About

After graduating from The Evergreen State College in 2001, I continued working with PAWS in McCleary, WA doing wildlife rehabilitation until they lost their funding and closed. I then began working at a doggy daycare that also had a very talented onsite groomer, Amy Nelson. She was very busy and had me helping her out whenever I could. I loved it so much, she had me become her full time apprentice. I worked with her until she sold her business and moved.

I then built and started my first mobile dog grooming business in 2006 that I named the Wash’n Wag’n. I happily serviced the dogs of Olympia, Lacey, Tumwater and Yelm. I loved all of my customers just as much as their dogs.

After the discovery of an impingement in my left wrist, I started to lose the use of my left arm. This eventually lead to my wrist joint being rebuilt (Achilles allograft interposition of the distal radial ulna joint) at UW Orthopedics in Seattle. Being such a rare surgery and only the 5th person my doctor, Dr. Jerry Huang, had ever done the surgery on, I was unsure about my future. So I made the hard decision to sell my grooming business in 2014, hoping someday I would start over.

After a few years of adventures, moving around and taking different jobs, (in McCall Idaho working for the State Parks and Snowdon Wildlife Sanctuary, Port Angeles at Olympic Raft and Kayak, Crystal Mountain and the Makah tribe in Neah Bay) I bought a home in Port Angeles. My amazing husband helped me build a beautiful new mobile dog grooming van, and I am again so happy to be doing what I love the most, in the place I love the most.

Currently I have two cats and two dogs who are all best friends.

My cats, Boogers and Floppy are brothers that I adopted from McPaws Regional Animal Shelter in McCall, Idaho in 2017. I first saw them in the McPaws Thrift Store, and they are my best thrift finds ever.

My oldest dog is Neah, a German Shepherd, Malamute and Husky (Rottweiler, Samoyed, Staffordshire Terrier and Dutch Shepherd) mix born in Neah Bay and was adopted from the Olympic Peninsula Humane Society in 2013.

My youngest dog is Gaagii, a Great Pyrenees, Labrador and Pit Bull (Boxer, German Shepherd, Australian Cattle Dog and Rottweiler) mix born on the Navajo Reservation and adopted from Soul Dog Rescue in Fort Lupton, CO in 2019. My sister living in Fort Collins, CO adopted 2 sister dogs through the rescue and we each have one.

Soul Dog Rescue is a selfless organization dedicated to help saving the many thousands of stray cats and dogs in the Four Corners region.

In my free time, I enjoy traveling, snowboarding, kayaking, gardening, painting, birding and surfing. In the summers I love volunteering with Warm Current, since 2013.

In August of 2023 i got a black and white kitten from a friend in Neah Bay, his name is Bigfoot.

In December of 2023 my beautiful dog Neah passed. My heart is broken, but i am grateful to have spent 11 years together. She saved me.