Purposeful Pets is an offshoot of Project Purpose. Its intention is to explore the powerful relationship people share with their pets and the rest of the animal kingdom; how our pets contribute to our lives and how we can contribute back to theirs.

Pets have been an integral part of my life from my earliest memories of Tiddly Winks, my first dog, pulling our sleds up the hill at the age of five or six to my current menagerie of four-legged family members (Argos, Little Bit, Mama Cat, Snowball, and Phantom).

So it’s not surprising that my first major career decision made around the age of seven was to not become a ‘real doctor’ but to become a veterinarian instead. Even back then I didn’t have much use for people who complained a lot, and I noticed animals didn’t complain, so my love of science and animals was a natural. (Unfortunately, it wasn’t until I was a senior in vet school that I realized my key mistake that attached to the other end of the leash of virtually every animal I would see would be attached a human owner who was very good at complaining, not only about their own health but that of their pet as well.)