0:05

Hello , my friends and fellow animal

0:07

lovers , welcome to the Story

0:09

of my Pet podcast . I

0:11

am Julie Marty Pearson , your

0:13

host , proud fur mom

0:16

, pet lover and all-around

0:18

animal advocate . I'm

0:20

so happy to have you here to listen

0:23

to the incredible

0:25

pet stories that I have collected from

0:27

around the world . I

0:29

hope you enjoy this episode and I can't

0:31

wait to share this pet story with you

0:33

. So

0:38

Rebecca came to me knowing

0:40

I have a pet pod and , for

0:43

me , I've learned so much doing this podcast

0:45

, and one of the things I've learned is so

0:48

many animals end up in shelters because

0:51

people have passed away or people have

0:53

gotten sick , gone into hospital

0:55

or assisted living and they didn't have

0:57

a plan in place to take care of their pets

0:59

. So this

1:01

was something Rebecca thought . Hey , I could talk a little bit

1:04

about this . First of all , have

1:06

you always been a pet person ?

1:08

No .

1:11

And that's okay we accept all here .

1:13

I am being very honest . No

1:16

, we had pets when I was

1:18

growing up All the dogs

1:21

that we've ever owned

1:23

with me and my husband . Only

1:25

one of them was mine

1:27

.

1:30

And was that yours , in terms of you decided

1:32

to get a pet , or was that someone got you

1:34

a pet ?

1:35

It was mine . I chose

1:38

a little miniature pincher , I

1:41

chose a Min Pin . I

1:43

picked it out , I

1:50

bought it . I bought it , I brought it home and she was mine . She was

1:52

my pet . I was her person , because

1:54

any pet owner knows what that means

1:57

. Yes , I was her person

1:59

and that's the

2:01

only pet that I can say that I've

2:03

ever had in my entire life

2:05

. That was mine and

2:08

, honestly , if I

2:10

could choose a pet now

2:13

that I wanted , I

2:15

think I would be a cat person and

2:18

not a dog person .

2:20

I love how your voice got quiet . I hope no one's really

2:22

hearing me say that I think I'd be a cat

2:25

person . I can say that I totally

2:27

understand , because I grew up with only

2:29

dogs , loved dogs , obsessed with dogs

2:31

, loved Lady and the Tramp and 101 Dalmatians

2:33

all those things . I was always that girl . Then

2:37

, as an adult , one of my friends had gotten cats

2:39

and I'm like ooh , okay , so I got a kitten

2:41

and

2:45

I'm like I actually think I'm a cat person . They like to sleep

2:48

and take naps and have treats .

2:48

It's my people . Cats are so independent

2:50

. I think that's why I love cats .

2:53

Dogs are very needy and

2:55

I'm not a needy person and I don't necessarily

2:58

like very needy people one

3:01

thing we always say in this podcast and pet people

3:04

who , whatever you are , whatever pet you

3:06

love , that right pets find you

3:08

, because we all have different needs and

3:10

wants . I've had cats that have been on the more

3:12

needy side . I've had other cats that are like

3:14

I will come see you when I'm hungry , otherwise leave

3:16

me alone . You know it . They

3:19

have personalities , but

3:21

your husband had always had dogs

3:23

. Was he a big ?

3:25

dog person . Oh

3:28

my god , he was a huge dog person

3:30

. He loved dogs he's I

3:33

. I've seen pictures of him

3:35

as a young adult and , I think

3:38

, all throughout his life . I could go

3:40

through all of his pictures and pull out

3:42

all the dogs that he's ever owned

3:44

and he has always

3:46

had a dog Always

3:49

.

3:50

I'm one of the people that . I don't know how you could not have a pet

3:52

, so I get that . But you know everybody

3:54

does what's right for them . So

3:57

when your husband passed away , you

4:00

were left with his dogs .

4:03

Yes , we actually had three

4:05

dogs . One dog I

4:08

left in Kentucky . Two

4:11

of the dogs were already here in

4:13

North Carolina because we were in

4:15

the process of moving from Kentucky

4:17

back home to North Carolina . So two were already

4:20

here . One was in

4:22

Kentucky and

4:24

she was still

4:26

a puppy , and well , not

4:28

really a puppy , I don't know . Maybe six

4:31

months , she was less than a year old . Yeah

4:33

, anything less than a year is a puppy . Okay , she

4:35

was less than a year old , she wasn't

4:39

trained very well and

4:41

she was extremely hyper

4:44

and I could not control her

4:46

, sorry , you're hearing my

4:48

dog bark in the ? Background

4:50

you didn't .

4:51

Oh , trust me , We've heard a lot of that on this podcast

4:53

.

4:53

Okay , it's a pet podcast . My dog

4:56

is barking in the background and I don't know why

4:58

.

4:59

As always , our pets like to interrupt

5:01

and say hi when we're recording .

5:05

The blind was open , so maybe he saw

5:07

something you know what you're saying about a puppy

5:09

is totally understandable .

5:11

Sometimes , you know , puppies are

5:13

a lot of work , a lot of training

5:15

, a lot of energy and unfortunately

5:17

that's why a lot of dogs sometimes get returned

5:19

to rescues and shelters , because people don't realize

5:22

the amount of time and work you have to put in when

5:24

you have a puppy .

5:26

Yeah , so luckily

5:28

, one of his friends came

5:30

by the house and took the dog

5:33

with him and he

5:36

had her for the entire time that

5:38

we were there playing in the funeral and

5:40

going through it . In two weeks went by

5:42

and I was like , do you want her ? And

5:45

he's , I would love to

5:47

have her . And I'm like , okay , you can have

5:49

her . I'm like , do you want

5:51

the papers and everything . I just I

5:54

can't keep her , I can't take her . I

5:56

had two dogs at home and

5:59

I so I left her

6:01

there . And at home

6:03

we had two

6:05

dogs . We had Vegas , which

6:07

is an old English bulldog . Tom

6:11

got Vegas . We

6:13

got him from Vegas . Las

6:15

Vegas , there you go . We

6:18

got Vegas from Vegas and

6:20

Tom tried to disguise this

6:23

cute

6:25

puppy as

6:27

a birthday present to me . It

6:30

was not a birthday present to me

6:32

, I did not want a

6:35

dog , but that was his

6:38

sneaky way of trying

6:40

to get a dog . And then he takes me to

6:42

see all these little puppies

6:45

, these sweet , beautiful little

6:47

old English bulldog puppies

6:49

. And here's

6:51

the funny thing he

6:53

went specifically for this one puppy that

6:56

he saw . This is how I know . It

6:58

was not a birthday present for me . We

7:00

went specifically to see one

7:03

puppy out of the litter that

7:05

he liked . That puppy

7:07

did not like us at

7:09

all . It wouldn't stay in our

7:11

arms . It kicked , it did

7:14

everything to get out . The puppy wouldn't come

7:16

near us . But Vegas , my

7:19

man , vegas , he was

7:21

up on the side of the box like

7:23

, hey , look at me

7:26

, I'm cute , don't

7:28

you want to pet me ? I picked

7:30

him up . That dog did not

7:32

leave my lap , he

7:34

was all over me , he was licking

7:36

me , he was giving me these

7:39

kisses and I kept

7:41

telling my husband . I said , tom , that

7:43

dog does not like you . And he goes this is

7:45

the dog we're getting , and I'm like . I thought it was my

7:48

birthday present . I thought

7:50

we was here to get me a dog for

7:52

my birthday . And then

7:54

, finally , he gave in because

7:56

he realized that none

7:58

of them other dogs wanted anything to do with

8:01

us but Vegas . None

8:03

of them other dogs wanted anything

8:05

to do with us but Vegas . He chose us . We brought

8:08

Vegas home and he's a really good dog

8:10

, very needy , but other than that he's

8:12

extremely smart and very

8:14

well trained . You can't

8:17

really ask for a better dog , and everybody

8:19

loves him . Those

8:21

are the best dogs . Yes , now the other

8:23

dog , caroline . Her

8:27

name is supposed to be Carolina because she's from North Carolina , but

8:30

Carolina is too many syllables

8:32

when you're trying to train

8:35

Yell at the dog . I wasn't going to

8:37

say yell at the dog , but you're

8:39

right , we know we get it . So

8:42

Carolina was too many syllables , so we

8:44

call her Caroline . She

8:46

is our discount puppy , and

8:49

this is how my

8:52

husband's obsessions with

8:54

dogs are in his long line of

8:56

dogs . So he was a dog man , brother

9:00

was a dog man and

9:02

you know , their dog of choice was pit

9:04

bulls .

9:05

Right , they're pit bull men

9:08

, and so you know the funny thing

9:10

about that is you think , oh yeah

9:12

, they want the tough , they want the pit bulls are the

9:14

biggest babies and pit bulls I've known

9:16

are just love bugs they are

9:18

, they just look vicious .

9:20

So apparently

9:22

some years back my husband

9:25

had this dog

9:27

. He gave the dog

9:29

to my brother and

9:32

my brother said whenever

9:34

I breed him and have puppies

9:37

I will give you a puppy

9:39

. So this went on for years

9:41

, back and forth , no puppy . So

9:44

finally my brother

9:46

has some puppies and

9:58

then I'm here visiting

10:00

and Tom says go get me a puppy . And I'm like , excuse me

10:02

, he

10:07

said go get me a puppy . And so me and my son go over to my brother's house and we go outside and

10:09

there's only four puppies left out of this litter . And

10:11

my brother picks up this puppy

10:14

and the puppy's

10:16

leg looks broken . It's

10:18

got popsicle sticks around

10:21

it with some tape and

10:23

I'm like what ?

10:25

Oh no .

10:26

He said here's your puppy . And

10:28

I said what's wrong with it ? I said

10:30

it's a puppy , it's a

10:32

slick bro . He

10:34

said no , it's not broke , he just

10:36

got it caught in the fence and he was

10:39

limping on it . So I just put

10:41

some popsicle

10:43

sticks . He said

10:45

you might want to take it to the vet . And

10:48

I was like and I said

10:51

, donnie , I don't want this puppy . He

10:54

said do you want me to tell Tom I sold it to

10:56

someone else ? And I said

10:58

I

11:00

know , because he'll get mad and my

11:02

son is looking at me . He said Mom , you

11:04

got to take that puppy . That

11:06

puppy needs to go to the doctor

11:09

. Yeah , so I

11:11

felt so bad for this puppy . I

11:14

take the puppy home . I get to my mom's house

11:16

, we give it a bath and everything

11:19

, and so she's taking the little

11:21

popsicle sticks off . She

11:23

goes . I don't think there's anything wrong

11:25

with this puppy's legs . So the puppy's

11:27

walking around , it's limping

11:30

a little . How about my brother

11:32

bandaged it up the

11:34

wrong leg ?

11:39

oh , I know he pulled one of these . I'll

11:41

just put popsicle soup on this . So

11:46

here I am with this broke-ass

11:48

puppy even

11:53

animals with disabilities are

11:55

amazing , but I can just picture

11:58

the poor little puppy with the popsicle stick

12:00

and I have a

12:02

nine hour drive to kentucky

12:04

.

12:05

So now I have a nine hour drive to kentucky

12:07

with a puppy and how

12:09

many times do I have to stop for

12:11

this puppy to use the bathroom ?

12:14

50 million times .

12:16

It took me 12 hours to get

12:18

home and through

12:20

this we bonded

12:22

and I became

12:24

her person . At this point I

12:27

still don't want her , but

12:29

I am now her

12:31

person . It was

12:34

, I was by no choice . I became

12:36

her person , and so now

12:38

we have these two dogs that my husband

12:40

promises that he's going to help train

12:42

. I train the dogs , I

12:44

do the feeding , I do the

12:46

cleaning , I do the training , but

12:49

he gets the privilege , like

12:51

the good dad yes

12:54

, the good dad that

12:56

these are his dogs this is

12:58

why my husband won't let me have a dog , because he knows

13:00

, this is what , what I don't

13:02

know . Take care of them , I promise

13:05

fast forward

13:07

a few years later

13:09

and my husband dies . So

13:13

now I am stuck

13:15

with these dogs . Of course

13:17

, I have been living with them and raising

13:20

them the entire time .

13:22

You are attached to them .

13:24

Yes , but now they

13:26

are 100% mine , 100%

13:30

mine . Now am I going to get rid

13:32

of them ? Absolutely not

13:34

. I do love

13:36

them . Do I necessarily

13:39

want a life with

13:41

pets ? Not

13:43

really , because I

13:45

like to travel and pets

13:48

cause certain

13:50

restrictions , and

13:53

then they're also big pets and then

13:55

one is a pit bull , you

13:57

know . So it's boarding is an issue

13:59

, pet sitters is an issue

14:01

, things like that . But luckily , my

14:04

mom loves my

14:06

dogs . They are her baby

14:09

and she makes

14:11

them fat from treats and she takes

14:13

care of them and she loves them

14:16

and they love her way

14:18

more than me , because you know I

14:22

feel like animals love the person

14:24

who feeds them .

14:26

Oh , yeah , that's how I feel

14:28

. I am a proud auntie to many of a

14:30

dog that I dog sit for . And oh , let me

14:32

tell you , whenever I there's a pair of one

14:34

of my really good friends , whenever I go to their house

14:37

, they lose their minds when they

14:39

see me and her husband , her kids , will always say they

14:41

never act like that when we come home what

14:44

kind of treats are you giving them ?

14:47

you must be giving them real bacon actually

14:51

not .

14:51

It's just you know , when you're a dog sitter

14:53

, and it's just you and them . It's's

14:55

that same , like you said with your long

14:57

car trip . You just bond in a different way than when

14:59

it's just your normal busy family life

15:02

, you know , yes , so I've

15:04

spent weeks with them . So I

15:06

am their auntie and they love me . They

15:08

love their family too , but

15:10

I get what you're saying . With your mom , they know

15:12

her , they know she's the treat lady

15:14

and they're going to , she's going to spoil them whenever

15:17

they're with . Yes , so

15:19

I think this is a good example of

15:21

your husband's passing

15:23

was not expected . It wasn't something

15:26

you had planned for . Obviously , you

15:28

have these pets that , like you said , they

15:30

were really more his in a way , but you took

15:33

care of them . You're not going to get rid of them . They mean

15:35

something to you . But I think this is a good

15:37

example of something like this can happen to

15:39

someone , to a family , to a couple . And

15:42

then what happens to the pets ? So I think

15:44

this is definitely an important thing to talk

15:46

about in terms of how

15:49

do you plan ahead for something like

15:51

that ? And now for you , you

15:54

have recently learned that your cancer

15:56

metastasized , so your

15:58

life plan is a little different now . So

16:01

I'm sure you've thought of what if

16:03

something happens to me ? What happens to

16:05

the dogs ? I'm sure that's come through your

16:07

head .

16:09

So yeah , I'm really worried

16:11

about what happens to the dogs . And

16:14

here's the thing Vegas is everyone's

16:16

favorite . He is he's

16:18

the cuddle bug . He's everyone's

16:20

favorite . Caroline the pit

16:22

bull . She is scared of everyone . She barks

16:24

at everyone . It takes her a long time

16:27

to get used to someone , but

16:29

when she does , she is very loving

16:31

.

16:32

And those are the dogs . When they end up in a shelter

16:34

, they just break down and they're

16:37

the ones that are hiding in the back of the kennel

16:39

. Or people see a pit bull and they

16:41

just won't even , you know , entertain

16:43

the idea . And that's when

16:45

something like this happens and a dog ends up in

16:48

a shelter . They don't understand what's happened . They've

16:50

lived in a house their whole life and

16:52

I'm sure you maybe even saw it when you lost

16:54

your husband that they probably grieved him , like

16:56

where is he ? Why isn't he coming home ?

16:59

You , know animals go through that too . Vegas

17:03

. So I have these videos of my husband

17:05

from a Marco Polo app

17:07

that we used to talk back

17:09

and forth to each other . I can play

17:11

his voice and Vegas

17:13

still recognizes it . Caroline

17:16

not so much , but Vegas , if

17:18

I play it you can

17:20

tell he recognizes Tom's

17:23

voice .

17:24

Yeah . So I think it's something we have to think about with

17:26

our pets , not only if someone

17:28

in your family you know , with divorce

17:31

, they lose a parent or

17:33

there's a death , animals grieve . Divorce

17:36

, they lose a parent or there's a death , animals grieve . I've seen , I've seen animals and

17:38

shelters completely broken down because they've had a parent

17:41

for 10 , 15 years down there in the scary

17:43

place and it's just so hard and it's

17:45

so hard to see them that way that

17:47

you have to not only realize your pets are going to

17:49

grieve , but you have to think about

17:51

what happens if something happens to you . Who's

17:54

going to take care of them ?

17:56

Yeah , so for me , when

17:58

something happens to me , both of my dogs

18:00

will go to my mom and

18:03

then if something happens to

18:05

my mom , then my

18:07

son will have

18:10

to take both of the dogs . I don't know

18:12

that he would want to take both . He

18:15

may only want to take one . So that

18:17

might be something I have to discuss . But

18:19

Vegas is going on nine

18:21

years old , so who

18:24

knows , maybe Vegas might pass

18:26

away before I do and that

18:28

might not end up being an issue . But

18:31

that is the

18:33

way that I would like for it to go and

18:35

I would hope it would go . But luckily

18:38

I think I have plenty of family

18:40

and friends that would be willing to take any

18:43

of the dogs .

18:45

And that's great and it's something you're aware of , probably

18:47

because you've experienced the

18:49

loss and know you have to think about

18:51

these things . So you're talking about it with people

18:53

, but I think so many times you

18:55

don't even think about it and life happens , just

18:58

like with what happened with losing your husband . You

19:00

didn't expect it and that happens

19:02

if you haven't talked about it or thought

19:04

about it or talked to someone about it . And

19:07

it's totally different than human kids , but

19:09

they are your kids , they are your family . We're

19:11

talking about this because we want listeners to think

19:14

who would take my cats or my

19:16

dogs or my bird or whatever it is

19:18

, if something happened to me or even if

19:20

, god forbid , you have to have

19:22

surgery and you're in the hospital for a week ? There

19:25

are those situations that you want to make sure

19:27

your pets are taken care of . Yeah

19:29

, absolutely , it's so important . Oh

19:33

my gosh , I'm going to have that image of the little pit

19:35

bull puppy with the popsicle sticks

19:37

on his leg and my head for a while .

19:40

Carolina's our clearance puppy .

19:42

That's what we call her and as we say

19:44

on this show , there's nothing better than a rescue

19:46

dog , what we call her , and as we say

19:48

on this show , there's nothing better than a rescue dog . And

19:52

unfortunately , a lot of the dogs from breeders who maybe have an issue

19:54

end up in shelters . So we see that and those dogs sometimes , oftentimes

19:57

, are the very best dogs . We advocate

19:59

for rescue here and adopting from shelters

20:02

. But , oh my gosh , I'm going to

20:04

have that image in my head . I'm going to see if I can

20:06

find a picture . Oh , I might have

20:08

a picture . Thank you

20:10

, rebecca , for sharing your story and talking

20:12

openly about the importance

20:14

of making plans for your pets , because

20:17

of your own experience and just what's

20:19

going on in your life and continues to happen

20:21

. Because it's important for people to hear

20:23

this and just be aware you want to make sure , no

20:25

matter what , your pets are taken care of .

20:32

Yeah , thank you so much for having me

20:37

.

20:37

Thank you , my friend , for being here

20:40

and listening to this episode of the Story

20:42

of my Pet podcast . I

20:50

hope you were inspired and touched by this amazing pet story and I hope you come

20:52

back to listen to more episodes soon . Make

20:54

sure you don't miss any new episodes by clicking

20:56

subscribe wherever you are listening to

20:59

this podcast right now . Want

21:01

to help the podcast grow ? Then

21:03

hit rating and review wherever

21:05

you are listening to this podcast . Every

21:08

review helps get the podcast

21:10

in front of more people and heard

21:12

by more listeners , so that the podcast

21:14

can inspire more people to

21:16

rescue , foster and

21:18

adopt animals in need today

21:21

. Thank you so much for being

21:23

here and much love to you and

21:25

your pets .