Through a Dog’s Eyes – A Movie Review

The other day, my family and I watched a PBS Documentary that came out a couple of years ago.  It is called Through a Dog’s Eyes.

Oh – wow!  What an amazing journey this film takes you on.  It tells the story of three or four families dealing with disabilities and their experience in finding an assistance dog that will help them cope and live a more normal life.

The dogs in this film are incredible.  We all know how wonderful dogs are – but these guys are so special.  The film shows some of the extensive training that is required and the dogs’ reactions to the training, to meeting their potential person, and their life on their own with their new owners, out of the protection of their trainers.

The people who run the program are true heroes.  They love their work, take a personal approach with every single dog and every person as well – trying to find the perfect match for each situation.

The families receiving the dogs are so sweet and humble and hopeful that the dogs they are receiving are a blessing and a gift and that they will provide some independence and relief to their struggles.

The film is honest and it shows that it isn’t always rainbows and butterflies with finding the perfect match.  And sometimes, the dog you think is a match doesn’t end of working out.  But this film shows that there is always a potential when it comes to dogs. And isn’t that the case, always.

We watched this with our nine year old son, TJ and he really loved it too.  If you get a chance, I highly recommend it.

~Amy

PS – we watched it on Amazon Prime.

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When you make friends

Several years ago, as I was on an intro meeting with then new clients, Tim and Cathy – one of their cats – Willy – swooshed by me.  I was there to meet Willy and his two catmates, Tabitha and Missy.  Cathy told me as we saw Willy swooshing by “that’s probably the only time you’ll see Willy.”

And she was right – for a while.

The first few times I visited Willy, Missy and Tabitha – Missy and Willy were happy to hide under the bed or in a closet or behind a couch. I was happy with that, as long as I could find them – I didn’t pressure them to come out.

Time went by and after a series of vacations and visits, Willy started to wait for me on the stairs as I walked in the door.  But still, if I got too close – he would run.

Maybe after a year or so, the day came – Willy allowed me to get close enough for a sniff and a pet!  And then it was all down hill from there.

Soon, he was greeting me at the door, rubbing through my legs, waiting for a petting on each of my visits.

It was the highlight of my pet sitting career.

This past weekend I had a similar experience with a new client’s dog named Stanley.

Stanley is a mix breed, some pit in him – rescued.  He has some trust issues and he doesn’t care for men.  That’s OK – I’m not a man.

My first meeting with Stanley and his dogmate, Dobby went well.  His owners Patrick and Leslie told me how to approach Stanley and to only let him sniff me and to never pet him going in over his head, only under his chin.

Then they went away.  And Stanley was nervous and scared.  And he barked the whole time on the outside of the backdoor that he could get through from the doggie door.

That was last month.

This past weekend, I was charged with caring for Stanley and Dobby again (and their cats and birds too – my kind of house!).

And it started again – Stanley was nervous of me and barked the whole time.

But on the third day – maybe it was the cold, maybe he trusted me – he gave me a sniff as I was filling his water bowl.  I slowly  went over to a chair and he followed me – and he let me pet him.  And then he rested his head in my lap.

And it was Heaven.

The rest of the weekend was so wonderful – no more barking (I’m sure the neighbors appreciated that too).  Lots and lots of petting.  Lots of following me around, especially when I was feeding the cats and let him lick the can.

When you make friends with an easy pet – it is fabulous.  When you make friends with a nervous pet – – it is humbling.

~Amy

PS – I tried to get a picture of Stanley today to share – – but he’s still nervous about the camera.  We’ll work on that.  But trust me when I say – he’s a real beauty.

It’s good to be back…

Lots of things have changed since I wrote to my clients a few years ago, announcing I would have to close my pet sitting service.  Two really big changes have now enabled me to offer my services again and I’m so excited about this!

In the last few years, my boys have gotten older (kids tend to do that).  TJ is almost nine years old and will be in the fourth grade in the fall.  Joey turns five this summer and will be starting Kindergarten in September.  In addition, my husband, Tim, retired after 24 years in the Navy about a year and a half ago.

Other changes, we lost our three original dogs – Gussee, Kiyu and Chloe all within about eighteen months of each.  Once again, we’ve found ourselves with three new dogs – Jazime(13) and Murphy(9) are our two Corgis who we rescued about two years ago.  Jacob is our three-year old Australian Shepard.  They share the house with Turtle our cat – whom I would bet just might be the fattest cat in all of Kitsap County.  And how can I forget, Gunshot!  He’s our Guinea Pig who lives in TJ’s room.

I’ve done a little bit of pet sitting over the last couple of years for friends and neighbors and I continue to work part-time with PAWS of BI and NK.  My job with PAWS has me doing event planning and fundraising and one thing I’m learning is that I need to be more active; sitting behind a desk all day is torture for someone who loves to be outside!  Most importantly, I miss having my hands in the trenches so to speak.  I miss being around the animals.

I’m excited to be back pet sitting again and taking care of all the different animals and meeting different people.  I can’t wait to share my stories with you as I venture down this path again.

Until next time!

~Amy