So on my "About" page, I mention a bit of my history working with dogs and I mention 3 of my pups. I figured it would be a good idea to show you guys what they look like! You might recognize a few from some of the pictures on the home page!
There's Phoebe. The original dog who started the whole journey. We adopted her in 2012. She's a German Shepherd/Alaskan Malamute/Pit Bull mix that we adopted from Help.Save.Pets. Animal Shelter. We did a DNA test to determine her breeds.
As of 2023, she's about 11 years old now and diabetic, she enjoys laying on her mattress, looking out the window, barking at squirrels and watching TV on the couch with my mother.
She taught me a lot as a "baby" trainer. She is silly and smart and stubborn and definitely proved a challenge at times. But she's the original and the queen of the household now.
After Phoebe, we decided that she was somewhat lonely and went looking for a sibling for her. We found Piper in 2013.
Piper was adopted from Yorkville Animal Shelter. We brought her home and after playing the "what could she be?" game, we decided to use the DNA test like we did with Phoebe. It came back so mixed that we referred to her as officially a "husky mix" but jokingly called her the "Heinz-57" mutt.
With her and Phoebe running the house, it was a wonder anything was accomplished at times. She was so far, the smartest dog I've ever owned. Often outsmarting me, but I learned a lot from her. Namely the meaning of "sibling rivalry" between the two girls.
We had her until she was 6 years. She was diagnosed with Lymphoma after not eating for nearly a month and a battery of tests. We made the heartbreaking decision to humanely euthanize her. I do miss her every day.
Of course after we lost Piper, we all felt the difference. Phoebe the most. So we decided to adopt a new sibling for her. My parents found Casper in 2019.
They adopted him from Wagging Hearts Animal Shelter in Tinley Park. I had known they were looking but they surprised me at my job with the new puppy.
As you may have noticed, the previous two had a "theme" with their names. Being named after characters from the TV show, Charmed. We thought about calling Casper, "Wyatt", "Leo", "Chris", "Andy", "Darrell", etc. But none of them felt right.
My Dad and I decided he looked like Krypto the Super Dog. But my sister suggested Casper the Friendly Ghost. And Casper won out. We also did the DNA test as our "white shepherd" began to grow quite large, lost the perk to his ears and started to get a literal big head. We found that he was a Great Dane/Great Pyrenees/German Shepherd/Mastiff mix. 4 giant breeds in one! And he doesn't drool!!
At the time we adopted him, I was running my own classes and so my dad brought him in to be socialized with my class. He became my demonstration dog for over a year. Every class I had, he was there. First to learn, then to demonstrate and to help socialize the pups. He loves people and treats puppies very gently considering his giant size. Standing at my hip and weighing in at 117lbs. I affectionately call him my "Big Beluga" from his coloring as well as his weird habit of opening his mouth wide.
Currently, he's enjoying this break as I search for a space to conduct large group classes.
I did forget to mention the meowing part of my crew. Just to give everyone some attention!
I've had a cat since I was 17 years old. Capone was my first cat ever and since I have grown up with dogs, I treated him as such. He was supposed to be my sister's cat, but he bonded to me. We adopted him in 2006 from Help.Save.Pets Animal Shelter, this was the first time I was introduced to this particular shelter and the work there. Capone was my rock. I lost him in 2020 to suspected Leukemia at age 14. He was an orange tabby.
In 2008, Jake, the family dog I was raised with passed qway and with Capone being my cat, my sister wanted her own. So we adopted Maggie, a female tortoiseshell, also from HSP. She definitely taught me about "Torti-tude". She's still sticking with us at age 14 now.
And when we lost Capone, we were all grieving and we felt like there was a hole in our furry family. So in January of 2021, we adopted Cole, a male Grey and White. He has boots and gloves and a little white stripe. We adopted him from Starfish Animal Rescue. He's the youngest of the bunch and VERY spunky!
So that's the crew!
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