This is my poor excuse for an “About Me” page.

I landed on this planet sometime between the emergence of Elvis and the Beatles, a baby that wasn’t supposed to be. My mom didn’t believe the medical community, which may have imparted in me a general trend to question what everyone else says is normal.

Due to the condition that the doctors said meant my mom could never have children, I grew up as an only child, blessed to be treasured by two of the most wonderful human beings who ever walked the earth.

The animal rule in our house was “one pet”, and my own One, Percy (a sandy-tiger tuxedo cat who followed me everywhere), sparked in me a lifetime devotion to my non-human friends.  I made up for this “one pet rule” as soon as I was old enough to figure out that I could befriend animals owned by other families, too.

From my 4-H days to my college animal science major, I delighted in learning all I could about the animals that surrounded me. I worked for vets, guide dog training schools, boarding kennels, Thoroughbred racehorse breeding farms, interpretive farm parks, professional pet sitting, and eventually found myself where I am today — helping people enrich their relationships with their own animal family members and friends.

It’s a calling that brings me joy every day of my life.

I believe my life-long experience of learning about and working with animals on the physical plane helps my work in many ways. This is why I focus strongly on the holistic approach to animal consultations. I feel that our animal friends are complicated individuals, rich in experience and emotion. They are a wonder of ancient instinct, and amazingly adaptable as they mold those deep stirrings to fit in with our human lives. It often takes a multi-faceted approach to truly understand them.

I now live in beautiful upstate New York, with my wonderful hubby of over thirty years. We have raised two amazing offspring, a daughter and a son, who are now adults I am proud to call my family and my friends. We are country folk, surrounded by wilderness and wildlife, and I can’t imagine ever living any other way.

I also love to write, and have a number of publications under my name (and am working on a few under another name as well). Some of my avocational interests are crocheting and knitting, photography, daylilies, and (coming back around to animals) wildlife rehabilitation. I am a New York State licensed wildlife rehabilitator, and have focused those efforts on raising baby songbirds for release, as an assistant to one of the top migratory bird rehabbers in the state.

Enough about me, though. It’s really all about the critters, after all.