I am sharing this story as a lesson; the events and characters described in this story are based on my personal experiences and perception of events.

I opened my (mobile) pet funeral care business in February of 2023. I opened with no money- just my car, my experience, and a plan. I had access to refrigeration in my home for pets in my care up to 100 lbs. Upon receipt of a client, my procedure was each pet would be toe-tagged with identifying information, wrapped in a blanket (or 2), placed in hamper or box, and on their own shelf. I set the expectation of turnaround time to be 3 weeks- giving me time to transport the pet, or multiple pets, to my water cremation provider near Portland. Here, each pet is individually reduced, and I personally package and hand deliver the pets back to their homes at the conclusion of the services.

Through an educational grant, I fine tuned my contingency plans for success of my small business.  Unfortunately, July of this year, my landlords let me know they would be selling the property I was living and working out of. Two other small business owners in the community offered housing in exchange for labor, one at their business, the other at their residence. Both locations were not in livable condition, but were the only options available.

I was exposed to conditions leading to a medical event that hospitalized me for a week. During this hospitalization, while I was incapacitated, a dog in my care was held hostage by the contractor supplying refrigeration during my move. This individual made promises to release this pet to transporters to take to cremation in my absence, then refuted multiple attempts for collection by multiple parties. The day I was released from the hospital, I was taken directly to my vehicle, and my first stop was to attempt to bring the stolen dog into my care. I arrived to find the facility locked and my access to both locations revoked. An attempt to request assistance from local law enforcement was denied. Multiple times. Over 5 days.

The next task was to contact the pet parents. I told them. They retrieved their dog. I offered to be on standby at the end of the street to follow thru with care, but they declined.

When this dog was placed in my vehicle at the vet clinic the day of its passing, it was wrapped in 2 blankets when it left the building, and was nestled into a THIRD blanket in my car. I transported the dog to the location I had arranged for refrigeration until my trip to the crematory later in the process. The refrigeration I had been granted access to was a chest freezer in a garage. The garage was filthy, but I had created a path to the cooler, and removed all of the contents of this cooler (individually packaged rabbit meat for human consumption) to a stand up freezer. I placed the dog and all three blankets into the chest freezer- because this dog weighed over 65 lbs, and it took the entirety of the third blanket to hoist the dog over the lip of the cooler unit to place it inside.

I know that the reports of the conditions the dog was retrieved from were not the conditions in which it was left by me.

Ill Will? Anger? I can understand hating me or wanting to hurt ME, to a degree, for whatever reason you may have. The world is in a pretty messed up place. But these selfish individuals were so driven to put their ego above all, that they did not consider the emotions or experience they were about to unleash on the owners of the dog caught in the crossfire.

Luke Whittaker of the Chinook Observer contacted me on Instagram messenger Thursday, September 26 and requested to speak to me about the complaints on my business. I replied with my phone number and was never contacted. I am sharing this to present the facts as they truly happened.