Twenty years, and then some
My first dog was born two weeks before I was
I grew up with a golden lab named Gabriel who, by every family account, babysat me — he kept me on the porch when I was small and hauled me around to the pool when I wasn't. I wanted to be a dog trainer before I wanted to be anything else.
Later I kept my dachshund and my rescue at my dance studio the entire time I ran it, and I've been sitting for other people's animals ever since. That adds up to more than twenty years of being responsible for animals that weren't always mine.
I say this the same way every time, and I mean it: I've never met a dog I didn't like.
Before this I served in the United States Navy as a Master-at-Arms — military police. My job was security: controlling access, standing watch, noticing when something was off, and being trusted with other people's property when no one was looking. That's the reason I built this around staying in the home instead of stopping by it. An occupied house is a cared-for house.
