What’s With All the Dogs?

If you follow me on Instagram or you’ve taken a cursory glance around my website you’re probably asking yourself one or more of the following questions:

1)      Is this woman mentally stable?

2)      How many dogs actually live at her house at any one time?

3)      Why does she make so many dogs out of ceramics?

4) What can I do in my own life to either avoid or obtain this fate?!

Luckily, I do have some answers for you.

1)      Let’s not unpack this one for now.

2)      This is a bit complicated, but long story short – personally, I have 4 resident dogs that live with me all the time. So 4 is the bare minimum number of dogs I have in my home at any one moment. Typically, I usually have more like 5 or 6 unless I am fostering a litter of puppies then that number can easily climb to 10 or higher. No, we don’t need to circle back to question #1 ok!!!

3) My work in rescue and a lot of the people in my life I surround myself with are dog people. I’ve made several commissions of specific dogs and would be happy doing that forever. But most importantly, I just really like them! There is such a variety of dogs out there, there really is something for everyone. I’m particularly partial to the shapes of “ancient” (is that the right word?) breeds like the Mexican Xolo or the Egyptian Pharaoh Hound. You will see a lot of Mexican influences in my work actually but that’s a discussion for another day.

4)      Avoiding this fate is easy. Just don’t adopt or foster dogs, maybe consider living with someone who is allergic if you don’t trust yourself not to start collecting like me. Obtaining this fate on the other hand, well I have some ideas!

Our home is very dedicated to fostering animals. We just welcomed our 100th foster, she is in the picture of this post – a 6 month old shy border collie X named Whiz.

I always always always recommend fostering to people when anyone is considering adopting a dog or just wanting to help. It saves lives and it’s a really great way to give potential forever dogs a test run in your home. People often ask if I get sad when it comes time to see them off to their forever homes. More often than not I’m happy to see them go to a loving family who is a better match for them than I’ll ever be. Plus, then I get to go shopping for my next victim – it’s a win win!

If you live in the Calgary area and are interested in fostering come and join me at Pawsitive Match Rescue Foundation, I promise it will never be boring!