My blogs

Joy of Puppies

For Chameleons101

About me

Location	CA
Introduction	I’ve loved dogs forever, and at 16, my mother's friend gave us a tiny mixed-breed puppy. He was the runt of the litter and wasn't being fed by his mom. I bottle-fed that little pup every 2 hours and kept him clean. He lived to be my friend for 17 years. Later, I got a beautiful pedigreed Australian Shepherd, but with the stipulation that we have a litter before spaying her. So, we had a litter of 7 fantastic babies...and a crash course on raising very young pups. Today, I volunteer for Tony LaRussa's Animal Rescue Foundation (ARF) www.arf.net, a wonderful no-kill rescue organization. I get young puppies, sometimes with their moms, to raise and train until they’re old enough to be weaned, spayed or neutered & adopted. This lets me work with pups from extremely diverse breedlines, with different physical, genetic and emotional backgrounds…helping me see and understand unique traits and capabilities. I have a degree in Comparative Psychology from UC Berkeley, where I helped run detailed studies in behavior, followed by graduate work at the University of Hawaii, focused on large-brain animals and their capacity to learn. But mostly, I am just a ‘Puppy-mom.’

Location

Introduction

I’ve loved dogs forever, and at 16, my mother's friend gave us a tiny mixed-breed puppy. He was the runt of the litter and wasn't being fed by his mom. I bottle-fed that little pup every 2 hours and kept him clean. He lived to be my friend for 17 years. Later, I got a beautiful pedigreed Australian Shepherd, but with the stipulation that we have a litter before spaying her. So, we had a litter of 7 fantastic babies...and a crash course on raising very young pups. Today, I volunteer for Tony LaRussa's Animal Rescue Foundation (ARF) www.arf.net, a wonderful no-kill rescue organization. I get young puppies, sometimes with their moms, to raise and train until they’re old enough to be weaned, spayed or neutered & adopted. This lets me work with pups from extremely diverse breedlines, with different physical, genetic and emotional backgrounds…helping me see and understand unique traits and capabilities. I have a degree in Comparative Psychology from UC Berkeley, where I helped run detailed studies in behavior, followed by graduate work at the University of Hawaii, focused on large-brain animals and their capacity to learn. But mostly, I am just a ‘Puppy-mom.’