My Story

I have waited almost two years to write this page.

Mostly because talking about myself has never come naturally to me. I grew up believing that talking about yourself was a little boastful. Maybe that's a Gen X thing. Maybe it's just me. Either way, I'd much rather talk about dogs.

But if we're going to work together, I think it's only fair that you know a little more about the person behind Intrinsic K9.

I've loved animals for as long as I can remember. Cliche', I know. But it is true.

Before I realized I was going to be too big to be a jockey (I was about eight...and I really like tacos), becoming a veterinarian was the only career I ever seriously considered. Looking back, that probably wasn't much of a surprise. The animals I've been fortunate enough to share my life with have shaped me in ways I probably didn't appreciate at the time.

Everything changed during my senior year of high school.

One of our assignments was to interview people working in the profession we hoped to enter. I interviewed several veterinarians expecting encouragement. Instead, every one of them told me the same thing. If they could choose again, they would.

Not because they didn't love animals.

Because they had seen what people were capable of doing to them.

The words they actually used were much more colorful but you get my meaning.

Knowing myself well enough to realize that would break my heart and possibly not end well for the wrongdoers too, I decided to follow my second passion instead: oceanography.

I joined the United States Coast Guard with plans to attend the Coast Guard Academy and study oceanography. During my short military enlistment, I met a young Navy sailor named John.

Somewhere along the way, I realized what I now wanted was not what I had planned. I chose my husband over the Academy, and I've never regretted that decision for a second.

Becoming a Navy wife meant our life would be measured in duty stations and each move was a new adventure.

Military life has a funny way of taking you places you never expected.

One summer, I worked in the Zoo Department at Busch Gardens Williamsburg.

Translation?

I got to work with the freakin' Budweiser Clydesdales!

To say I loved that job would be an understatement.

Our next duty station took us to Charleston, South Carolina, where I cared for carriage horses while training as a veterinary assistant. It finally felt like I was finding my way into the animal world.

Next was Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. At last my second love, the ocean, was my playground. Scuba diving with my husband in those pristine waters is permanently etched in my mind.

Then life changed again and motherhood arrived.

Over the next several years, my husband's injury forced him to leave the Navy he so loved and we returned to the East Coast near his family and new career opportunities. Here, I had the privilege of homeschooling all four of our children through high school graduation. That was one of the most difficult and greatest adventures of my life, and one I wouldn't trade for anything.

If you've read this far, you've probably noticed a pattern.

Very little of my life has gone according to plan. I don't see this as a bad thing.

I've been to Camp Couldashouldawoulda.

Trust me...it isn't worth the trip.

Professional grooming wasn't part of the plan either.

A friend of mine owned a grooming salon and offered me a job as a bather.

By this time, my children were grown (I mean...technically), and it sounded like a great opportunity to work with dogs, so I said yes.

A short time later, she needed surgery. Worried about her clients and the future of her business, she asked if I would learn to groom while she recovered.

So...I did.

That unexpected opportunity became a career I never saw coming.

As a groomer, I began seeing the same dogs every few weeks. I noticed patterns. I saw skin problems return over and over. I watched coats improve—or not. It became obvious that there was often much more going on than what I could see on the surface.

Parallel to all this, my interest in canine nutrition actually started a few years before I ever picked up a pair of grooming shears.

Like many dog owners, I simply wanted to give my own dogs the healthiest lives I could. I found most commercially available stuff wasn't what I wanted for my dogs. That led me down the rabbit hole of making my dogs' food myself, and eventually to feeding a raw diet. There wasn't nearly as much information available then as there is today, so I spent countless hours reading, researching, comparing, and learning from people who had been successfully feeding dogs that way for decades.

The results spoke for themselves. Actually, they shouted.

I watched my own dogs thrive.

One of them, my Newfoundland, lived to be fifteen and a half years old! (That is a very admirable age for that breed.)

I don't believe nutrition is magic, and I certainly don't think it's the whole answer to every problem. But seeing the difference it made in my own dogs convinced me that nutrition deserved to be taken seriously.

Eventually, I decided to pursue formal education and became a Certified Advanced Canine Nutrition Specialist.

I expected to learn a tremendous amount—and I did.

What surprised me was discovering that much of what I'd pieced together through years of research, observation, and, honestly, instinct, was supported by the science I was studying.

That wasn't validation because I needed to be right.

It was reassurance that I had been asking the right questions all along.

And I haven't stopped asking them.

The more I learned, the more everything started connecting. Nutrition affects skin. Skin reflects health. Grooming lets me see changes many owners don't notice. Dermacare allows me to help dogs feel more comfortable while we work toward long-term improvement.

Looking back, none of those twists and turns seem random anymore.

Each one taught me something I needed to learn, something necessary for Intrinsic K9 to be what it is.

One of the promises I've made to myself—and secretly, to every family I work with—is that I'll never stop learning. Every dog teaches me something. Every client brings a different story. There is always more to learn, and I think that's one of the things I love most about this work. I'm always reading, studying, attending classes, and looking for better ways to help the dogs that find their way to me.

Because the day I think I know everything...

...is the day I stop being the person I want caring for someone else's dog.

I have always said that,"I don't know." is a perfectly acceptable answer as long as it is quickly followed by, "But we're going to find out."

I don't have all the answers, and I will tell you when I don't.

But I also won't stop until I find them.

Maybe that's why I approach every dog the way I do. I don't assume I already know the answer. Every dog deserves to be looked at with fresh eyes, an open mind, and a willingness to keep asking questions until the pieces begin to fit.

Remember those veterinarians who warned me about awful people?

Funny enough...

I haven't met very many awful people.

Instead, I meet people who lose sleep over their dogs. People who cook special meals, learn entirely new ways of feeding, rearrange their schedules, spend more money than they ever expected, and worry because they love their best friend with all their heart.

The people who find their way to Intrinsic K9 all seem to have one thing in common: they love their dogs deeply. Just like I do.

Those are my people.

Those are the people I get to work with.

And honestly...

I think I'm pretty lucky.

Looking back, I really should have seen this coming.

I realize now, the dogs in my life have marked the chapters far better than the places I've lived or the jobs I've had.

Each one left something with me.

What I do today is simply my way of giving a little of that back.

I believe they deserve our very best.