’re working on it, and it’s just International, anti inflammatory, anti autoimmune. Arthritis. That’s all we focus on. That’s right. Yeah. But it’s it starts small. It’s, she did her face, but that’s what she did. So good for you just do this. Get your feet going, you know, and you’ll figure it out. Yeah. So anyway, but when you said that about traveling, that’s kind of how it was born out of two, because we’ve always been blessed to have someone that stays here with our dogs, and it’s much more affordable. But we did a trip up to the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone a couple summers ago. And, of course, I have to meet all the dogs. And as I’m meeting all the dogs on the trip, then I was realizing how limited the those families were on what they were able to do on their vacations. And I was like, wait a minute, there’s and then I started doing the math. And and that was one of the things if we had boarded our dogs, boarding the dogs for that trip would have cost more than the vacation cost. And we couldn’t have done no idea. Yeah. Or if you like and that’s if you do like a small like room or something like we always had our dogs together and space because you’re bonded. We always we had the bigger space for them. Like we didn’t we’d never we never do like basic like you know, we’re there are babies, we got to make sure that we got puppy camp when they go to puppy camp answer yourself. Yes. Well, and that’s what you know, we want to have like, enrichment activities and things during the day for the dogs and we want to incorporate hydrotherapy to there’s kind of a long story behind that. But anyway, so when you’re saying that I appreciate what you’re saying, because that’s what we’re actually kind of working towards. I think it’ll be amazing if you guys can get some like that gone because, like, you know, that’s something that we’ve talked about is even when we’re, you know, because eventually we want it we want to move across country. Yeah, but it was we’re trying to plan out things. And there’s so many places where we would have to just like how do you plan to move cross country and stay overnight in certain areas? Because so many places are not pet friendly. Yeah, yeah. There are more and more pet hotels now. But it still leaves the problem of if you want to do something during the day, and you can’t come in a crate and this thing or even then it’s, they’re limiting to, like, you know, 50 pounds or less or no cats or something. But we’re a mixed family, you know, so, what are the cats like me? In the car? Like? Yeah, it’s just yeah. So this is a good thing you guys are gonna do so. You know. Thank you. Well, thank you for your time. I appreciate you. It was so much fun and everything like you know, I was one story turned into like six or seven. But you know, it’s when we were all right. It’s awesome. I love it. I love it. And, you know, if you think of more if Drago customizes more stuff, whatever. There’s lots of stories. Trust me like we’ll find more. Don’t worry, like, yeah, anytime. No, just ping me and go, Hey, I got one and we’ll do it because I’m hoping to have a story a week at least. And, God. I know the other thing. Oh, I’m gonna say I just remember like one one, because Morgan’s passed, but I remember years ago. It was during like Thanksgiving or something. And like my, my mom’s husband at the time I was living next. I was going to school at ASU. And he had taken out a ham to rest on the counter. And I don’t know how they did it. But Morgan got the ham and he took the ham and obviously it flew. Two flips came in. Yeah, this chuck. Hi, Chuck. Hi, Barney. He’s beautiful. Thank you. They are they’re the biggest derps but they they’re very that’s yeah, that’s struggle. Please dirt 100 percenter. But ya know, it was more going to take in the ham and ham and Isla had just finished off his ham. And so they had them. They’re like you’re the best parents ever. Like but it was one of those things because Morgan never ever, ever counter surfed. But that day, well, you know what his sad limit was? It just addresses where my obedience ends. Is and he was just used the best. I remember when Morgan like when he was to lie on a side so Oh, here’s I don’t know if you can see this is. Oh, this is beautiful. Thank you. At least my blind girl. I see your eyes are all reflective. Right? Yeah. Hi, gorgeous. Girl, baby girl. I see a little bit nice off shining. Yes. So anyway, sorry. She cracked me up because Morgan would just like lie on his side and he would just put his leg in the air and but it’s one little pinky toe just like and even up until the day he passed it was lifted like so. So yeah, you know what that is? Reasons. Me news was invisible cup of tea right now you know, like, you know, spread it she just didn’t. Protocols English border, of course. Yeah. Well, also, if you know of any, like rescues, groups that do transport you know, anything like that. I would love love love to be able to use this as a platform to to help spread their stories. I will. I mean, I my friend, Alex used to do a lot of rescue stuff. I will ask if she’s got, you know, stories, but she used to, you know, do transport stuff for free. So I’ll ask, you know, I’ll ask my friends. I’ll see what I got. So yeah, just any, you know, and it just at any point, if it’s something that could be helpful to someone else to you know, because it’s also potentially I mean, right now, we’ve got from Washington to Texas covered. You know, so who knows, but I mean, we’ll find what I mean, you What is it you’ve got? Rebecca has Hilo and he loves you know, her her search and rescue puppy. He’s a search and rescue healer. See, so you can reach out to Rebecca and talk to her. Tao with lucky ones. Yes, Lucky wants to and then trying to think because there’s there’s a couple of people I know like over an East Coast. I’ll see what I can find out for you and let you know, but I mean, Puppy stories I like preppy stories. Doesn’t like happy stories. And it just cracks me up because like, you know, it wasn’t for Isla. I would never have gone into the healer group. I would never have joined and I’ve never met all these people in my life. So is it that I know and i i Lily was my first healer we kind of stumbled upon her. And when we went together. also fell in love with Eleanor. Eleanor had been committed to someone else. And we were going on a weekend vacation right after we got Lily. So excuse me, the people we got Lily from said, You know what? You can bring her back and we’ll keep her that weekend because she was so little and we didn’t want to do that to our dog sitter. Yeah. And which was very sweet of them. And we came to pick her up after the weekend and Eleanor, who we had fallen in love with it was supposed to be somewhere else was still there was only one left. And, and they said that it had fallen through. I don’t know what happened. But they said, Yeah, she’s still here. And they’re not going. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Okay. So. So that’s how we ended up with both of them and that they were our first experience with healers. I did not adventure. It is an adventure but just the most Yes, yes. Just the most amazing, brilliant lawyer. Bad. Loving. Yes. Like people don’t realize like when they talk about like, learning like the communication thing. Other breeds, you get lots of warning science. Like they give you like a long a bigger bandwidth of you know, between reactivity, healers, it’s winner this time. It’s 100%. And Isla, like that was the one thing I learned with isla. It was just you have to watch her because her body language signs. Oh, my. Speaking of which, yes. Yeah. She’s in major floof mode right now. We need to shut up. We have the gardener’s are here. Oh, oh. Oh, God. Danger and half. So yeah. But yeah, it was just I had to learn. Like, I had to learn to watch her because it was just so sudden, so quick with it. It was just like that snap. It was I, I’ve never had that before. So yeah, Landry was in first grade when we got them. And when Landry and they knew that Landry was their responsibility, like they quickly knew, and when lander would have friends over, I would have to make sure that they were with me, or that I watched him closely. Because if they got jealous of the attention, that lander was giving the friend or if the friend did anything that they thought was threatening that? Yes, yeah, they would be right there. And I had to always make sure that once you know the San Juan, when she gets all worked up, she will go and she’ll grab like a toy or something and shake it but if draw goes next, her she will boom by Drago, because she’s so reactive that she has to just like, I have to bite, you know, and I’ve never had that with another breed before. And I think it’s just it’s a healer thing. You know, and it’s something that I just had to be cognizant of with her and just be aware of it and you know, plan for it, but I’ve never had that my entire life with another dog of mine, you know, and I’ve had bully breeds, you know, like, and, you know, they’re instinctively other dog aggressive depending on that, you know, sometimes you can socialize them enough they don’t have that, but most of the time that’s just that’s instinctive for them because they were bred to be dog biting dogs. Yeah. So yeah, you know, but it’s just very, very interesting. Just watching the healer go from zero to 60 because they will go from being the sweet wonderful dog to full on Dingo mode. Yes. And these now like there’ll be tells you how they mount when they play. And they bite like, she does like the Happy Girls. Right? Well wrestle with her because he’s scared of her. When she does like the playful girls like, and she like I’m just used to it but like, she comes over and she will straight up like, bite me and like on the leg, like chop like Let’s go. Let’s move lady. I gotta go Pope. Well, I when I was when they were little, and I would get up in the morning, and I would have to walk across the house to get to the back door to let them out. And it was funny because they would heard me Yes, but I never had to look, I knew who it was because Lilly nips, and Eleanor shoved. So they they had their other Yes, yes, but I knew who I was being herded by, or who was hurting which leg based on whether I was I’m so sorry. Oh, no, you’re good, but I just couldn’t do this all day. I’m sorry. Yeah. Oh, ego. But it’s, you know, I’m glad to be able to talk about this because people don’t get it. Healers they don’t understand. Ya know, it’s a thing. And even if they’re a mixed breed that the heeler geez, she’s 60% healer, so, yeah, definitely. You know, this is her. So yeah, yeah. All right. Well, let’s you go. Yes. Thank you have a great one. Anything you can buy but it’s just very very interesting just watching the healer go from zero to 60 because they will go from being the sweet wonderful dog to full on Dingo mode. Yes. And there’s no like there’ll be tells you how they mouth when they play. And they bite like, she does like the Happy Girls like wrestle with her because he’s scared of her when she does like the playful girls like, and she like I’m just used to it but like she comes over and she will straight up like, bite me like on the leg like chop like Let’s go. Let’s move lady I gotta go poop. Well, I when I was when they were little, and I would get up in the morning, and I would have to walk across the house to get to the back door to let them out. And it was funny because they would heard me. Yeah, but I never had to look, I knew who it was because Lily nips, and Eleanor shoved. So they they read their other Yes, yes. But I knew who I was being herded by, or who was hurting which leg based on whether I was I’m so sorry. Oh, no, you’re good. But I’ll let you go. I just couldn’t do this all day. I’m sorry. Yeah, I’ll let you go. But it’s, you know, I’m glad to be able to talk to you about this because people don’t get healers. They don’t understand. Ya know, it’s a thing. And even if they’re a mixed breed, that’s the healer. Geez, she’s 60% healer. So yeah, definitely. You know, this is her. So yeah, yeah. All right. Well, let’s you go. Yes, thank you have a great one you again. Bye. Thank you so much for joining me today. I know that you are busy. And I really appreciate that you chose to spend some of your time with me. So let’s do a little bit of bookkeeping before we head out. If you enjoy this, and you would like to receive the episodes automatically without having to seek them out, then in your pod catcher, follow or subscribe. And that way every time an episode drops, it’ll show up for you. And you’ll know that it’s there makes it super easy. You don’t have to think about it. Please go visit the website. It’s really cute. It’s got puppy pictures. Also, I’ve got a free gift for you over there if you will go check it out. And if you would like to message me if you have any suggestions, specific pup stories you want to hear. Or even better. If you want to share a story, you can message me right there from the website. That’s the best way to get to me for that. Check us out on all the different socials, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, all of them. That’s where you’ll see pictures of the pups that we talk about each week. Also, just other fun pup things. I’m going to put episodes on YouTube as well. Sometimes the episodes are recorded via zoom. And so there’s video, a lot of times it’s just us talking but every now and then there are some fun cameos from puppies are there shenanigans in the background, and you can catch all that on YouTube. If you want to help me out if you would leave a positive review and share the podcast that would be fantastic. I would be really grateful. And once again, if you want to help me out, I would love to share your story. So please hit me up and let’s schedule a time that we can talk. Some people have shared their stories in writing. Some people have gotten on the phone and done a chat with me so we can do whatever you are most comfortable with. Finally, do not forget that you are as great as your dog thinks you are and go smooth. Thanks, y’all.