This blog is to document my life and adventures living full time in a motorhome. Volunteerism has always been a big part of my life. Join me as I highlight my trips, adventures, work for California Department of Technology and enjoying life with dogs.
Fortunately, it was a quiet fire season, so I've been able to focus on doing dog adoption videos. I completed my 600th dog video this year. That is I've done 600, since I started doing dog videos, some 14 years ago. Unfortunately, lately, I've been challenged to get a helper to do dog videos who I jive well with. Ally is a great partner, but as I mentioned in an earlier post, her life is so chaotic, that she just doesn't have the bandwidth to help. So, I'm back to doing the videos by myself. But, doing the videos by myself is tiring.
In order to help me recharge, I've also managed to get out for a few camping trips and road trips. The most recent of which was a trip to Mt Shasta for a little nature injection.
Since my divorce, I have learned so much about myself. I've learned that my tribe is in those more compassionate. Animal rescue folks are the type that best understand me. But those with a liberal bent truly are the ones who make me feel welcome. Since moving back to Sacramento, I have really become settled in to volunteering at the City of Stockton's animal shelter. Tara and Katt, my two main contacts at the shelter are so good working with me to find dogs that I can work with. They have made it abundantly clear that the videos that I do, do in fact make a difference. Sometimes, they don't always result in a dog getting adopted from the shelter, but there are many times that Rescue's see dogs that I have worked with and pull the dogs into their programs, thereby saving the dog from possible euthanaisia.
Tara is a very special person. Not only is the main person that I work with, but she is always working her job, many hours of the day, way outside her 8 to 5 job. And even when she is injured, she is always casting her injuries aside and pitching in. She has a gentleman in her life who has a disability and she is always trying to help him out as well. Recently, she put out a call on Facebook, looking for someone with a wheelchair that she could have to give her loved one the mobility that he needs. No one answered the call. I KNOW how much energy and money she puts into saving the dogs, and I could not help myself, so I bought them a wheelchair to help them out.
Remi has a new vet, and his name is Dr. Matt and he and his wife launched their own veterinary practice and he is a wonderful person and vet. His wife Carolyn is simply amazing as well. They also founded a non-profit that takes care of the medical needs of the animals that come into the Shelter.
I truly feel honored to know so many wonderful people involved with the Stockton Animal shelter.
If you have read some of my previous posts, you know that I've become good friends with my friend Ally. She is a smart, gorgeous woman who has truly made me feel like I am someone that she trusts. I had such an abysmal dating record in High School and College, and then with my wife never feeling like she 100% trusted me (or anyone for that matter), I was really doubting myself. Well, over the last two years that Ally and I have been close, I now better understand that it wasn't that I wasn't trustworthy, I just didn't understand that I was trustworthy. Ally truly helped me to feel trusted and valued.
Ally and I started a non-profit called Pit Saver Productions, and while she has not had the bandwidth to help out with the non-profit as much as she and I probably had hoped, she and I are still good friends. Every year, her dad goes on a long camping trip to Yellowstone, and Ally goes up to her dads to take care of his dogs while she is gone. This year, while she was up caring for her dads dogs, I went up to Shelton Washington for a long weekend to visit Ally, and check out the area. Here is a little video about the trip.
Well, I have to apologize for being gone for so long, but life has been very busy for me the last 12 months. In October of 2024, my friend Ally O'Dell convinced me that we should start a non-profit under the name of Pit Saver Produtions. So, the last few months of 2024 were spent getting all of the necessary paperwork in order to launch the non-profit.
Unfortunately, due to some life developments outside of Ally's control, she has not been able to participate as much as either one of us had initially hoped and so I've been mostly a one-man-band, working to keep the non-profit afloat until Ally is able to dive back in. She is helping where she can, but its been a challenge for her.
None the less, earlier this year, I've had a couple of outreach booths at events trying to spread the word about the importance of adopting pets from animal shelter, disaster preparedness and other topics.
My sister Karen met a wonderful guy named Mike Wraight, back in the late 1960's. They got married in 1969. Mike has two brothers, Chuck and Steve. Chuck and his wife Teri live in Ashland Oregon currently, and their son Scott, Scott's wife Anne and their son's Gavin and Austin live in Georgia.
Steve is married to his wife Elena and they have three daughters, Morgan, Marina and Mia. Morgan and Marina have budding families of their own, and Mia, just married a long time guy in her life named Hunter.
The Wraight's have been a part of my family, for as far back as I can remember. Even going back to the day that Karen and Mike got married, I have felt like we were all one big family.
This year, Steve and Elena celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. I went down to Long Beach California where Steve and Elena live to participate in the celebration. Their entire family always make me feel so welcome. There is never an us vs them sort of thing, they are just wonderful family members. While I was down there, I tripped around the area that I grew up in Buena Park and visited many of my old haunts. It was almost like going back in time. I visited my old Elementary school and even saw the field that a friend of mine and I hid out in when we ditched school when I was in the second grade. Every visit down there has been special in some way, but this one was particularly special.
Here is a 40 minute video about my trip to Long Beach for Steve and Elena's wedding anniversary.
But, if you don't want to sit through that entire video, at least check out this video which was the highlight of the anniversary celebration.
