March 2024 update: moved to Yuma from Massachusetts a little over a year ago. Love it so far. I grew up around pets. I had my first animal care job when i was 11 years old watching a friend's chicken coop. 43 years old now and still at it. I'm open to caring for a wide variety of animals. My skill isn't handling and training animals, although I can confidently say that I'm decent at these aspects of animal care. I feel my skill is centered in being able to coexist with a variety of animals and all the quirks animals come equipped with. The majority of my experience is with cats, dogs, chickens, and goats. I would love to add lizards or armadillos to my list. Since this is primarily a dog centric service, I will stay on the topic of dogs now. Dogs will tell you directly if they dislike you, or even if they don't like what you're doing in the moment. I have yet to encounter such a high level of genuineness elsewhere in my life. I didn't choose to be a dog person. Dogs chose me to be a dog person. They love me for some reason. I've learned more about myself from dogs than I've learned from most people, which is slightly amusing to me looking back. I wasn't always a dog person. In fact when I was a kid I had a few negative encounters with dogs. However, that was only natural as back then nobody cared about leash laws in my neighborhood. There was a particular German Shepherd on my paper route that didn't care for me. He ran at me one day and knocked me over. I was helpless on the ground so I just tried to stay really still. This dog sniffed me for a good ten minutes, then he went away. On a different occasion as a kid, I was playing squirt gun war in an unfamiliar neighborhood. I was running away from my friend and found myself in a backyard. Next thing I know, a dog is sprinting directly at me. He jumped and bit my shoulder. Luckily he didn't get me badly, and I was able to make a quick exit. The common thread was that I was encroaching, which is a no no with dogs. After those experiences, I was much more aware of my own behavior around dogs. Of course, I had numerous other positive experiences with neighborhood dogs during my early years, but I learned a lot about myself, dogs, and nature from these bad experiences. Fast forward to my early thirties and someone asked me if I would sit two German Shepherds that I had never met for an afternoon. I confidently accepted the offer. My friend, who usually sits these dogs, took me a few towns over. She introduced me to the dogs inside the house and told me the backyard was fenced in. She left us to hang out for the afternoon. After a little while sitting in the living room with the dogs they seemed nice. Then they wanted to go out back, so I let them out. I followed them onto the back porch and they did their thing for a few minutes. Then the female looked at me for five solid seconds, and barked at me. The male immediately ran up to me. I stood my ground. He inspected me with a sniff, and barked. He waited for the female to approach. Then she inspected me with a sniff. I stood my ground, but the inspection was not over. They began to circle me and bark at me. This lasted at least five minutes. It was quite the inspection, but I passed. Then they went back to the normal dog stuff like sniffing around the yard and rolling in the grass. We went inside and listened to music for the afternoon. The male took a little nap with his head in my lap. I was able to make this transition from being wary of dogs as a kid, to being confident enough to encroach on the backyard of two German Shepherds that didn't know me because of Benji, may he rest in peace. I first met Benji when he was a puppy at a friends house across town. He was a cute puppy. Light brown with white chest, chin and paws, ears that stood at attention, and a curly tail. His name was Rufus at the time. I didn't see him again until a few months later, at a different friends house. His name had changed to Benjamins, or Benjis and he had a new home, where he stayed until he was about two years old. The day came when my friend couldn't keep the dog. My brother took in the dog and he was the owner until the dog was about three years old. Benji, as my brother called him, was now a full grown, Pitt Bull and Chow Chow mix going through adolescents, and he was not fixed. The day came when my brother couldn't keep the dog. My father then became the fourth owner of this dog in three years. I was twenty two years old living at home when Benji came to stay with us. We had some really good times and some not so good times over many years. This dog taught me more about myself than anything else in my whole life. Loyalty. Instinct. Self control. Trust. Anger. Affection. The list goes on. Unfortunately, old age got the best of him. Nature took his eyesight from him and he became very defensive. We said goodbye to Benji. He was far from the best dog ever, but he was my friend for a long time. The things he taught me live on. Thanks for reading.