I've spent time with dogs and cats ever since I can remember.. walking my grandma's dogs and her neighbors dogs, learning to watch for signs of fear, aggression and anxiety, were just a few of the things I always found interesting and important. I've had cats for many years, usually adopting the ones my mom and I had been volunteering with. When I was a senior in high school, I even won an achievement for my vet academy class, where I learned to do a full body exam on dogs, check their body condition score, bathe them, clip their nails and gain a broad understanding of different zoonotic diseases that could be passed both canine to canine and canine to human. Before that, I volunteered almost every Sunday for two years at an animal rescue for dogs, including puppies and older dogs, some with abusive histories and PTSD.