When Your Dog Needs More: How Caring for Zora Shaped the Way I Show Up for All Dogs

Managing a dog with multiple diagnoses changes you.

You stop assuming and start observing, intensely and intentionally. You build your day around medication reminders, rehab efforts, what-ifs, and “just in case” kits. You learn to read your dog’s body language like your life depends on it. And even then, you still worry.

That’s been life with Zora.

She lives with both Addison’s disease and IVDD — and while those diagnoses have reshaped our life, they’ve also reshaped how I care. For her, and now, for every dog I sit for.

Caring for Zora has taught me patience in its truest form, adaptability, and how to hold space for dogs who need “a little more.” More time. More prep. More attention to detail. More empathy. More unique ways of creating wonder and freedom for them.

And maybe most importantly, it’s taught me what it feels like to be the person handing your medically complex dog off to someone else. That kind of trust takes more than a nice profile and a standard background check. It takes presence. It takes experience. And it takes someone who knows what it’s like to live in the gray space of “doing okay, for now” not even once, but daily.

It’s literally putting your beloved dog’s literal life in the hands of someone who lives outside of your own body. Who hasn’t seen your sweet pup at their weakest, or most vulnerable, or terrified. Who hasn’t stayed up to monitor their breathing or set a 2 AM alarm for yet another dose of pain meds.

That’s what I bring into every home I enter. I’ve done those things. I still do those things. I still wrestle with the what if’s and play the dreaded ‘worst case scenario’ game when I really shouldn’t. Because when you’ve seen your dog face and conquer two, separately life-changing diagnoses — one well after the first, right about when you established the first ‘new normal’ — you are reprogrammed to worry. But luckily, at that same moment, you’re also pushed to rally, and problem solve, and fight on. And you do.

I’m not rattled by sensitive stomachs, fragile joints, or medication schedules. I’ve lived it. I will live it for what I hope to be many, many more years and all of Zora’s days. And if your dog needs special accommodations, careful handling, or just someone who really gets it, I’m here for that too.

Because I see you. I see your dog. And I know how to help. A very large part of me thinks a silver lining to our journey is now being able to help you and your pup through your journeys too. So if that’s the kind of person you want as a stand-in for you, let’s connect.

Schedule a meet and greet so I can help.