Journeys Begin When Procrastination Ends

 Sometimes I feel like I can trace everything in my life back to one specific point -  the butterfly that created the hurricane.  For me, that moment was when I was working at the Hotel Palomar in Washington DC and I met two members of the Jane Austen Society of North America in 2008.  Without that interaction, my life would be completely different. When I moved to Utah I complained to a friend that there wasn't a region here, and she suggested I start one.  

"So I did."

If I hadn't met those people, I never would have started a Utah Region, and  I would never have met my good friend Kimberly. Through her I met my future husband, and my butterfly moment became a forceful breeze.  

​ You should know that with Luke and I, things moved pretty fast.  He was the first to suggest (two weeks into dating) that we get married. It took me a little longer to adjust to the idea, but from the moment I met him, my butterfly breeze was guiding me in a direction I never imagined my life would take.  ​

"Only one small part of that was Baxter."

Baxter.  I fell in love with him because he fell in love with me.  He latched himself onto me the moment we met - I think he knew I was good for his dad!  He did everything in his power to make sure I knew he needed me, and that it would break his heart if I ever left his daddy.  His hard work paid off, and I stuck around.  

I was a holistic eater myself, and constantly learning more about my own health and how whole, real foods could serve my body and keep me healthy.  As I became a pet caregiver, I started to wonder what I needed to know to keep Baxter healthy, too.  The idea of learning as much about pet food as I did about human food was intimidating, and for over a year I put it off, not knowing where to start but knowing that I should do it.  The butterfly wind continued to pleasantly waft across my life as I settled into my new roles as doggie mommy and girlfriend.​

Having just graduated with my Master's from the University of Utah, I entered the grown up version of the job market at the same time I met Baxter. I taught at UVU part-time and supplemented myself with different ventures,  internships, and temp jobs.  ​

When I was approaching the end of a training contract, I was looking for a new job and I saw an ad for a holistic pet food company just getting off the ground.  This intrigued me, because of my own holistic approach to life, of course, but more importantly - it meant I might be able to bring Baxter to work!  This was why I really applied.  Baxter was getting older, and it made me so sad to think of him all alone in the house all day long with just two cats for company (our family had expanded).   

When I got the job, and was finally able to start learning everything I had wanted to about pet food, I realized something Amazing:

"Baxter WASN'T getting old.  He was just unhealthy.  That was my fault."

Baxter was almost eight years old when he started having stomach upset if we gave him table scraps. We gave him what I thought was a decent brand of kibble, so when he started having diarrhea when he ate anything else, we got strict and didn't allow anyone to feed him extras.  Not even my niece (artwork displayed here) was allowed.

We tried switching Baxter to a grain-free diet, since that was the one thing I knew was supposed to be better than regular kibble. Since it was more expensive, it had to be healthier, right? 

Wrong.

​Trying grain-free was actually scary. Even with just a little in his bowl, he would poop blood and scream like Chewbacca when he tried to poop.  It was like the food was literally tearing at his stomach.

Baxter was having major diarrhea explosions in the house on a regular basis.  NOT pleasant, and thank heavens we had hardwood floors and not carpets, or we would have lost our security deposit on our rental for sure! He also started to have incontinence - he would pee when he got too excited, leaving trails of urine.  I thought he was just getting older, and this was how dogs were.

Wrong again.

 Enter my new job. I didn't know it at the time, but my butterfly-wing-breeze was about to change into a full-force wind.   I transitioned Baxter over to the pet food over the course of 6 weeks, and from the beginning as I tentatively fed him goat milk, watching anxiously for any blood in his poop to indicate he needed smaller doses, I was impressed.  Since any change in diet caused bloody stools, I thought this would be the same, but it wasn't.  He handled everything fine - his stools were still a little loose to start, but very quickly became dark and hard, which I learned later was a very good sign. 

He stopped screaming when he pooped, and he started to show more lift in his step  - when he jumped with all four paws off the ground a month in, I nearly cried. I thought he had been too old for that.  He slowly lost weight, and his breath became better.  I was sold - this was the right stuff.

Kimberly Gauthier, a great holistic blogger

As I continued to learn about raw pet food and got the opportunity to know the industry, I got to talk to people, every single day who were either considering switching their dogs to raw, or who had already done so and had seen incredible health improvements. I was able to share my own experiences, and together we formed a community of dedicated pet owners who understood how much of a role nutrition plays in health.   

A year and a half later, you would never imagine Baxter to be an old man at age nine.  He is playful, fit, healthy, and energetic.  Considering how much this dog means to my husband and me, and how much shorter and miserable his life would have been had we not found a better diet for him, I can only thank that butterfly wing of a moment that led me to where I am today.  It made my dog healthy  and you can't put a price on that.

It was a month ago that the butterfly wing created a gale-force wind. I was  lamenting the fact there was no good pet store north of 33rd south for the Sugarhouse area - no educational resource and community-building center for those who wished for better health for their pets.  Suddenly I realized that, like I had years ago, I was complaining without taking action.  You don't always have to wait for someone else to solve your problem. You can solve it yourself.  Since there wan't a good store full of foods a pet parent could trust, it was within my power to fix that. That is what I am planning to do with Desert Raw Holistic Pet.   

 "I want that butterfly wing to have an even wider reach than my own life."

I want to share my butterfly wing with you.  I want my butterfly to bring beauty, vibrancy, and light to you and your pet as well as me.  So please.   Let's talk about how food heals. How keeping close to nature provides the best nutrition.   Even if you aren't ready for raw yet, there are some great kibble and canned brands, but you need to know what to look for to make sure it really as is as good as it's marketing says it is.  We can help.  So  let's have a conversation, and keep the butterfly wind blowing.