Title: From Pit Bulls to Purpose | How One Rescue Dog Changed Everything
Downloaded: 2026-04-10 14:56:03

[Music] Welcome back everybody to another episode of the AutoAccon Attorneys podcast. I'm your host, Attorney Ali, and the podcast is sponsored by the Auto Accident Attorneys Group, where we take care of you. As you guys have probably figured out by now, even though it is the auto accident attorneys podcast, it's not all auto accidentbased content. A lot of this stuff is uh as a girl dad, I I' I give dad advice. Uh I try and provide information direct to consumers that I would have not otherwise known had I not had people in my life.

And along those lines, today we've got one of my oldest friends from the personal injury industry who's no longer in that particular industry and pursuing her passions. My close friend Diana Garcia. Hi. Thanks for having me on the pod. Thank you so much for coming back. And also this handsome boy with you, Mr. Clayton. Mr. Clayton's busy right now. He's got a toy over there. I love it. And our regular co-host, attorney Holly, my sister Holly Cole. Welcome. I'm back. And today's I also Is it there everybody? What a darling face.

And we we've got Jetty Jederson Selimi with us as well. That's her middle name unofficially. Uh today's episode is the reason I invited Diana on because Diana introduced me to the Lifeline Project and a shelter to rescue dogs. And that's how Jetty has become a part of the family. And so I wanted to just open up the conversation for you Diana to talk about that journey and what you went down, what you experienced and led you to uh where you are today and how that relates to me getting Jetty in my life because I love being main character.

It's all about you always. No, no. Again, thank you for having me on uh especially to discuss a topic that's so near and dear to my heart. Um, and we are bonded forever now. For better or worse, we are bonded forever because of little Jetty over here. And I love the story of how we got to her. So, I can't wait to, you know, to have that dialogue with you and explain to the viewers how that came about. Um, but um, but anyways, yeah, so uh, this dog that you see right here, this is Clayton. He is 14 years old.

I rescued him when he was 2 years old. Um, it was just a normal stroll through PetSmart. Um, I had a dog um already and uh I was just going to the store to get supplies for her and there was a rescue organization out in the front of Pets Smart. I'm sure everybody kind of knows what that looks like. You know, when they go to the pet store and they see the the rescue organization and all these puppies and um so there were a ton of puppies out there. Obviously, they drew the biggest crowd. But then off to a corner in a dark kennel, there was this guy.

I'm like, you know, why is he off to the corner all by himself? And, you know, it's it's the intimidation factor. You know, he you know, when he was two, he was in his prime. He was bulky and muscly and and you know, people like revered him from afar, but there was not a whole lot of interest in him because the puppies were stealing the show. And, you know, something pulled on my heart, but I'm like, I can't have another dog. Like, I you know, he's full grown. I don't know about that. I had all these hesitations that most people have.

you know, there's a sort of comfort in knowing that you're raising a dog from puppyhood that gives you some sort of element of control. And so, I kind of, you know, did away with the the that pull that I was feeling. Um, but over the course of a couple of days, I kept dreaming about him. And I'm not a dreamer. When I'm sleeping, I'm out cold. So, I'm like, "Okay, something's telling me to like check up on this dog." So, I called the rescue organization. They're like, "Oh, sorry you missed your chance.

you know, he's already been taken. I'm like, "Oh, well, that settles it. I'm just going to go on about my life." Uh, and then I get a call a couple of hours later that he's been returned. Apparently, he was too high energy for the family that took him and, you know, they weren't they weren't ready for the responsibility. I'm like, I guess I've got to step up now. So, I I got him and he came home with me and um like I've had him for 12 years and he's been an absolute godsend. That's amazing. 12 years together.

12 years. So he's 14 is you know what's considered geriatric at this point. I mean I think dogs become seniors at the age of seven especially the larger breed dogs you know um their life expectancy is not very high. So having him you know be 14 years old is a real blessing. That's amazing. A testament too to how much I spoil him with supplements and all the things to keep him healthy. Oh you did a beautiful job because I knew he was older but I didn't realize he was 14. He's doing great for 14. Wait, quick math, Ollie.

Like, how good are you on your feet? What is 7 * 14? Who? Uh, what's 4* 7? 28. So, 98 years old. That's what the equivalent kind of would be to human years. I I think they've modified it um a little bit to where he might not actually be 98. Maybe he's in his 80s, but he's doing a great job for it. That is the best looking octoenarian I've Who was it? Was it Dairo that just recently got me? Yeah. And had a baby. Yeah. That's That's Mr. Clayton over there. Yeah. I think he's more of a of a Clint Eastwood though than a Robert Diero.

He uh he's not he's not so much mobster as much as Get Off My Lawn. Yes. So anyway, so that's the story of how Mr. Clayton came about. And then just the um I would say the mission behind rescue kind of came over the course of me seeing how differently he was treated than your typical, you know, well bred designer breed sort of dog. Um people don't always notice like their underlying bias, but it's absolutely there and and you feel it. And when it's like your child Yeah. You know, I mean, you have real children.

So, you can tell anytime your child is maybe shunned or maybe treated a little differently if that's ever happened. It hurts you. Oh, absolutely. It hurts you and you're like, you know, he's sweet. He want he just wants to be included. You know, why do people see him as different or as a threat? And that's a common stigma that exists in society towards the pitbull breed. And by and large, the pitbull breed is what exists out there in animal shelters currently. um they're at capacity. You know, so many uh like these dogs are very irresponsibly bred.

Litters are, you know, huge. So, when they're unwanted or not given the sort of training and responsibility that, you know, that that they're that they deserve, they get surrendered to these shelters. And um yeah, and there's not enough people that know enough about the breed or care enough to kind of alleviate that stress from the shelters. So um so I I I faced a lot of, you know, little like micro aggressions, I guess, from people, you know, when they see him, they would move to the other side of the street, you know, kind Oh, really?

Yeah. kind of fear for their safety a little bit. Um but then you know you've over the course of years with you know the um adopt don't shop movement you've seen a lot more open-mindedness lot more willingness to approach uh to adopt or at the very least to just ask is he friendly can I pet him and that's huge like of course he is like go for it I guess you know thinking back I I personally I I wasn't really a dog person so it's not it was never at the top of my mind but I was I didn't have a bias towards Pitts.

Uh but thinking back, I guess most of the media stories that you hear, you don't hear they're not playing an air what was Airbud, right? They don't have a pitbull an Airbud, but then you see like the news piece. They're they're very much stereotyped actually that now that I'm thinking about it, you're absolutely right. Yeah. Well, you know, it has something to do with like their look too. Um they they give like a like a cool intimidating like sort of which is why I really wanted one. Right. So you know people with nefarious intents you know we'll use them for for harmful things.

You know animal bedding you know is very much still alive in this country and throughout the world and you know because of their sheer strength which was not what they were originally bred for. Um, like if if you trace their origins back to, you know, Europe, they were actually bred for nanny dogs. Like the child care, they're the sweetest with kids. Really? They're such gentle, not even giants. I mean, he's a big boy, but they're not all big boys. And yeah. Yeah. Like the velvet hippos. I learned recently actually that when uh somewhere down the line, they actually crossbred the um maybe the English bulldog.

I I can't remember which or maybe the Staffordshire terrier. They they crossbreed them with uh rat terriers uh which are known for you know excavating you know to get like moles and like they're diggers and they're they're I mean they just chase after their prey and so uh they crossbred you know the bully breed with those terriers to um to use them for hunting. So, um, you know, they would take down like the the wild boars and they, you know, they would treat like other types of animals and stuff.

So, that's kind of how the the the strength and the prey drive came about. I see. But that's not how they began. That's fascinating. And I did see, you're absolutely right. When we went to, you had posted a picture of a beautiful boy named Pedro. Sure did. And I see you you brought pictures with I have brought photos. Okay. Yep. So this is Pedro and uh he was up for adoption uh several months ago and you know you of all people reached out. You're like I'm interested in Pedro. Go from there. Yeah. You had posted him on social media and the origin story for I've never owned an animal.

Uh I no didn't grow up with pets. uh didn't have a desire to have a dog in the house. I actually like things to not have dog hair on them. I prefer things that way. Your chair is covered in dog hair right now, by the way. Forget the dog hair. I saw the saliva come out. But no, I've I've completely changed. And the reason I changed was because my youngest daughter, uh, Juliet, that we called Guju, really, really wanted a dog because she wanted to overcome her fear of dogs. She grew up terrified, not just of dogs, of cat, animals in general.

She even our neighbors had gotten cats and she wouldn't go near the cat. And she was working her just on her own. She was working through her fear and and she said, "This is over a year ago." She said that if I have my own dog, I'll be less afraid of dogs. And I was like, "Okay." So, I used that to my advantage. I was like, "You have to do this, you have to do that, you know, prove yourself, prove responsibility, doing all these chores." She did about a year of that and I never thought it would really come to fruition.

And she kept asking for an animal. Earlier this year, she was in third grade and they had an assignment to write a persuasive essay. And the persuasive essay was about why she should have a pet. And when I read that, obviously, I went to law school. I'm an attorney. I want my children to be able to persuade as opposed to just like kick and scream. So, when I saw that immediately, I was like, I don't care about my life. She's getting a dog. I have to reward this. So, right around that same time was when I saw Pedro on your social media post and I I literally was like, I love this dog.

What a majestic dog, right? Majestic is such a great way to to describe him. Yeah. So, I reached out to you. You told me where. I didn't know about the Lifeline project at the Decab shelter. We drove out there. Tons of animals. Every What are the I don't want to call them cages. Are they cages? Cages. Panels. I mean, whatever they can put them in at this point. Every kennel was full. There was an animal in every single kennel. The morning that we were supposed to go, Juju had school. Uh it was Valentine's Day. Valentine's Day.

She went to school and when she was walking to the the bus stop, she was singing Pedro, Pedro, Pedro, Pedro P. She was so excited about meeting Pedro. When we finally after school, I went and picked her up. We went to the shelter. Uh, we met Pedro and we went outside and we were playing with him. Loved the dog. Amazing temperament, but super high energy and strong. And the idea was that Guju would be responsible for walking the dog. And looking at him, I was like, "This dog is going to walk you." Like, amazing pet, not for our household as a firsttime animal.

She understood. She agreed. We were leaving and I hear And Ju Guu is bent down at a kennel at at like looking on the bottom row. And we look down and we see this face. It was Jetty and her she was just wagging her tail. She was the only dog that was that excited and happy. So Juju begged to see this dog. We weren't even We went for a pit. You were about to leave. We were on our way out. Yeah, we were leaving. She wanted to see this dog. We went outside. We spent about 40 minutes in that little courtyard with Jetty and I was like, "Well, I think we're going to have to take this dog home." I just the way that she was interacting with with Guju was like, "This is your dog." And the size was perfect.

All the elements lined up. It really did. And she Yeah. Now, now I've got dog hair on me. Got a dog licking my beard. Now you're a dog dad. Um, you opened up, genuinely, your post opened up an entirely new world to me. I had an episode last week where I was talking about being a girl dad and how I only ever wanted boys, but having girls taught me so many things about myself I didn't know. Same thing with a dog. Genuinely had no idea. I had gotten warmed up to the idea because we had an inoff dog, Dudesen, who you've met before.

Mh. He's also an old man like Clayton. But uh and then because of Guju, it was like maybe we might have to have one. But your post with Pedro, I'll always remember Pedro for the rest of my life because that's what led to Jetty. And I got to because of this before I forget. I didn't realize Diana, you brought snacks for Jetty with her name on it that you made yourself this morning. Oh yes. So, uh, you touched earlier on on, you know, career transition and everything. I am enjoying and basking in fun employment right now.

And by no means have I really taken a break from, you know, labor because now I'm volunteering at the shelter. I'm fostering dogs. I'm baking these treats every morning and like putting everything into it. They're all organic. Like the ingredients are so healthy. They're actually delicious. if you want to try one for your audience. I was wondering how they tasted. So, I can I can eat this dog treat. Yep. Yep. It's an anti-inflammatory. You're going to be the epitome of health after this. It's blueberries, bananas, flax seed, egg, um, cinnamon.

Like, it's actually quite delicious. Let me try one. I I saw you. I'll do one, too. Let's chew it together. All right. Ready? I taste the flax seed and the blueberry. You taste the flax seed. Jenny and I are going to be sharing snacks. So, yeah, I bake these in the morning and when I go to the shelter, I have, you know, hundreds of treats to give the dogs. And I mean, I'm I'm kind of like, you have an inflated sense of ego right now because my treats have never been refused by a dog. And if you have a dog stamp of approval, then I feel like you've just made it.

Well, Jetty gobbled it up. Now, I've had it. That's the first time I've had a dog treat. I cannot say the same. Tell me about your first time. My husband used to do this thing. We lived in a high-rise condo in Midtown and they would keep a bowl of like the wish milk bones, little milk bones for all the dogs in the building. Not a milk bone. Came home one night, you know, it was a night of drinking. and he walks up and he grabs like a fistful of these milk bones and he looks at the concierge and she looks at him smiling thinking that's sweet that he's bringing his dog some milk bones.

He stares her dead in the eyes and just goes inhales it. The horrified look on her face and I was like, "Well, now I want to know what it tastes like." So, I had one, too. It's pretty bland. I can imagine. Cardboard. Yeah. Not like that. That's delicious. Was that Brian's first time or he had done that before? Cuz that's an aggressive move. Was it an act of defiance? Like I don't know what was going through his head. I hope it was his first time, but he moved like it was not his first time. Oh, the familiarity.

He didn't flinch. Not at all. Oh, that is too funny. But yeah, so uh now I I bake these treats. Um it's a part of like my morning routine. I love it. Like I'm very domesticated right now. That's awesome. Um but yeah, so um currently actually no, let's finish talking about Pedro. Um so Pedro stayed in the shelter system after you rejected him. Ali no. Um but my one of my best friends who does a lot of this work with me, she she was obsessed with Pedro from the beginning. She's like, I'm going to take this dog.

So she she pulled him out for a few days. She couldn't keep him indefinitely because she has five of her own. It's a zoo at her house. Um, but her posts and pictures of him captured the attention of one of her male friends. So, he ended up taking Pedro. Um, so Pedro posting dogs on social media. You guys are saving lives. Oh, it's becoming so popular. It's funny. I was thinking about that on the way over here because um I saw one of these like, you know, hottie influencer Alex Earl. Alex, wasn't she too she's previous like a a bar stool girl or she was like friends with call her daddy girl too?

She was part of her podcast network. Okay. Yes, that's right. Yeah. So, I saw that Alex Earl and her boyfriend will take a dog for the day and just like give them the the high life, you know, let them sleep in their bed and everything and it's a whole thing. Well, good segue into I hope that you're going to show Oh, absolutely. The speeches, of course. So, you know, the movement definitely kind of started in the West Coast. I feel like to adopt and not shop. It's like they were almost shaming people for buying from breeders, which I do not do.

Like, you know, certain families like require like those dogs and if that's your preference, that's your preference. Yeah. Um, but then I would say that the movement kind of, you know, just increased big time when Dave Portoi, you know, the head of Bar Stool Sports, El Presidentede, uh, you know, caught wind of this poor mama dog at Lifeline Animal Project. She had been overbred. Um, you know, she had that saggy, gross belly skin and it was just like pitiful. And she was rescued from a hoarding situation.

It often happens uh where you know these breeders are just so irresponsible and they'll have you know all these dogs you know under terrible conditions and the authorities are notified. So they go in there and they raid it and then you know all these dogs that they pull are taken to the shelter. So Dave Dave was made aware of this dog through his ex-wife who's actually a big animal rescuer too and he just couldn't get her out of his head. So he, you know, hopped on his private jet, came down to Atlanta and he saved Miss Peaches and um it started this whole thing like Miss Peaches amassed a million followers within maybe like less than a month and people were just enamored by her story.

She's the sweetest thing, you know, he was buying her the most lavish things. He bought her like a Louis Vuitton poncho, a Goyard like bowl like set and she destroyed everything. of course, you know, like his Gucci wallet was like in shreds. His AMX is just like he's like Miss Peaches and he would just never get mad at her and it was just the most endearing thing that I mean like this dog I mean she was living the life in Miami getting leftovers from Carbone. She had a home in Nantucket and you just love to see it, right?

So, uh, Lifeline invited Dave and Miss Peaches back a year later to their annual Good Human Gala. It's this charity event, you know, that they throw once a year. Um, they invite, you know, members of the community. You buy your tickets, you buy a table, and it is just like a free-for-all of charity. You know, there's silent auctions, all sorts of auctions. I want to say they raised at this event maybe $900,000, close to a million. And Dave Dave wasn't even like the biggest, you know, contributor to it.

I mean, I I saw like this like old widow lady. You could tell like she just like was just burning through her ex-husband's money. She's like lifting her paddle. I'll take it. I'll take it. I'll take it. I'm like, geez, lady, how much do you have? Yeah. But anyways, this is a picture. Uh I was invited to the gala and uh you'll see Dave right here and Miss Peaches. I was sitting at the table right next to them and I was all about Miss Peaches. I I didn't even really pay attention to Dave, but that's what he wanted.

That's awesome. Uh so it was a really great experience and uh Miss Kes has gone on to just be the ambassador for a lot of things. Um he's really pushing her forward and all the proceeds made through her site go to animal rescue. Um his first big check went back to Lifeline, but then he's been supporting other rescue organizations in New York. He just came out with like a selzer in her name. Really? Yeah, like it's got her picture on it. It's like this like lemonade sort of seltzer. Um, so proceeds from that go to animal rescue.

Uh, she got the keys to the city for Miami from the mayor. Oh, she really made something of herself. Oh my god, I want to come back as Miss Peaches in my next life. Everybody does, girl. Everybody does. Don't get jealous. Don't get jealous. Jenn is living a pretty good life. So, um, so yeah, we've got to give Dave Portoy a whole lot of credit for what what he's done. It's a very like altruistic sort of thing from from his end. But yeah, I love to see the influencers really get involved because it's changing the way that people view these dogs cuz you got you know, Ali, your experience walking into the shelter, it was it was sad, wasn't it?

It was heartbreaking. And again, I I never wanted a dog. I didn't grow up with dogs. Being there, I I felt overwhelmed. And I was like, I I wish I could take more than one. It's a very emotional Yeah, it is an emotional experience because you don't even know if half of them are going to make it out. Um because, you know, just like fire marshall code, these shelters are subject to capacity restraints because at a certain point housing that many dogs becomes inhumane. It's more inhumane than just euthanizing them.

Uh so the the entire nation is at critical levels. Um you know you saw that every single kennel was filled here in this rescue in Georgia. But one of my neighbors, she rescued her dog from San Bernard San Bernardino in California. And she said there were six dogs to a kennel. Same size as those kennels that you saw. Six dogs to a kennel. I can't even believe that. They're fighting for their life. They're fighting for their resources. They're fighting each other uh just to get the attention, just to get the food.

She says it's it's just a horrific sight to behold. So, um, something has to be done. Obviously, if you're listening, one of the best things you could do with your life, if you're bored, you want to give back, you want to help, you want to find some meaning, go at a minimum, just go check out the shelter. You don't I'm not going to force anyone to adopt. I can't through video. I don't want to guilt you into it, but at least go and and spend some time and you can foster, right, at these shelters. Yeah.

You know, I I was mentioning to Holly um before this that you can commit as little or as much as you want to to animal welfare. Um I love Lifeline because they get very very creative about ways that you can help. So, if you want something that's kind of I don't want to call it loweffort, um nothing's loweffort, right? But, um, I think if you want it to be like a one-time thing, but, you know, you've got a full-time job, uh, you know, you could always encourage your company to engage in corporate retreats.

Um, so I I know plenty of business owners, um, you know, financiers and, you know, like suit and tie kind of guys that will do, uh, corporate retreats at the shelter. And you know, once a quarter they'll take, you know, their entire teams out there and, you know, they'll they'll clean kennels, they'll walk dogs, they'll prepare goodie bags. Um, and it's just kind of a bonding thing. You know, it's it's a way to show that, you know, corporate responsibility. Um, so you can do that. Uh, one of my favorite things to do with Lifeline is the dog for the day program.

And it's uh it's very similar to like checking out a library book except it's a four-legged living breathing dog. You walk in and uh Lifeline has already categorized their dogs by uh low level. So they call it L1. Those are the easy button dogs. They're not strong pullers. They're, you know, they don't show signs of, you know, reactivity or anything like that. They're just easy. And um so they've got these dogs pulled out already. You go in there, you say, "You want to do dog for the day?" You can flip through the catalog and pick the one you want.

Uh they also organize it by, you know, who has not spent time out of the shelter, when the last time was that they went out. Uh so you get to make like an educated decision of like who you want to take out for the day. And there's all sorts of activities you can do. You want to go for a hike, take the dog with you. Uh you want to go sit, you know, at a patio and enjoy some beers, take the dog with you if it's a dog friendly patio. And then you just you just bring them back before closing time. And you know, you return with a dog who's decompressed, who's happy, who has met people.

You're able to submit notes about their temperament. Do they do well with children? Are they good with males? Uh, do they take treats gently? I mean, there's there's so much value that you can give to these organizations that frankly are too stressed to focus on those kind of details. They're just trying to keep dogs alive at this point. And if you go and foster you when you do take them out for the day, you can post on your own social media, right? And so you can p it to your own network and really help.

But somebody I heard somebody say it takes a village. They weren't talking about dogs, but that concept makes sense. I mean, the more people that share. Funny you should say it takes a village. I have like this other photo that I really wanted to kind of highlight um just about how the community like this the community really helps restore your faith and humanity. Um, so Lifeline has a huge, you know, following, like a ton of loyalty and something happened a few months ago where like their water line broke or something like that and they weren't able to fill bowls of water for the dogs.

So they put out like an SOS on uh on Facebook and they're like, "We need water. Please, you know, send us water." like thousands of people got on Door Dash and ordered gallons and gallons upon like crates of water and within a matter of like 30 minutes they had sufficient water for days. Wow. To you know supply these animals. So even something like that, you know, you don't have to take a strange dog into your home and, you know, give it all sorts of investment. Even though I do know people that invest a ton of money into these dogs, thank God for them.

Sometimes people really can be beautiful. You know what's funny? What's that? Okay. So, okay. When COVID happened, tell me like the first show that the nation kind of binge watched. the first show when COVID hit that they binge watched. Yeah. What show like spearheaded like the Netflix binging movement? I don't know. Oh, now I don't know that I feel like Well, no, I'm not mad at myself cuz I was completely You remember who Joe Exotic was? Oh, that's right. Like, I know. Tiger. So funny. Tiger. Absolutely right.

All right. So, the way this fits in is uh the dog I can't wait to see you wrap this up. So, the dog that I'm uh that I fostered last um he's he's a cutie. And this lady, you know, saw him on my social media post and she was like, I want to kind of take over the foster since you can't do it for much, you know, for very long. I'm like, all right, cool. So, she's one of these ladies that, you know, she's die hard about these dogs. like she wants to invest in their training before, you know, she finds their per, you know, permanent home because she wants to make it as difficult as possible for whoever adopts the dog to surrender them.

You know, she wants them to, you know, be the perfect family dog before she before it leaves her hands. So, she um got a trainer for this dog. His name is Kane. Let me show you a picture of Kane. So, she got a trainer for Kane, and she allowed me to participate in Kane's first training session. and his trainer is um a lady that used to work for Carol Baskin at Big Animal Rescue. You have no idea how much I was dying to ask if Carol Baskin actually killed her husband and said to the tiger, but she told me that Carol was like the nicest lady in the world.

A little woowoo, but like you know, great intentions, like always great with like, you know, the wild cats. She was telling me crazy stories of how they get tigers and lions to obey. And she's like, "It's the same with any animal, even children. You know, you've just got to distract them with a higher value treat and you know that that'll that'll get them to obey." And I'm like, "Wow." She was telling me that she would take big buckets, like Home Depot, Home Depot buckets, and freeze blood in them and almost make like a blood popsicle and and it would distract the tigers enough to where she could go in there and like clean like their whole like habitat and everything and just walk among them cuz they were busy with their blood popsicle.

That takes a lot of testicular fortitude. A thousand. And she's tinier than I am. But yes, so she is currently training Kane, this dog that I bought. Beautiful dog. Oh, he's so confused. He's so cute. Um, he will not have a problem finding a good home and he's going to be the best trained dog there is cuz he learned from somebody who's Tiger King adjacent. Wow. You know, Ollie, I'm I'm a little sorry that you didn't Well, I'm not really. You're also a dog owner, but I feel bad that neither Mushie nor Ralphie are here.

Oh, they can't. They're I'm thinking, can I send my dogs to this trainer? They're the best. They're the absolute best when it comes to people. I swear to God, these are like little humans. When it comes to other dogs, they're so reactive. They're I'm surprised. So, we had the first dog, Mushi. She's half Chihuahua, half rat terrier. You're talking about rat terriers. And we had her for like a good five years before my husband was like, "We need a second dog." and she had already exhibited reactive behavior with other dogs.

I was like there's absolutely no way. So we bring in the second dog and it was there was definitely um a period of time that was some growing pains but eventually like now they're best friends. I don't know what she's been whispering to him but she's like no we hate all dogs in this house because there was nothing like he was fine. He grew up with a litter. We didn't adopt him until he was about like eight months old. So, he'd already been around several dogs. And then he comes into our household and she's like, "Look, in this house we fight." And now he's worse than she is.

Everyone's a threat. Everyone's a threat. Everyone on four legs is a threat. I grew up with Jack Russell Terriers and Oh, they're insane. Like, uh, we would take this dog on a walk and he would to get to another dog to kill him, he would choke himself. I mean, there were so many times that he like suppressed his own air supply and like fainted by God because he just had to kill. That's dedication. Those are my dogs. I get it. Yeah. So, they came in here and I hate it because they're such small dog stereotypes when we're out on walks and we've had we talk about being like defensive of your children.

I we've had people just kind of like scoff and be like typical small dogs and I'm like, "No, they're the best. They're not like yappy little things. They're just protecting themselves. Well, you know what? That actually makes me feel better. There's comfort in company, right? Okay. Well, maybe it wasn't like, you know, discrimination against just my big bully dog. If all of them are discriminated against, I'm cool. Yeah. No, it's it's all there's just haters out there. You know, you're talking about they're just like people.

It's a great segue into talking about auto accidents and dogs. They're family members. I this one already has a middle name, Jetty Jederson. Uh she although I don't have a restraint system for her in the car. She I've got it where the back seat is essentially her little kennel. So she's super comfortable. If we're in an auto accident though, she doesn't get a bodily injury claim. She is treated as personal property. So, it's it's just the cost of replacement of the dog and not the injury. And that's just so crazy to me.

And I I get it. There has to be, you know, some sort of designation for what counts as what. But, you know, we're at the height of society where, you know, we're invested in not just keeping them alive, but giving them the best quality of care. You know, we we invest in their health insurance. That's a whole thing. um you know and and we protect them at all costs, but at the end of the day, you know, they're still designated as property. Yeah. And so when when they're assessing the value of your property, you're like, "No, this this dog is, you know, there's no price there.

There's no replacing this this animal for me. It's family, right?" Yeah. Did they take that into account as far as like the emotional loss that the person experiences? I understand. Okay. can't you have to designate this animal as property. But as far as your personal recuperation, are they thinking about that? Well, so the um whether it's intentional infliction or negligent infliction of emotional distress, the harm that's being caused must be to a person. So to a loved one, like the classic example is of a funeral home like dropping a widow's a widowerower's husband's corpse and it like falls out.

So because he's not even alive, if you want to talk about property, I mean, I'd make the argument that that's more property than a living dog, living animal. But um that would be infliction of emotional distress because it was a person. Wow. Yeah. Well, I mean that designation extends to all sorts of legal claims, you know, so the self-defense, you know, you can't, you know, if somebody breaks into your home, threatens your dog, you can't really lethal force on them if the threat is to your dog. If it's to yourself or another human, then it passes.

And then, weren't we also we talked about medical malpractice at one point? You and I did, didn't we? where veterinarians are not liable for medical malpractice because dogs are property. It I've never thought about that. Yeah. It's It scares me. Wow. Cuz you can't ask your dog like where did he touch you? Oh no. Sorry. You know what's funny is I have a sister, I have two daughters, and even my dog is female. I am surrounded by female energy. So, I'm like super sensitive to like I feel like I'm the only protector.

Yeah. When even it's a joke, but it's like where did where did he touch? I'm like no. No. It is funny because I feel like I half the time we're protecting you. That's probably really what's going on. But you're protecting me from myself. Yes. Yes. Oh, I love it. It's beautiful. I do think it's important. If I could push any message for today, it's about people spending time at the shelter, adopting instead of shopping. One thing that you were talking about making it super easy for people to go and just spend a day with a dog.

Were you telling me that there is a a bar close to the shelter? Oh, yeah. Tell us about that. So, it's um I mean, Lifeline has three shelters in the vicinity. They have one in Shambbley, one in Fulton, and then another one uh close to the Shambbley. Uh I don't know why they're so close to each other, but that's where they are. Um but the the place where you got Jetty, the Shambbley Decab Rescue, there's a bar close by called Blue Top, and it's, you know, it's bar food. It's Mexican. It's great. Um and they have an outdoor patio area, but the dogs are allowed indoor and outdoor, and it's just like a fun, you know, lively experience.

you can go with a bunch of your friends. Um the staff knows the drill. They've got hot dogs ready to go for the pets. And um so that's normally like where I'll go with my friends like, "Hey, you want to go to the shelter?" That's kind of our thing, you know. And uh so we'll take a dog, each of us will, and then we'll take them to Blue Top. And so um I'll show you guys like this is a dog that I took. His uh her name was Skittles. It is now May. So um the dog's name is May. Um, and so anyway, so I took Skittles to Blue Top one day, posted all these sweet little photos of her, and it captured the attention of a friend that I had not seen in almost 20 years.

Uh, it was like a friend that worked retail with me when I was like a teenager. Wow. And uh, she sent this photo to her friend who was mourning the loss of her family dog. And this person drove three hours from Mon to come meet Skittles and is now like, you know, a prime member of her family, you know, does well with her three-year-old and six-year-old. And I mean, the pictures really do wonders. But, um, taking them to these locations really gives you a lot of personal enjoyment, honestly. Yeah, that's so cool.

I also want to touch on you were saying earlier about how the dogs are categorized, like the L1 level. I love to hear that because again with like reactive dogs I get really nervous about taking a dog out. I'd love to do that but I'm like well what if the dog's out of control? How do I like like handle that? So hearing that they've already done that kind of work and made a point to highlight the dogs that are going to be like lowle and obviously you use your you have to use your judgment too, right?

Like consider the amount of stress that the dog's been in. um the fact that they've not been exposed to, for example, like cars whizzing by or bicycles whizzing by, like how are they going to react to that? So, it really is our responsibility as humans and caretakers to to provide a safe environment for them and and kind of prepare for the unexpected. Um, right, because you know, so the current foster that I have right now, his name's Ted. He's a senior as well. He's 14 years old. His story is really sad.

And if you're Diana likes older men. I agree. I'm picking up on that. They're more mature. They're We're on the same wavelength. This poor dog was surrendered a month ago when his 90-year-old owner had to uh enter hospice care. Oh, and the family just didn't want to deal with the dog. This poor dog that's lived his life in comfort. And so, um, bad part about some humans is they feel so much guilt, you know, surrendering a dog to the shelter that they often times have to justify their reasoning. and they'll submit, you know, some notes that aren't so, you know, friendly or advantageous to the dog.

So, um, this dog, Ted, entered the shelter system and immediately declined. He stopped eating. He started selfharming and, uh, he was on death's doorstep. And so, they posted about him. I'm like, I got to do something about Ted. So, I went and I got him and I saw the notes that, you know, that said that he was not friendly, that he was aggressive, and he lunged at people. And I'm like, well, I guess we'll find out. And so I took him and he's just I mean he's an angel. He is a little possessive about his toys, but you know u but who isn't right?

Um but yeah, so he I've had him for two weeks and he he eats. He loves food. He just has to be in like the right place to do it. His wounds are healing. He's he's almost ready to be adopted out. That's right. So, you know, I know that they have their designation of L1 and all these things, but if you feel that you are, you know, kind of an experienced um dog owner or dog handler, then, you know, an L2 designation or an L3 doesn't mean that a dog is bad. It just means that they're a little more effort. Okay.

So, yeah, but L1 is easier of Ted. Of course, I have a picture of Ted. I got to see this. I love that you brought so many pictures. First off, I brought Yeah, like every single dog that I have uh that I have uh fostered over the last year, I brought a picture of him. So, that's Ted. He had to be in the cone because, you know, he kept trying to eat out his wounds, but he's doing good. And now he's a little spoiled. Um he was all crusty, like old man crusty like on his elbows and his nose. So, I give him like nightly coconut oil massages.

Oh, God. Oyster. And now he loves it. He'll just put his little nose up to me. He's like ready for his coconut oil. Hey, can I come live with you? give me a little nose coated up massage. So yeah, I can tell Diana that you are going to leave an everlasting impact on the animal world. Maybe who knows where the what the future holds, but maybe you can start some sort of coalition where we start lobbying for literal animal rights and that way the auto accident attorneys group can start bringing claims for dogs.

We need you need a new customer. need to expand your practice area for sure. I mean, there's a lot to be done legislatively. I think that I think that's going to be the core um movement to kind of help defeat what's going on right now nationwide with like the shelters being over capacity. Um I I myself live in a very like upand cominging part of the city where there's a lot of um you know young people apartment complexes and they they want to adopt these dogs but because of breed restrictions in the apartments um you know renters insurance won't cover what is deemed an aggressive breed.

So that extends to not just the bully breeds, but German shepherds, Rottweilers, uh, Doberman's, um, and so, you know, they're oftentimes limited in what they can do to help. So, yeah, you know, changing laws, um, you know, maybe even, you know, with the with the insurance companies, like what if you had to like complete a course to prove yourself as a responsible pet owner? kind of like, you know, if you lose your license because of a DUI, you have to do a defensive driving course to get it back or something, you know, right?

Some sort of certification. There's ideas out there. We need to put our heads together. I love that. Yeah, I love that. Diana, before we wrap up, is there anything that you feel like we didn't touch on that you would be remiss not to share with our viewers? You know, there's not like one piece of like information or like a fact that needs to be shared. this is this is a lifelong journey of education and and commitment but you know intrinsically like at that heart kind of level I I just ask everybody to kind of like examine you know the the state of their lives you know is there something that you're missing is your mental health suffering like do you feel alone at times like you know I would encourage anybody to look outside of themselves and you know help those who are less fortunate whether it's a dog whether it's you know any other kind of organization, a children's organization, a homeless organization, you know, battered women, whatever.

Um, look outside of yourself and I'll tell you, I mean, it will it will change your outlook entirely to realize that not only are you blessed, yeah, we all go through like really terrible things, but there's always somebody that you can help and as a byproduct, it will it will come back to you in, you know, droves of joy. And so, I just encourage people to look outside of themselves. That is so beautifully said and it falls in line with our firm's motto of we take care of you. Everything you're saying is about taking care of others.

I love everything that you stand for. I love what you're about. I love the work that you're doing. You're you're living it and I appreciate you coming. I appreciate your time. I appreciate your friendship and I appreciate what you're doing for animals more than anything else. Thank you for having me. Absolutely. All right, everybody. I hope you enjoyed today's episode. Please, if you can adopt and don't shop, if you're not looking for an animal or a new family member, at least go and check out the shelters and and foster one, take a dog out and grab a beer.

It's it's the most fun you could possibly have. I'm not even a dog person and I love them now. But leave comments, share this episode. As always, I'm here to take care of you. You can take care of me by helping people find their way to these podcasts and spreading the information that we're sharing. Until next time, take care everybody.