My Pets: Wags and Giggles

For the love of dogs

We no longer have our ranch in Temecula that I grew up on, but I will always remember it as the special place that taught me to love animals and my family with all of my heart. My parents fostered my connection to animals at an early age by teaching me to care for everything from bunnies to dogs to horses to birds and even reptiles. My mom and I would ride and train horses all day and have our dogs with us everywhere we went. My mom Karen, who is our DogZenergy manager now, cared for our ranch and all of our animals with so much love, compassion and devotion that I owe it all to her for teaching me what it means to work hard and love a lot. Today we are still working as a team to care for all of our dogs, just at the beach and not on our ranch. Home is where the heart is though, and our hearts are with the DogZenergy dogs that we lovingly care for together everyday.

Me and my mom with our old ranch dogs in 1997

Guess I always wanted to be a dog trainer! Just found this the other day while cleaning out my closets! Zen dog art circa 1995.

2009 la jolla christmas parade animal lover Dr. Seuss happy birthday Theodore Seuss Geisel Wags and Giggles

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss... A Fellow Animal Lover from La Jolla!

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Famous American writer and cartoonist Theodore Seuss Geisel, aka Dr. Seuss, would have celebrated his 107th birthday today!

What does this have to do with DogZenergy? Quite a bit actually. Dr. Seuss not only lived in our neighborhood, but he was a devoted animal lover just like us!

Although originally from Massachusetts, Dr. Seuss moved to La Jolla after World War II and lived in San Diego county until his death in September of 1991. The UCSD library was named the Geisel Library in his honor.

During his time in California, almost all his works featured animals as main characters or trusty side-kicks. Horton the devoted elephant in Horton Hatches and Egg. The endearingly mischievous feline in The Cat in the Hat. The loyal pooch Max in How The Grinch Stole Christmas. The menagerie of real and imaginary creatures in If I Ran the Zoo. The aquatic cuties in One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish. It's clear how much Dr. Seuss loved animals. He celebrated their unique characteristics and showed how animals can bring out the best in us.

Thanks for the lesson, Dr. Seuss. And Happy Birthday!

"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go."

-Dr. Seuss