Speaker 1: This is Pet Life Radio. Let's Talk Pets. Welcome to
Covered in Pet Hair of Moodie show of her pet
lovers on pet Life Radio. I'm your host Isabelle Albata Zerata,
and today I have the pleasure of having a drink
in a chat with a pet lover who has a
heart for helping others, pets and people included. I will
tell you all about her and introduce to you as
soon as we come back from these messages from our sponsors. Hi,
I'm Isabelle albertaz Errata, the host of Covered in Pet Hair.
You know the expression cats have nine lives?
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Speaker 2: That's give them tean dot Org.
Speaker 3: Let's Talk pets on Petlife Radio dot com.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Covered in pet Haair. I'm your host,
Isabelle Alpharezerana, and today I have the pleasure of having
a drink in a chat with a pet parent, a
professional dog walker and professional pet sitter. She's an entrepreneur
and an adventure seeker, a road tripper, and a foodie.
She's a cheat drinker that was born and raised in
South Dakota, where she currently resides. She is wife to
Austin dog, mom to Crosby, and two beagles that she
refers to as the Harry Potter Beagles, Fox and newt.
She shares her life with a Russian tortoise named Melvin
and has three fish tanks, one of which she refers
to as Joynormous and I just learned is four hundred
gallons in her basement o MG.
Speaker 2: She is the founder of the Lucky.
Speaker 1: Pup Adventures pet sitting service, and she is also the
brains and heart behind Memory Flame and she is the
host of the Lucky Pup podcast. She is Morgan Weber.
Speaker 2: Welcome Morgan. It's so great to see you again.
Speaker 4: Yes, thanks much for having me, Isabelle. There's a lot
of stuff going on in my life, as you have mentioned,
so I am super excited to get to chat about
all of the things with you today.
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, I don't know how you keep up
with all of these brands and names. But we're gonna
dig into all that. But before we do, I want
to introduce our drinking game today. So anybody at home
participating in our drinking game. Anytime you hear this word,
the secret word is lucky. Take a drink of whatever
you're enjoying, non alcoholic, alcoholic beverage, whatever it is. Just
make sure you don't drink and drive. Always drink responsibly,
and be twenty one or over in the US, or
of age wherever you're joining us from. Nobody wants to
get in trouble on this early in the year. We're
just getting started in Summer's not even here yet. Don't
push it, don't risk it.
Speaker 2: Play by the rules.
Speaker 1: I know, Morgan, you're a rule follower, but today are
you Are you having an alcoholic beverage with me?
Speaker 2: Or are you having some little lighter?
Speaker 5: No, I was.
Speaker 4: I'm in my office and so I had to bring
my plastic cup in with me today. But so one
of my favorites, I'll say, my one favorite drink is
called a big ginger, which is ginger ale and bourbon
and I'm mixing it up a little bit because I
had a drink the other day that was bourbon and lemmicello,
which was amazing, and so this is my kind of
a faux Lemonchella, which was a lemon soda that tastes
very much like lemonchello but with bourbon in it. And
it is so good. So it's like lemony and kind
of sweet. Yeah you should, You'll have to give it
a try.
Speaker 2: Really good.
Speaker 1: So I'm actually having a mango clementine cooler which is
made with vodka, and this delicious hydration drink. I don't
know if you've tried them diet sprouts. It's called Raar.
It's supposed to be naturally flavored vitamin enhanced beverage. I
just like the flavor of it. I'm not really drinking
it for the vitamins, and it's really good with vodka.
Speaker 5: So cheers, cheers.
Speaker 2: Being on the show.
Speaker 4: I'm so excited to be here and this this drink
is delicious. That doesn't hurt at God exactly.
Speaker 1: There's nothing like having a little libation over zoom with
a friend. I mean, it's like I can't go to
South Dakota. I don't know that I'll ever step foot
in South Dakota.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna be honest.
Speaker 4: You know, you might have to make a road trip.
It's only cold in the wintertime. It's very hot and
humid in the summertime. So you just got a plan. Accordingly,
just got to come with their time a year.
Speaker 2: Okay, all right, I'll take you up on that. Maybe
maybe maybe. All right.
Speaker 1: So the way I always introduce this show is with
the game, and today is no different. We're going to
talk about something that you're very passionate about, which is fostering.
Fostering saves lives people, but not a lot of people
are doing it, including myself. I used to foster, kind
of falling off of that I guess wagon because I
feel like with little kids it might be a little
more difficult. But we're going to dig into a few
of the things that people might ask when getting interested
in fostering. So this game is called Fostering FAQs. And
if your game, I'd like to just get your opinion
based on years of fostering, on what people might learn
from your experience fostering.
Speaker 5: Are you ready to play? I am so ready. I
love this topic.
Speaker 1: Okay, So what is the biggest myth you've heard surrounding fostering.
Speaker 4: That if I get attached, I shouldn't do fostering. I
think that's the biggest met People say I can't be
a foster because I would get too attached, and I say,
that is why we need you to be a foster,
is because you do get attached.
Speaker 1: Okay, So that leads me to the next question. What
is the hardest thing about fostering.
Speaker 4: Definitely letting them go, which it's hard because you want them,
like I don't have kids, but I like to think
of it as somebody who is maybe letting their kid
go off to college or go off into the big world.
And just because their adventures are not your everyday adventures
anymore doesn't mean it's not worth it. So absolutely, it
is so hard to let them go, but to know
that you've given them a great chance that a new
life is priceless.
Speaker 2: Absolutely. How about the best thing? What's the best thing
about it?
Speaker 5: I think the best thing.
Speaker 4: One of the best things is if you don't have
a pet yet or maybe you're thinking about getting a
new pet, is you almost get to test drive different
personality types, So you get to try different maybe animal
breeds that you wouldn't otherwise, or you get to kind
of get a little taste of what having a certain
kind of dog or cat is going to be like
before you make that big lifetime commitment.
Speaker 2: Is it expensive?
Speaker 5: Depends on your rescue, but usually no.
Speaker 4: Most rescues provide all medical supplies, all food, and so
you just got to provide the love.
Speaker 1: Are you stuck with your foster even if you will
have plans to go on vacation.
Speaker 5: That's a great question.
Speaker 4: So a lot of rescues, I will say, make arrangements
for you so they'll have another foster family and the
rescue that you can drop your pet off with. Or
like when I foster, I've got a pet sitting company,
So my pet sitting team takes care of my foster
pets while I'm out of town.
Speaker 5: They just stay at home.
Speaker 4: But most, I would say, almost every rescue I've ever
talked with, there have other fosters available to take those dogs,
so you don't have to worry about that.
Speaker 1: Perfect And the last question I have is how many
of your pets were foster fails?
Speaker 5: I would say too, just too. I will say the
one of the two, doesn't she wasn't really a foster.
Speaker 4: That was our olive, so she was our memory flame, inspiration,
and she wasn't through any program, but she did end
up staying with us, So we'll call it too to
be fair. And I think we fostered about fifteen animals.
Speaker 1: Fifteen or sixteen, So I say that's pretty good odds.
That's not a very good percentage. That's a low percentage.
Not that it's a bad thing. Foster failed, for those
who aren't familiar with the term, is when you foster
and you failed because you don't let them go. You
keep them forever. And that's not a besting. No, it's
a bad thing if you can't take care of all
the pets you want to take in. Yes, but that
usually is just an exception. A lot of people just don't.
They only want a pet tempor early. I fostered a
puppy that was so high energy. He made me crazy.
I'm not gonna lie. He made me crazy. I was single,
I was busy, I was working, and he was so
high energy and so just like intense that I was
happy to see him go. I was a temporary foster
because I was always the kind of the backup when
people went on vacations. They were like, hey, can you
take them for a week, for two weeks whatever, And
I'd be happy to do that. And when his time,
I think it was a week was over. I can't
remember his name. He was this tiny, little, sweet little
it was wonderful, sweet thing, but just like bouncing off
the walls energy. And when his time was up, I
drove him to wherever it is he was going to
next and I was so relieved when I drove away.
But then in some cases, people are like, oh my god,
this pet has just like completed our family, and I
don't want to see them go to another family because
maybe my existing pets have fallen in love with it,
or my children are really attached now, and it just
kind of he has he or she has the best
energy for our family or lifestyle, whatever it is. So
foster failing can be really good most of the time,
and it's not frowned upon, even though it sounds like
it because of the foster fail terminology.
Speaker 4: Yeah, fails in quotes quote unquote exactly, foster fail.
Speaker 1: Maybe you failed, but the pet won for sure. Yes, Okay,
so tell me how long have you been fostering?
Speaker 4: So we started fostering when we move move to our
current city, and so that was in twenty fourteen, and
so we've been kind of fostering on and off. I'd
say our first stint was about five years. So we
fostered for our local pit rescue for five years, and
then then we brought little Olive home and she needed
our attention, So she got our attention for the next
couple of years, and then we were just ready to
take a little bit of a break and then we
started up again this last summer. So this last summer
we had a foster for the first time in several years,
and he was only with us for about a month
before he found his forever home. And so yeah, so
we'll say like six years or so in total over
like the last ten years.
Speaker 2: So why do you think people are reluctant to foster?
Speaker 1: What do you think is like the main reason that
people are, like, I mean, I'll just get a pet,
like if I'm ready for a pedal, just get a pet.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I think what I've heard from a lot of folks
is that again that fear of well, I'm going to
get too attached and then I won't be able to
say no. Or I won't be able to, you know,
let that pet go to its new home. And it
is definitely, you know, something that happened, and so we
can become heartbroken when especially the pet has been with
you for a long time.
Speaker 5: Yes, we had a couple.
Speaker 4: Of dogs who were with us for almost eighteen months.
Speaker 5: And that was very hard.
Speaker 4: I mean, like they were Those were the pets where
I was like, oh, should we should.
Speaker 5: We keep this one? Like should it go to its
new home?
Speaker 4: And both of those pets ended up in just the
most amazing homes. One of them he managed to be
kind of a diabetic alert dog and like woke his
mom up in the middle of the night from like
a dangerously low diabetic low and he like he was
never trained on that. It just was you know, kind
of a I don't even know how to say it,
but it was. It was very special. We'll say that
it was very special.
Speaker 2: Serendipitous. Yes, Yes.
Speaker 4: And then our other foster dog who was with us
for a long time. I just knew he needed to
go to a home with children. He just loved kids, and.
Speaker 2: Isn't the one I wanted. Maybe, No, that.
Speaker 5: Was a different one.
Speaker 4: No, that was a different one, but he also went
to a home with kids, and he's been doing very well.
He's fitting in very well with their other dog and
with their kids. Okay, yeah, I think that's what I
hear from those is people are afraid of getting attached
because they know that they're going to give their heart
to a pet, because our pets are so good at
worming their way into our hearts and into our souls,
and so they're afraid of what it's going to look
like when they have to, you know, give that pet
to a new family. And most of the times that
we have fostered, I would say most rescues have some
form of you know, community group like a Facebook group,
or they allow you to be in contact with those
forever families and so, you know, we'll get pictures occasionally,
or I'll follow them on Facebook or on Instagram, and
so I'll get to see what that new life is like.
And you know, all of those pets that we've helped
have had absolutely amazing lives. And I couldn't have given
that to every single pet, you know, because I can't.
I can't have fifteen dogs in my house, in including
my own dogs that I've had over the years, and
so it's just you get to be that that stepping stone.
We happened to foster a lot of puppies because my
old dog is a bit of a jerk and so
he does not like other adult dogs coming into his home,
but he's okay with puppies.
Speaker 2: He loves puppies really interesting.
Speaker 4: Yes, And so we fostered a lot of puppies over
the years, and so it's just it's so rewarding to
know that the skills that we taught them, and you know,
we helped them be brave, and we helped them learn
new things and they got to take that into their
new home, and their new home just absolutely adores them.
There's no better gift, I think than to give somebody
the gift of a pet.
Speaker 1: Absolutely absolutely. And I fostered Neonato kittens and for a
little while we thought about keeping two of them, and
then we got we were relocated with the military, and
we were both like, it would never have worked in
our next house, like this house that we're in, it
would never have worked.
Speaker 2: It worked in that other house.
Speaker 1: You know, we got pregnant and that wasn't really in
the plans either. So, like your life does change, so
having that foster. I did have that. The set of
cats that I was going to keep I had for
a year and they ended up going to friends of ours.
Speaker 2: So like there's.
Speaker 1: Still like you said, like in the family in the circle.
One of the things that I personally have a concern
about is how much work are these pets?
Speaker 2: Like are you able to say to.
Speaker 1: The rescue, like, listen, I can take like an adult
dog that's potty trained, I can't do like potty training.
Are you able to kind of give the rescue you're
working with some kind of boundaries.
Speaker 4: It's a really good question, and it depends on the rescue.
So some rescues say, hey, we don't know a lot
about these dogs or these cats before we get them
because like so, for example, I used to foster with
the pit Rescue, and so we got a lot of
dogs from areas ahead, you know, kind of an over
abundance of pit bulls, and a lot of times they
were in shelters, and they were in like high euthanasia
rate shelters, and so the way that a pet is
in a shelter is not how they're going to be
an home. And you can't get a great picture of
their personality sometimes because the behaviors are displaying in a
shelter may or may not be influenced by it. High stress, noise,
you know all of those things. And so I will
say it depends.
Speaker 1: So for our pit rescue, it was very much, hey,
we're going to get this dog, and you're going to
have to commit to it, and you know, we're going
to figure it out. We have support, we can help
you out, but you really did have to kind of
commit to that dog for it's time that it was
with you. Other rescues are more flexibles. Maybe they're getting
dogs from other situations. A lot of you can some
people don't know.
Speaker 5: That there are breed specific rescues out there.
Speaker 4: So if you are a lover, like I said, I
got beagles right now, I've kind of fallen in love
with beagles, if you really want to rescue just beagles
or just Pomeranians or just you know what labs, whatever
that thing is, you know they might be being surrendered
from homes and so you might have a better idea
of kind of what that dog's personality is or things
like that. So I would say it depends. And that's
a really good question. You know, there are so many
rescues out there that just really need volunteers, and so
you can interview them. You can ask them questions and say, hey,
these are what my you know, what my stipulations are,
or this is what I can or can't do. Are
you willing to work with me on this? Some might,
some might not, And that's okay. You've got to find
the one that fits best for you. And I will say,
kind of your comment there about having those kittens for
a while, you know, that's another great way. Another great reason,
I'll say to be a foster is you can say, hey,
I've got some life stuff coming up, and I know
I can foster somebody for the next year or the
next couple months, and that can be a great way
to have a pet in your life without that long
term commitment to say, like, hey, I know that I'm
gonna be moving in a year, I might not be
able to have a pet friendly place in my new town.
Maybe I should just foster for a while. Or maybe
you've lost a pet and you're not quite ready to
commit to a new pet or finding that new forever pet.
Fostering might be a really good way to kind of
test the waters. See if you're ready for that new pet,
or just again make that kind of short term commitment.
Speaker 5: There's so many ways to be involved.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, and I'm so happy that you talked about having
lost a pet and not being ready for the next pet,
because we are going to cover all that you do
for those that have lost a pet, those of us
who want to support people in our lives who've lost
a pet, etc.
Speaker 3: Etc.
Speaker 1: But we need to take a break right now. When
we come back, I will tell you all about Morgan's
project per Heart project. I think I would say memory
Flame and what it's all about. We all have those
moments where our dog has done something kind of frustrating,
or we just love them so much and we wish
we could talk to them and tell them how much.
Speaker 2: We adore them.
Speaker 1: Well, recently I found out that we can. I learned
about a company called regal Ai that builds AI agents
for brands, and they have built an AI dog hotline
that is crazy fun. When I heard about it, I
initially thought it might be robotic or slow to respond
or cheesy, but they have the fifteen most common breeds
in the US on their site with a phone number,
and I was legit able to have a full conversation
that felt like talking to the perfect French bulldog if
he or she could speak. Of course, if you're interested
in trying the dog hotline, go to Regal dot Ai
slash dog, scroll down and pick your dog's breed or
use the fetcher at the top and prepare to be amazed.
I have no idea how they knew what Pierre's personality was,
but it was spot on, so fun. If you want
to talk to Pierre, just try it out. Call six
oh eight three eight four nine seven four. We're gonna
call now, just so you can hear it for yourself.
Speaker 6: Bonjou and your French bulldog. I'm so excited to be
speaking human, I believe it. I took a nap and
then woke up and now all of a sudden, I'm
sticking to you. It's so crazy. It must be crazy
for you too. Anyway, Can you tell me what my
name is? The name that you call me?
Speaker 1: Your name is Pierre.
Speaker 6: Ah, that's right. I love the name Pierre and how
it sounds when you say it, picking of sounds. What
have you always wanted to tell me? Now that we
can chat.
Speaker 1: I love your sweet little face.
Speaker 6: Oh how sweet of you to say I love when
you scratch my ears and give me cuddles. Speaking of love,
have you ever wondered why I make those funny? Not
when I'm excited?
Speaker 1: Of course?
Speaker 6: Really that's so intriguing. It's like my own little symphony
of joy. Do you know? If there are gomet snacks
that match my autistic vibe, I shall create a massup
bit of flavor.
Speaker 2: Of course there are.
Speaker 6: Oh how delightful? Did I you holding a snack earlier?
I'm just wondering if it's something I can taste that
for you? That would be such a gourmeet collaboration.
Speaker 1: Yes, let's have chocolate croissants.
Speaker 6: Oh they sound absolutely divine. But are they okay for
me to mention too? If not, can we sell something
scrumptured that dog friendly life is best enjoyed with a
cozy spot, gomet snack and someone to scratch behind the eels.
Wouldn't you agree?
Speaker 1: You're right, Pierre, chocolate is not safe for dogs. Let's
do French fries instead.
Speaker 6: Oh, French fries. That sounds heavenly, especially if they have
that crispy edge. Can we have some warm cuddle and
enjoy them together? I'm grinning up the crunch right now.
Speaker 1: Of course? Do you want mayonnaise or no mayonnaise?
Speaker 6: Meyomaise. That's a curious choice. I'd never tried it. Is
it tabory like your belly rubbed, or just something to
dip my poem? Either way, I think snacking together will
be a masterpin. Well, dip the French fries in the mayonnaise.
You're gonna love it. Oh, I can hardly wake That
sounds like a delicious experience. Oh, I've been talking too
much again, trying to dream of croatsoms and sunny. Call
me back anytime and ask me any questions you want.
Can't wait to check again soon.
Speaker 1: Well, what, Pierre, I'm actually pretty impressed. I'm impressed he
told me that chocolate's not safe. After I said it,
I was like, oh, no, I probably need to say
something different, But he corrected me, which is perfect. As
you can imagine. Regal Ai builds ai agents for all
kinds of businesses. If you want to learn more about
what regal Ai can do for you or a friend's business,
check them out at regal dot ai. You can also
try out any of the fifteen dog breed hotlines yourself
for free. At Regal dot Ai slash Dog. Regal has
done hundreds of millions of calls where the ai has
wowed customers, and today's experience with Pierre was no exception.
Speaker 3: Let's talk past, Let's done that, Life Radio Headline.
Speaker 7: Radiot Light Radio dot Com.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Covered in Pet Hair. I'm your host
Isabelle Albazarada, and today I'm speaking to my personal friend
and fellow pet business owner.
Speaker 2: She is a busy lady. Her name is Morgan Weber.
Speaker 1: She is the founder of Lucky pupp Adventures, she is
the founder of Memory Flame, and she's.
Speaker 5: The host of Lucky Pup podcasts.
Speaker 1: So I want to focus on one thing that I
think on my audience would really enjoy talking about, and
it's sympathy gifts. Sympathy gifts when somebody loses a pet,
It's why you started what you started, which we're going
to dig into. But before we do that, assuming that
we all are going to learn about your specific sympathy gifts,
I want to play a game with you that's called
pet Sympathy Yay or nay. So I'm going to give
you a few options on what somebody might give as
a sympathy gift.
Speaker 2: I'm just going to pull them out of.
Speaker 1: You know, thin air, and you're gonna tell me if
you think that those a pretty good idea or if
you know, tread with caution kind of thing. Okay, perfect,
I'm ready. Okay, here we go. Flowers, cut flowers.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, and I alway say unless they've got like an
allergy or something and they don't want flowers. Also, remember
cats can't have lilies, so no lilies in homes that
have cats.
Speaker 5: That's my caveat absolutely.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: A framed photo of the pet, or of the pet
and the owner.
Speaker 4: This is one of my favorite as a pets that
are one of my favorite gifts to give is a
framed photo of their pet, because you can never go
wrong with something as you know, personalized as a photo
of their pet.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Absolutely.
Speaker 1: A wind chime in honor of their pet.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I think wind chimes can be beautiful because it's another
way to remember them. As the wind is blowing, you're
gonna hear those chimes, and it's a really good way
to remember that your pet is always with you. I
used to give jewelry like a little from at sea,
a little paw with a little initial or something.
Speaker 2: What do you think about that.
Speaker 4: I've got my little paw print necklace on right now,
so I'm a believer. I also have a ring with
one of my dog's ashes in it, which I know
for some people might be a little, you know, a
little too much, but I love it and it's like
personalized for her. So it had like the color of
her fur. I had like a little piece of metal
flake put in that reminds me of her. So yeah,
I'm on board with anything personalized.
Speaker 1: Okay, a plant, like a potted plant that you're meant
to keep alive in honor of your pet.
Speaker 4: You know, that can be a hard one because I
have talked to some folks who they maybe don't have
the best cream thumb, or you know, life is kind
of overwhelming, and then the plant died and then they
feel a level of like guilt that they let their
plant that's like in memory of that person or that
pet die, And that can be kind of hard for people.
So if they love plants, I would say go for it.
But if they are not.
Speaker 5: A green thumb, that might be one to kind of
skip on.
Speaker 1: Agreed one hundred percent agree on that one. And then
the last one is one that I've been receiving. I've
gotten a couple of these little rocks for your garden.
I feel like that might be a safer option than
the plant if you're not sure about their hands.
Speaker 4: Well, I love that you say that, because I had
so I've got a tortoise.
Speaker 5: But well you also had a tourist.
Speaker 4: Who passed away, and I had my Yeah, my friend,
my employee actually gave me this little rock with a
little tortoise painted on it in her name. So yeah,
I think again, anything personalized, anything special. I think a
lot of times we get caught up in trying to
find the perfect gift or saying the perfect words, and
it's more important just to show up, show up your
authentic self, something that you think is gonna be special
for them. And you know, even if it's just writing
a note card saying this really sucks that I'm thinking
of you, that can mean more than you know. Kind
of agonizing over the right thing to gift, and then
you don't do anything. So it's better to do something
than to do nothing.
Speaker 1: Okay, So what is like the latest I can send
a sympathy gift if life gets crazy and I.
Speaker 2: Is it bad to do it too soon. Is it
bad to do it too late? Tell me Timy. Yeah.
Speaker 5: Again, there's no right or wrong answer here. There's a
lot of kind.
Speaker 4: Of misbelief over this idea that if I send something
and it's.
Speaker 5: Not in the first couple of weeks, I'm going to
remind that person.
Speaker 4: Of that loved one or that pet that they've lost,
and I'm going to bring up all these bad feelings,
and so.
Speaker 5: I just shouldn't do it.
Speaker 4: But the studies show that people grieve significant losses in
their life for nine to eighteen months. And you know,
we can all think of our own pets and how
special they are to us. And this idea that you know,
after a couple of weeks or impact in our life
is gonna go away, and.
Speaker 5: That's just not true. They're gonna be with us forever.
Speaker 4: So it's never too late to tell somebody, you know, hey,
I've been thinking about you a lot lately, and I
just really wanted to send you you know, fill in
the blank gift or I just I was really thinking
about you and I wanted to send you this note
that's gonna mean more to somebody. And there's no it's
you can't be too late. You know, you can always
tell somebody that you're thinking of them.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, I agree, and I and acknowledging the fact that
life has gotten crazy and it and you didn't send
it when you would have hoped, is enough, right, Like
you can just start your little note card with I'm
so sorry it took me so long to send this.
Speaker 2: It's been on my mind and life got in the way.
Speaker 1: But here this is I, you know, and like you said,
this sucks, and you know, losing a pet sucks, and
I can't imagine how hard it has been on you.
And I love you and I'm thinking of you, you know,
whatever the case may be, so or like you know,
just I think of your pet often. I love you know,
when I slept over and he slept in the bed
with me or whatever.
Speaker 2: Because it's never too late as long as you acknowledge it.
Speaker 1: I feel like if you just like send it like
eighteen months later and like there's no note, they're gonna
be like, what is this?
Speaker 4: Yeah, Always send a note, Always include a note. And
you know I've done things where you know, again, life
gets in the way and things, you know, get kind
of behind, and it's okay too to just say I've
been thinking about you lately, like you're on my mind lately,
and I was thinking about Buster and I just really
loved Buster's ears, And you know, I saw this dog
in the park who made me think of Buster, and
so I just really wanted to send this over to you.
You know, there's definitely ways to send a gift late that,
aren't you know? That make you feel bad about sending
a late gift.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's okay, it's random or exactly silly. Like a
lot of us feel like we have to be perfect
all the time, especially around these like sensitive topics, But
nobody's perfect. And if they're close enough to you that
you want to celebrate the life of their pet and
the love they shared, then they should understand and that,
you know, like your your life's crazy, But it doesn't
mean I don't love you and that I'm not thinking
about you. So is there something that I feel like
people go to that you've seen? Is it flowers that
like people kind of like default too? And is you
know what do you think about doing that? Like, I
know you said flowers are good, but what do they say?
What does it say that everybody sends flowers?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 4: I think Flowers are this thing that we just automatically
associate with grief and with loss and with death. Right
you go to a funeral and there's flowers everywhere, And
I think it's just one of those things that is
automatic that we just, you know, we it's like we
don't say facial tissue, we say kleenex, right, Like they're
just automatically paired together. But I think the one the
one of the downsides about flowers is they disappear right.
They're only here maybe a week or so, and then
and then they're done as well, And.
Speaker 2: So it's nice to.
Speaker 4: Maybe give something that can last a little bit longer.
There's nothing wrong with flowers. I love flowers. I love
receiving flowers, but they do have a limited time span.
And you know, for maybe how much you've spent on flowers,
especially if you're going to spend on delivery, you're going
to spend you know, your time of going to pick
them up and delivering them, you know, there's a lot
of things there that you could be spending that same
amount of money on a personalized gift that can also
make a really big impact. So it's one of those
things where it's not a bad thing. But also, you know,
I love giving something when I as a pet sitter,
we've given you know, framed photos, we give our memory
flame candles, and we see those things on.
Speaker 5: Their memorial shelf years later, you know.
Speaker 4: And so there is something to be said about an
item that is going to be a memorial type item,
kind of like a you know, a long lasting remembrance
item that's going to make a really big impact for
a long time. And especially I think with flowers or
you know, if somebody loses a person in their life,
people show up in those first couple of weeks and
then a lot of that support disappears. And so if
you can give something that's going to hang around for longer, again,
like a framed photo, a handwritten note that they might
put on their fridge or they might put next to
you know that pets ashes are their collar. You know,
those are the things that are really going to show
how much you cared for more than just those you know,
that first week or that those couple of weeks like that,
those are things they are going to stick around for
a long time.
Speaker 1: Yes, I actually hang on to the cards that my
veterinarian gives us because it's a very small practice.
Speaker 2: She knows our pets very well.
Speaker 1: We've been going to her for many years and she
has everybody in the on the team, which is like
four people sign something and they always relate it back
to the pet and that experience they had with them.
And I always keep that because it brings a smile
to my face, you know what. The funny things they say,
like my husband insisted that Radar was a Jindo mix,
but he was a Pomeranian straight through, like always. And
the first time my veterinarian saw Radar, she walks in
and go, He's the nicest Pomeranian I've ever met. And
my husband and I bust out laughing because I was like, is.
Speaker 2: See, he's a Pomeranian. Even the vet says so.
Speaker 1: And so the first thing she wrote in the memorial letter,
you know, like the sympathy card, was he was the
most wonderful Pomeranian I ever had the joy to get
to know. And you know, it's like an inside joke,
so it's really special and it always makes me smile.
Speaker 2: So I agree with you. I love when people send
things that are long lasting.
Speaker 1: I also do something that I feel like people may
not do, which I buy myself a remembrance gift. For us,
it has been windchimes. So the first time I lost
my pet, I got, you know, like an engraved one
from Etsy that was expensive, and then I lost so
many pets since that. We've kind of gone to like
maybe home Goods and found one there or found one
on a trip. And each winchime, we have them all
together in our patio and they are all kind of
near each other and every time and each one represents
a pet that has passed. So I think that a
lot of people expect others to get them remembrance gifts,
But can you tell us why it's important for us
to show us ourselves that kind of gesture.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, So if folks are watching, if they got their
video on behind me, I've actually got this memory tree
and so these are all every tag on here is
to represent a pet that has passed away from our
pet sitting business. And so my actually my employee started
this for herself and I thought it was so beautiful
and so I took it for the whole business as well.
Speaker 2: And so it's.
Speaker 4: Important to remember those that we have lost because it
is a way of getting that grief and that sadness
outside of us and put kind of I like to say,
it's like putting our grief down for a minute. And
if we don't allow ourselves to grieve, if we don't
allow ourselves to process through those feelings, we're going to
hold onto them and they actually become somatic, which means
they will start to affect our digestion, They'll start to
affect how we sleep, They'll start to affect our burnout,
all of these things. And so we do really need
to process our own grief. But how I got started
with memory flame candles is over my shoulder. Here, this
is Olive again, if you have your camera on. And
Olive came to us as about a three week old
puppy where she had literally been put in a bag
of garbage and dumped in a parking lot, and an
acquaintance of ours found her and she ended up with us.
And about two years old, well, I would even say
about a year and a half, I could tell that
something wasn't right with Olive. I knew that she was
starting her behavior was starting to change, her personality was
starting to change. And it just got to be very
clear to me that we're gonna have to say goodbye
to Olive at some point. Because of all of these changes,
she had no quality of life left. She just wasn't
enjoying anything. So when she was about two and a half,
this was in the middle of COVID, so you add,
you know, COVID pressures as a small business owner on.
Speaker 5: Top of all of this.
Speaker 4: We chose behavior euthanasia for her, and it was the
most heartbreaking thing I ever had to do. But I
also knew that I was giving Olive peace and a
gift because she didn't have that. So as I was
feeling so incredibly sad and trying to find ways to
feel better, I stumbled upon somebody who said, well, you know,
I light a candle every time I'm thinking of my
pet who's passed away, and I will be honest, I
thought it was a load of hooey, because I am
not I am not a woo woo person like I
am not a kind of person who's like, well, I'm
gonna light this candle and you know it's gonna do whatever.
And I was like, what, you know, I am desperate
to find a way to feel better, so I'm just going.
Speaker 5: To do this.
Speaker 4: And I could not believe the comfort that it gave
me again, this idea of just kind of putting my
grief down for a minute, and I would just light
my candle and I would just watch the flame dancing,
and it felt like Olive was with me again, and
it was just very special. And so we started to
gift candles to our pet sitting clients when their pets
passed away.
Speaker 5: And it didn't take me.
Speaker 4: Very long to realize how impactful of a gift that was.
And then I realized I could help other pet sitters
or other people as well, and so we started Memory Flame.
And all of our language is very generic, right I
almost say generic, I want to say universal, because we
just refer to loved ones. So it could be a
pet that's passed away, it could be a person that's
passed away. I had a college friend who gifted a
candle to her friend who lost a pregnancy. I mean,
there's so many things that are involved with a loved
one and wanting to remember, and so yeah, that's how
we got started, and it just really again it felt
like I was just putting my grief down, and every
time I lit my candle, it felt lighter and lighter,
and it was really a way to kind of process
through her not being here anymore. Because, especially when it's a.
Speaker 5: Pet, you are you're with that pet all the time,
every day. You know, their happiness depends on you. You know,
their caregiving depends on you. It's a very familial relationship.
Speaker 4: And it's often the relationship too that's disenfranchised or you know,
just really not talked about. And so it became something
that was just very special to me, and I just
knew that I could help others and especially other pet
sitters honor that relationship forward to their own clients.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, as a professional pet sitter, I used to give
a framed photo and it was hard because you know,
you're running the business and you're doing all the things,
and then you don't want it to go too long,
but you also can't stop. And do you know, we
we had a lot of clients, so we had a
lot of unfortunate passings and some that we expected, some
that we didn't, and so it was hard to get
organized that part of you know, the the the expression
of our grief and there, you know, our sympathy for
their loss organized. So having somebody that you know, you
can go online and ship it out online and.
Speaker 2: Ship it out. That's such a helpful thing, because that
was the hardest part for me.
Speaker 1: It's not only get the photo frame, it package it,
send it to the post office.
Speaker 2: As a as a small business owner, that was.
Speaker 1: A lot and I wanted to do it.
Speaker 2: It is.
Speaker 1: I wanted to do it, but it was so hard
to It was so hard to sustain. So it's amazing
that you're doing this. And I'm not a pet sitting
business owner anymore, but I do. Whenever I hear of
somebody losing a pet, I go straight to memory flame.
Speaker 2: I know you.
Speaker 1: I know the feeling behind it, I know the story
behind it, and I know that people really appreciate a candle.
And I love that you thought of everything You've thought
about the card that you write that on. You know
the client on the customer's behalf. You verify to make
sure that the addresses are right during the process so
that it gets to the right place. You also have
some additional affirmation cards if somebody wants to add that.
And most importantly, you offer candles, real candles, and you
offer the flameless candles for those that have children or
allergies or cats that swat flames. You know you don't
want to do any of that, so you have the
two options, which is so nice. I mean, I love candles,
but my kid is asthmatics, so like, yeah, I will
light a candle during the day when he's not home,
and I have air purifiers, so by the time he
gets here, it's kind of gone. But I love the
flameless candles and I love that they have like a beautiful,
you know, label on them.
Speaker 2: You've done such a great job.
Speaker 1: Is there something that you are going to think about
adding to your collection or anything else that you're kind
of brainstorming?
Speaker 4: Yeah, so it's it's definitely something I've thought of. And
I am a person who loves ideas and like new
things excite me, and yeah, so when we the thing
I love the most I'll say first about the Memory
Flame candles is that we do like you said, you
can go online, you can order them. We make shipping
so easy. But also my favorite thing about it is
it's we gift wrap the candle before we send it,
so it's not like you know an Amazon gift where
it shows up in the Amazon packaging and it's just
kind of slapped together and then they're a note.
Speaker 5: But they don't know who it's from.
Speaker 4: I think we've all received a gift like that before,
and so I wanted this to be different. So we
gift wrap it like you said, We get the person's sympathies,
we handwrite them out, and we sign your name, so
your client or your friend or whoever knows exactly who
that candle's coming from. But yeah, one thing I've thought
about doing, and we'll see if this ever comes to
fruition or not, is creating like a bucket list you
know package. So's a way to help people kind of
encourage people to make those special memories with their pet
before that pet has gone.
Speaker 2: And yes, I've.
Speaker 5: Really so our first dog, Casey.
Speaker 4: So I got my wall of pets back here, she's
on the top there, my Golden Casey. We found out
that she had lymphoma, and we had about four to
six weeks before she passed away, and so we really
tried to like pack as much as we could into
that timeframe. But also I thought to myself, well, gosh,
what what could we have done if we had prioritized
a bucket list way of living, like not at the end,
not just those last few weeks, but for ourselves and
for our pets. Just like this, this way of living
that really embraces life and embraces adventure and really making
those memories because life is short and we never know
what's gonna happen or you know, when life is going
to change. Like you said, we've had those pets where
things just happen, you know, like you wake up one
day and something has changed, and you don't have always
that gift of time at the end. And so yeah,
living life in a way that you don't have to
have those regrets at the end of Man, I really
wish I would have done this, or I really.
Speaker 5: Wish we could have done that together.
Speaker 4: So yeah, so maybe someday we'll have some bucket lists living,
you know, or cards or something.
Speaker 5: I don't know what it might be, but you know,
at least the encouragement.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 1: What's funny is I kind of knew that Titan, my
beloved Titan, the soul dog, who we said goodbye to
last January. I did kind of like a bucket list thing,
but I would have. I just you know, you're in
the midst of anticipatory grief and so you're not like
every time you look at them you're not looking at
them with happiness. You're looking at them with that grief
already because they're still here, but you know they're not
going to be long.
Speaker 2: So something that kind of.
Speaker 1: Gets you that just helps you just go through a
list that you don't have to come up with yourself.
Sounds like it would be really healing and would remind
you of things you want to do that maybe later
you forget. So like with Socks when she passed away,
she was so sick at the end that she didn't
really have that big meal and she didn't really she
couldn't go for her last walk. Titan did because we
were very intentional about not waiting too long, so we
wouldn't want to wait too long until he wasn't able
to do those things. So there's there's a part of
me that wants that and like, you know, to include
like the what is it the quality of life scale
in there and kind of like you know, helping people
prepare for the inevitable. There are no products out there
like that, and I think that's a great idea because
I would have loved it. I mean, I you know,
when your big dog hits fifteen, you're like, oh my gosh,
we had a keen tangette for him. But you knew
that heartbreak was like on the horizon, and so that
would be really nice to be like, Okay, I know
something is terrible's coming, but let's do something to celebrate.
And we had friends over to celebrate him. We made
sure all the kids dropped hot dogs on the floor
the whole time.
Speaker 2: But we did all the things.
Speaker 1: But you know, I'm sure there was a lot of
other things we could have done that I just wasn't
mentally or emotionally able to think about.
Speaker 2: So tell us how.
Speaker 1: Can my audience learn more about all that you do?
So those that are in South Dakota, what service areas
do you cover? And Memory Flame and your podcast tell
us everything.
Speaker 4: Yes, okay, so our pet sitting services we cover Sufalls,
South Dakota. So actually i'll say suit Falls, Brandon, we
go into Tea and Harrisburg's kind of those outlying communities
as well, but we'll call it the Sioux Falls metro area.
And then memory Flame you can find us our website
and our Instagram and social media handles are the same.
It's memory Flame dot Co. And so you can find
us there. You can put an order in online. I
try to share a lot of things on the memory
Flame page that's very encouraging about grief and kind of
the reasons why you need to show up for other
people and kind of encouragement on how to do that.
So if you want to learn more about grief, I
kind of post things like that there. And then yeah,
my podcast is so the Lucky Pup Podcast. You can
find us Lucky puppod dot com or maybe it's Lucky
popodcast dot com. I don't know search either one. You'll
find us on Instagram It's Lucky Pup Pod, so you
can find us there. And I love chatting with other
business owners and we're really talking about big ideas around business.
So we're talking about you know, your branding and you know,
kind of the financials and really these kind of bigger
ideas that also kind of revolve around burnout because I
am a huge, huge burnout advocate. As a pet sitter,
I see way too much burnout in our industry and
it's just something that I'm really passionate about. Again, it
really it goes back to to Olive, and Olive really
taught me that there is more to life than just
work and that we really need to fully enjoy life,
and we have to do that for ourselves. Like other
pet sitters out there are making huge sacrifices to help
other people live their full and happy lives, and we
need to make sure we do that for ourselves as well.
So that's what we're talking about over on the Lucky
Pop podcast.
Speaker 2: Amazing.
Speaker 1: Well, I just want to propose a toast to you
for being my friend, for being so wonderful, and for
all that you do for the pet lovers in the world.
I really think you have such a big heart and
I'm so happy that you made time to chat with
us today.
Speaker 4: Cheers.
Speaker 5: Thank you so much, Ellis Belle, I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Well, it's my pleasure. I also want to propose a
toast to my executive producer, Mark Winter. Thank you Mark,
and to our audience for joining us for these awesome conversations.
I hope that you got something great out of this,
whether it's about an interest in fostering or just having
a plan for any time that your friend or loved
one has a loss in their life. I really do
love Memory Flam. I think you do such a good job,
so thank you so much. Here's still a life Covered
in pet Hair because there's no better way to live.
Speaker 5: Cheers, cheers.
Speaker 1: To learn more about Covered in Pet Hair, please visit
Covered in pet Hair dot com or petlife Radio dot com.
Thanks for watching, and I'll see you next time.
Speaker 3: Let's Talk pets every week on demand only on petlife
Radio dot com