Latest / Every Pawprint! Every Story! / The Dogs Who Heal Us: What Susan Hartzler's Life With Therapy Dogs Taught Me About Love, Loss, and Resilience

Transcript

The Dogs Who Heal Us: What Susan Hartzler's Life With Therapy Dogs Taught Me About Love, Loss, and Resilience · Every Pawprint! Every Story!

• 0:02
  SPEAKER_01: Hello everyone.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_01: Good afternoon, good morning, depending on where you are today.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_01: I am your host, Dan Popovic.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to another episode of Every Paw Print, Every Story, where we invite family, friends in, and amazing guests like we're about to have today.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_01: That we just talk about pets, you know, pets in our lives, how they've inspired us, how they supported us, what we've learned from them.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_01: So enough about that, and just really quickly hopping into it today.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_01: Susan, I'm I'm not even gonna see Northern California.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_01: Close to well, close to Malibu.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_01: Malibu's not Northern California, is it?
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, Southern California.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_01: So see, there you go.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_01: But Susan, welcome to the show.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for being here today.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for having me.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: My last name is Hartzler like a heart.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: Love it.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 0:47
  unknown: Yes.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_01: So we got Susan Hartzler from Southern California.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_01: See, and I'm not even gonna, I'm not even gonna try to say.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna I'm gonna mess it up.
• 0:55
  unknown: That's okay.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um but as we jump into it, thanks.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_01: Excited to have you here.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_01: I think the guests will be excited to hear your story.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_01: Feels like you got a lot to talk about, a lot going on.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but maybe let's start with the the picture behind you.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_01: Who is that behind you?
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_01: What's their name?
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, this is my boy Seven.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: He's a rescue Australian Shepherd.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: He was a show dog, and he came with the name Seven.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: The breeder didn't want to show him anymore because he had developed a red undercoat.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: But you know what?
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: He has such a good life now.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: So um I tried all these different names, but nothing was really sticking.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: He was already 10 months old, and then I've counted up the number of dogs in my life.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: He's my seventh dog.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: So I said, okay, you're seven.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: So I call him Sevy most of the time, though.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: So he's a sweetheart.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: He's 12 years old now, though, which makes me a little nervous, but right.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: And and he's the only one at the moment.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: So you've got one or do you have others?
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: No, I have three.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I have seven, and then I have Rosie, who's another um rescue Aussie, and she's 13.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: I call her cousin Rosie because uh I I used to work for Aussie Rescue Southern California.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: So I got this call, I don't know, 12 years ago.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: You got to go pick up this Aussie.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: She's living with another dog that's trying to kill her.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: So they kept this with this baby Aussie in a crate.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: She was already five months old, which you can't do with Aussies.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: They need room, they need activity, they need attention.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: So I went running to Simi Valley, picked her up, brought her home.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I was taking care of this uh golden retriever, Elvis, at the time.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: And um, and so I thought it'd be so funny to take when I took him back home to choose her instead.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I wasn't gonna keep her, I was gonna find her a home, but I didn't think these people would want her.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: They were an older couple.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: So I go to the door, I'm all like laughing with Rosie.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Here's your dog.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: And the woman goes, Really?
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: Can we have her?
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, Oh, okay.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: And she walked right in the door, jumped into the man's lap, and that was it.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: She actually became Elvis's dog.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: Elvis loved her, and he was one of those dogs that needed a second dog.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: So it worked out really well.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: So that's Rosie.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: And then um, I got an Australian Shepherd as a gift.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: Let's see, she's seven, so seven years ago.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and uh, because I'm a writer and I'm an author, I named her Paige Turner.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: So she's my Paige Turner, but it's also the Paige is the nick the middle name of my goddaughter, and Paige Turner is a drag queen.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: So she's a combination of my goddaughter and a drag queen, which is exactly her personality.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_01: I was just about to ask you about that.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_01: The person, well, yeah, what's the personality like?
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's funny.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: She's a lot, she's just you know, she does that, but they all do uh therapy dog work.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: So she is just like she loves it, she's made for it.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: Seven likes it.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: Seven, you know, he's he's not as enthusiastic as her.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: She's very enthusiastic.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: She's like, everybody say hi to me.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_01: So they all do therapy work.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: We go to uh so I started therapy work in uh uh 2000 with my with my rescue dog who was a poolie, his name was uh uh Baldwin.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: So I started with Baldwin and we I lived in LA at the time and we went to County USC.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: So then when I moved up here and got seven up to uh Ventura and I got seven, he didn't like the hospital.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: Some dogs they just you know, he didn't like the smell or something.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: He just did, he he kind of, you know, shut down when we went there.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: But he loves the high school.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I found uh the local high school very close to me has the largest um special needs kids, the largest amount in the area.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: And he is just he loves those kids.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: So he's got these two girls who are both autistic, one talks and the other one is really quiet, and he walks in and he sits in between them, and they're just like the one talking and he's listening, the other one and he's it's just they just know what to do.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's amazing if you get them in the right environment.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: And each dog is different.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: That's very cool.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: So uh okay, so that one's with with the high school's special needs.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um, that's really cool.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_01: Then the other ones are are with the hospitals.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: No, um, I take I take them all to the high schools now.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: So actually, Rosie doesn't go anymore because she's 13.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: She's so she's coming to the end of her life.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: Her owner died five days after Elvis died a couple years ago.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: So I got Rosie back with me.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: So that's how cousin Rosie became part of the pack.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, she always was.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: I took care of her all the time, so but now she's mine full time, and she's just having trouble.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: She's um her back legs don't work very well.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, she has trouble walking, but you know, she still has that light in her eye.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I just wrote a sub stack about this.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: I would tell people all the time, they'd say, How do you know when it's time?
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, You'll know.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: And now that I'm facing it, I'm like, I have no idea how to.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's hard.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's hard.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_01: No, I'm I'm with you.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_01: It's interesting you mentioned that, so it's very relatable to you because we've I've got a uh he's a little over 11 years old Doberman.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_01: And they don't typically they don't typically make it past 10.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um and to your point, yeah, he's 100 pounds and he falls a lot.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: I have to pick him up constantly.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_01: But as you but you look at his eyes and his face, he's there.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_01: He's like, man, I'm I'm here.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_01: He's I I feel like we'll get a couple more years out of him.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_01: At least I'm praying for that, but his body just isn't quite there.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_01: And it's you gotta you can only do what you you do what you can do to kind of just keep keep them juggling along, right?
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: Rosie's doing this thing where she only will eat if I hand feed her.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: But it's not that she's lost her appetite, and I know some dogs do when they get older, and sometimes that's a tell that it's time, right?
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: But and but the vet can give you something to bring their appetite back, but we don't need that with Rosie because it's just she won't eat her food, she wants rice pudding, bread, hot dogs, hamburgers, french fries.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: She loves French fries.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, wow.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, at 13, I just try to give her whatever she'll eat, you know.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: I try to try to hide a little bit of the good food in there for her.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: But um, you know, she just and and she wants me to feed her by hand.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: That's her big thing.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_01: So that's awesome.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um is there a specific type of French fries she likes, like from McDonald's or somewhere else, or not really?
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: All of them, and she even likes um sweet potato fries, which I feel like are a little bit better.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: So I have a air cooker, so I try to make them a little healthier for her.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_01: Hence the no McDonald's French fries, because that's far from it.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: But it's funny because you know, anytime I give her the rice pudding or something, seven and page turner like, we want some rice pudding.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: No, you guys, you don't need it right now.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: I thought of rice pudding because it at least has rice in it, you know.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_01: I just I'm trying to think of and she loves it, so well, I yeah, the sweet potato fries, I mean, I love I love sweet potato fries too.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um I I don't know a ton about the breed.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_01: What's kind of the typical lifespan?
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: Usually 12, 12 to 13.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_01: Fast you're right at it.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so seven's 12, but you know, he looks great.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: He's not having the problems that she's I mean, he's not he's slowed down a lot, and he doesn't really want to go on car rides anymore, he just wants to lay in bed and be cuddled, which is fine too.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: So, but he goes to the park every day.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: Rosie, I can't get in the car anymore because it's just it's too much for her.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's just too much.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: She needs to stay home and right, right.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: Now when we walks.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_01: Now, when they were younger, did they love car rides?
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: Oh they, you know, they're I take my dogs everywhere.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm one of those annoying people.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: And um, you know, it's kind of hard when you got two, and then I ended up with three, and I was taking them everywhere.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: Because I especially this time of year, I love to take them into stores and try Halloween or uh Christmas hats.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: I used to buy all of them, but now I just put them on and take pictures.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_01: Love it.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: They kind of go, okay, here she goes again.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_01: They're they're just appeasing you, right?
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_01: It's like, oh man, seriously.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: But you know what's funny?
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: Everywhere I took them, like nobody told me get out or or got mad at me for three dollars.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: They're very well trained, so people love seeing them too.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: And that you know, especially kids, they'll um they do their therapy work everywhere.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: I can't even tell you how many kids have pictures of them with them.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: So we go anywhere.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: I say, You want to get a picture with them?
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_01: So that's awesome.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: And also, you'll like this.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: Seven is running for president.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, so I give the kids stickers, and so his campaign slogan is a home for every dog and a bone for every dog.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, and he's gonna build a wall to keep the fleas out, and the fleas are gonna pay for it.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh, I love it.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_01: All right, sign me up, sign me up on that campaign ballot.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's awesome.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: Right, so I have a lot of fun with them, they're just great dogs.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: You know, Aussies are really, really smart.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: Dilbermans are too.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but aussies are really, really smart.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: They say they have like a they're they're very much like a toddler.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: So if you can imagine a toddler in the dog in a dog body, you know, they're just on the go all the time and very smart and picking up everything that you're saying, and they're a lot of fun.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_01: Do they challenge and test you?
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: You kidding me?
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: All the time, especially Paige Turner.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: She just she just wants to go and go and go, and she has to slow down for all of us older people.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_01: So now, in uh you mentioned before we started the podcast being, you know, Malibu close to the beach.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_01: That sounds like there's got to be some fun beach stories with them when they were young.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_01: But did they love going to the beach, the water, or did they hate it?
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: They loved going to the beach, and we went a lot.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: The only problem is they're you know, they bring all the sand back into your house.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're fine with sleeping in sand, because I let my dog sleep in bed with me, then it's okay.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: But they don't like to be, it's funny, they love to go to the beach, they love to get into the water, but they don't like to be hosed down after.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: Forget that.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's hilarious.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_01: Interesting.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: So so it's it's fun.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: I I still take them, I still take seven.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, Rosie, I wouldn't take to the beach, it's too hard for her to walk in the sand.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, we we've spent a lot of great days out on the water.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_01: And so that, yeah, because I was gonna say, you so they go into the ocean with no issues because you've got some decent waves over there versus like the golf where the you barely have any waves on the golf, so they don't mind the large crashing waves.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: Or I before I take them to the beach, I always check the waves, I always check the tide.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: Like if it's big waves, I won't take them there.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: And then I also found a place that's um like a cove.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: So it's they call it uh mother's beach because a lot of mothers take their kids there, so it doesn't have waves because it's just you know, it has it has ripples, but not waves.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: So if it is high tide or something, I'll I'll just go there.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, very cool.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then okay, so seventh.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_01: So obviously you've got three now.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_01: There were four prior.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um Baldwin was one of them.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_01: Did I get that right?
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: Well, let's see.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: I had Baldwin.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: When I had Baldwin, I got my first Australian Shepherd, uh, who is named Bliss.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: So those two uh are long gone, unfortunately.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: I miss them every day.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you know, you put so much work into your dogs and so much, they give you so much back and so much love.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's just no dog can take the place of another dog.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: They can help you though.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: That's why I always have one and a younger one, because it's so much pain that I think if I didn't have another dog, I wouldn't get another dog, so it'd be too much pain.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: So I like to have an older one and a younger one.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: So I still can have that love around me.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: I've just been a dog nut since I was a little kid.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: My first dog was a Chihuahua terrier mutt named Siesta.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: And um just like now, she went everywhere with me.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: And um, she'd ride in a little backpack in when I'd ride my bike, and we went to our riding down the street, and a car stopped and backed up, and they said, Is that a possum?
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_01: It's funny.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: So she was my little little shadow.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: So that's where I really developed this love of dogs.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, in some ways, I'd rather spend time with dogs than people, although you seem like a very nice person, but you know, they're just so clear, they're so loving, they're so drama-free.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, page is a lot of drama, I take that back, especially if there's squirrels around, but you know, it's the simple thing.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_01: So, all right.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_01: So, all pretty much the majority of your life you've had a pet, is what it sounds like.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: So that yes, you've got this saga as an adult was named Blondie, and she was inspiration for my first book, I'm not single.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: I have a dog dating tales from the bark side.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_01: Love it.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: So this book basically takes you through when I got her, takes you through her whole life.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: It also has when I got Baldwin after she died.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: So um it's it's a it's fun and it's also heartbreaking.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: So it's it's not as light as the title would suggest, but um, I've had people tell me that they couldn't put it down.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: So as a writer, which you are too, there's no better compliment than that.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_01: Right, right.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_01: So, no, that's awesome.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so we'll definitely for the for the listeners of this, we'll definitely make sure we've got links to that.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_01: I know there's more for you to share or talk about.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um I do, I guess the question I'm trying to think to ask, you kind of touched on it, was what was what inspired you to write the book?
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: Well, okay, so I'm now see, I wrote the book when I was 50.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't get it published till I was 60.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: So it took me that long to get a publisher.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: That's a whole other story, which I have a substack on it.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: But um I thought, you know, I at 50, I'd never gotten married.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm in the age group where, you know, all my friends are married with kids and you know, their husbands work and they don't, they're lucky.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um and um I always felt like there was something wrong with me because I I mean, I'm glad I never married the guys that I liked because it would have been a disaster.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: So I realized I have a bad picker.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: I just don't, I just pick the worst possible partner.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: So I I thought I got to thinking when I got 50, I said, I can't be the only one.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: There's gotta be other people that have this issue.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna write a book about it.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: So, first it was gonna be just this fun book, but as I got into it, kind of like the babysitter club, just a funny throwaway book.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: As I got into it, I thought, you know what, if I'm gonna write this, I have to be honest.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: So uh in it is about an abusive relationship I was involved in and some scary stuff that happened with that, and how Blondie helped me defend myself to terms with that.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: So it's um, and and who knew?
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: I was starting a whole movement.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, young women these days are deciding not to get married.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I am an example of you don't have to get married to lead a full life.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it may look different, but it's I'm just as busy, just as uh as productive as a a mother or a wife.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: So, but I just have dogs, that's what I do, and also this is the great thing.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: So I started doing therapy dog work around that time, and um, if I had had children of my own, I wouldn't necessarily be able to have the time to take the dogs to visit the kids in need.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: So that helped me come to terms with it.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_01: Powerful.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_01: And you touched on something you mentioned in how Blondie helped you through your your the the situation.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's pretty powerful.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_01: How did she talk a little bit about how did she help you?
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_01: How did she help guide you through it?
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: So what I found now is that a lot of abusers will abuse uh victims' pets.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: So it could even start with that.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: And unfortunately, a lot of um, I mean, I was lucky, I had a friend that said, come move in here and bring your dog.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: So there was like, I didn't have to worry about that.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: But a lot of the places that that women can go don't allow their pets.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_00: They're starting to change though, because abusers will sometimes use the pet.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: So he started abusing Blondie.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: And one time he did it in front of me, and I actually hit him.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: Got him to stop, got him to drop her.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: And that was it.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: You know, when I saw it, when I saw what it was, what he was doing to someone I loved, that was it.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: That was the the final line.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, no more, you're gonna change.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: And also in the book, I I went into therapy and I talk about the cycle of violence because what happens, people think, you know, oh, this happened to her, why would she go back to him?
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's a it's not it's not that, it's not black and white.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: It's you know, you get together with someone for their good parts, and everybody has good parts.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: But um, you know, mine happened to be an alcoholic, and you know, there were times where he'd be going to AA and taking care of himself, and I'd be going to Al-Anon, but then there were times where he wouldn't, and it wasn't pretty.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: So I I had to get myself out of the situation, and I did for Blondie, really.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_01: Almost sounds like Blondie might have been an anchor in your life.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: She was an anchor.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: She was.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_01: Uh now uh I'm curious, it's always a challenging question to ask, or even a more probably a more challenging question to answer, you know, with seven of them.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and it might you the answer might be all of them.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I've had folks on the show that talk about their heart dog or their their you know their soulmate.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_01: Do you feel that she was, or somebody else, or all of them?
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: I've heard that too.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: And here's here's my take on that.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_00: So my life has gone through so many twists and turns.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: She was my anchor and my soulmate then.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: Then I got Baldwin.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: He helped, I was uh my life changed dramatically.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: I went from um this fancy PR job where I was traveling the world to moving back to the family home and caring for my father.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_00: And Baldwin helped me with that.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: He was definitely my soul dog.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: Then Bliss came into my life.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: She was an actress and a model.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: We were living in LA at the time, and we went to this event, and a woman came up, she said, I have an agency and we want to um we want to represent your dog.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: I said, I'm sure you do.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's just like, of course.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: So she became an actress and a model, and she did a lot of commercials and stuff.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: So that was a whole other thing.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: You know, she got me outside, she got me doing things, you know, and then came Seven, who's just a little cuddle bug, and that's what I need then.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: So they all kind of come at a time, and I can't really say one is my favorite.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_00: They're my favorite for that time.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_00: And they bring me the next dog.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I see so many things from Bliss in Paige Turner.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's just like Paige Turner Center.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I was almost gonna go that route.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_01: Like you said, you yeah, okay, that's very cool.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um, no, that that's awesome.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_01: And then gosh, you showed one book.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like you've got more to the story.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: So I just talked about Baldwin.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: This is his picture.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_00: He was so cute.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: He was a rescue pulley, which is a Hungarian sheepdog.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: But he had his own, they're usually the ones with the long dreadlocks, but I would shave him and put a peace sign on his rump.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_00: He was the peace.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: So this book is about the three years I spent caring for my dad.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_00: And it he had Parkinson's, and um he also he had a kind of Parkinson's where they have Alzheimer's-like symptoms.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: So the book has a lot of it, it is a memoir, but it has a lot of information for anyone taking care of their parents or wanting direction and what to do with this or that.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, I tried to make it informative too, how to do things.
• 23:38
  unknown: Okay.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: And then my latest book is Teaming Up with Therapy Dogs.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, very cool.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: Skills to Build Healing Partnerships.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: So this um it has about 10 of the national organizations.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: It has what, you know, what you need to teach your dog to become a therapy dog, what to look for.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: And not every dog is going to be a therapy dog.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: And that's fine.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_00: That's fine.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: So um, you know, and also not every dog wants to go to the hospital.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: You have to find where your dog wants to go.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_00: The biggest thing about this book, though, is that it's a team.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: So you're part of the therapy dog team.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: You have a part with this whole thing.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_00: So that's what I tried to stress.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I did the history.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's interesting.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, Freud had the first therapy dog, his dog Joffrey, I think its name was.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_00: And he used to bring Joffrey into his uh therapy.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_00: So before there was even talk about that.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: And then the first real therapy dog is a dog that they found in World War II.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: And he was just a little dog.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: Smokey was his name.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: And um, he became known as the first therapy dog.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_00: He he helped during the war, he helped after the war.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_00: So it's it's very interesting.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_00: Then I have 10 stories from other therapy dog teams.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_01: Interesting, very cool.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_01: No, yeah, we'll definitely make sure we share the links to all of these books.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_01: Feels so, yeah, that's amazing.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_01: Feels so inspired from from having the pets in your lives that kind of they're my muses, yeah.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_01: Perfect.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I was trying to figure out the right way to frame that or say it.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_01: You you you you hit it spot on.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um and then I love the therapy dog stuff.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_01: So that yeah, the hospitals, the the uh high schools, like you talked about.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_01: Um what else what else feels like you got more going on?
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, do you uh do you also guide, advice, you know, provide folks advice on doing some of these things?
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_01: You know, how to how to I know it sounds like it's in your book on how to, you know, approach do you have a dog that is right for therapy?
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_01: I I know one of my I know one of mine I would say no, she's pretty crazy, but so am I.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_00: But you know what's so crazy?
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_00: Crazy, really crazy.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Paige Turner's crazy, but when she gets into the work, I I don't know how they know, but they like they calm down, they're like, I'm doing this job.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's a good point.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_00: I call it a doggy sixth sense.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_00: So don't don't give up on her from that.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_00: So my the thing I'm doing right now is my Substack.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_00: And the paid portion of my Substack, I s because I I've been you know working in therapy dogs for almost 30 years now.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_00: And um I've really seen how the health benefits, I've seen it firsthand, I've witnessed it.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: So uh I thought, wouldn't it be interesting rather than just accidentally petting a dog and your heart rate slows and you know you feel better and blah, blah, blah.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: Wouldn't it be interesting to have some type of rituals or meditations where you purposely tap into that energy?
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: So I started this sit with me, um, which I do two to three times a month.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know, hours or meditations that you do with your dog to tap into their natural healing benefits.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't know what this is either, but dogs love meditation.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're a meditator and you sit down and meditate, don't be surprised if your dog comes around like, huh.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: They just they just like it.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_00: Most of them.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, that's fascinating.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I love what you said a minute ago too on on the sense, because you're right, they have a sixth sense or whatever you want to call it that is hard to understand because we don't quite have it.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_01: And you, yeah, I've seen that firsthand with like uh uh Marley, who is the inspiration behind the first book that I published, but it was more of that safety sense where you and I wouldn't recognize harm.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_01: Not maybe harm might not be the right word, but harm from an individual, but she's sensing that hey, this this person doesn't, there's not something right, so I need to be here next to you to make sure everything is okay.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um there was another example, it just totally slipped my mind, darn it.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_00: Uh on the you know, just just the sense of that's so interesting because I've heard other people say that.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure my dogs would be such a good judge of character, especially Paige.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_00: She loves everybody.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_00: And then I saw, so I love it hearing stuff from other people because they have a sixth sense in them, they know what people need.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but um, you know, I saw this Instagram thing where there was some guy robbing a house and he actually took a nap at the house and he had a golden, and the golden kept bringing him toys.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_01: That's funny.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that is a really special dog.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_00: If you have a dog that does that, that's and you can't you can't go.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_00: I want a dog that does this and teach him.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's just something they do.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um, well, that's yeah, she yeah, that's hence the book, right?
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_01: As you, you know, she was the the loss of her had a profound impact on me that I didn't expect or see happening.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_01: So um that's it was yeah, it's and it's inspired as as sounds like you've got inspired to kind of do more, but then you know, talk with folks like you, and it's just um the the love for pets, like you said, it's it's the the mental benefit, the mental health benefits that you really truly, and it sounds like that's that sounds it feels like that's where you've really narrowed in on real you know, we know we get physical benefits from them, but right talk about talk about like I know we're getting close to time and I hate because we can't keep going a lot longer with this, but talk about some of the mental health benefits that you've gotten from having pets in your life, but then how you've seen them impact others.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, it's just it's so there's too many stories to tell when we're nearing the end.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, maybe we should do another one just telling those stories, but I have to say, like, um, I'll give you one example.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_00: When I was caretaking for my dad the last three years of his life with Alzheimer's like issues, uh, sometimes I would just be like, you know, because he just wouldn't understand stuff.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_00: And it wasn't the same person, it wasn't my dad anymore.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I would just look at Baldwin and I'd go, let's go on a walk.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_00: And we'd just walk and I'd come back, I'd you know, I'd take in the fresh air, I'd walk with him, he'd do something funny, make me laugh, and then I could take it on again.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_00: So again, it's just just being with them can help you with your mental health, definitely, definitely.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, taking a break from humans sometimes is a necessary thing.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_01: No, that's that's awesome.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_01: But um, yeah, I think to your point, we'll we'll definitely do another one.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_01: Pull you, you know, bring you back and talk more about yeah, the the mental health benefits that you know, human animal bond as you so eloquently you've got so involved and encapsulated in your in your life.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so I definitely want to bring you back and talk more about those stories.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_01: But um, yeah, as as we come to an end, um, I mean, any like parting advice that you give, you know, families with pets?
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_00: I think two things.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_00: One is accept the love that they have to give and give them the love that they deserve.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_01: Love it.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_01: That's a great way to end.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_01: I've said that.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_00: That was good.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_01: No, that was that was perfect.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_01: And I haven't nobody's I haven't had that before.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_01: So that was spot on and perfect.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_01: And don't go anywhere just yet.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_01: But okay, um, yeah, thanks for being on the show today.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_01: We'll definitely get you back in to talk about more of the mental health benefit stories.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_01: And we will definitely, for the listeners of the show, we will definitely make sure um to send out uh links to Susan's book so you can find out more about her, your Substack articles.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_01: So make sure y'all listening look in the there was my Southern Twain, y'all.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_01: I love it.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_01: Look look at the notes in the in the podcast section, but then uh the article that's going to come out with here, so you can find more and learn about Susan.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_01: So, Susan, again, like I said, don't go anywhere just yet, but thank you for uh being on the show today.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much.