I spent more than a decade loving a very large, very opinionated German Shepherd named Ruta through epilepsy, severe allergies, endless medication schedules, and his senior years, so “high-maintenance” pets don’t scare me. I tend to love them even harder. These days I’m supervised by Edwin, my mini Aussie rescue, who has strong opinions about other dogs, delivery trucks, and apparently several completely innocent squirrels. Living with him has made me very comfortable with boundaries, reactivity, slow introductions, and the fact that not every dog wants to be everybody’s friend. I’m also the person who genuinely wants the six-paragraph document explaining exactly how your dog likes breakfast. Give me the quirks, the routines, the medications, the weird little rules, the favorite toy, the thing they absolutely will not do unless you ask them in a very specific way. I want to know all of it. Basically: I take your pet seriously without taking myself too seriously. And yes, I will probably send you too many pictures.