17 AprEpisode 49 | How to live with seven dogs and three cats in a one bedroom in NYC

Native New Yorker Gloria Bardin lives in a one-bedroom apartment with three Dobermans, one pitbull, a Havanese, two mixed breeds and three cats. And yet... she seems totally sane. Annie talked to her about how she has built a life that can accommodate taking care of so many pets.

Subscribe: iTunes

Transcript:

[Intro]

Annie:
I am here with Gloria Bardin who is an East Village native. I first met her when she came to our Puppy Playtime with two of her dogs, but the reason I was interested in having her on the podcast is not because she has two dogs, not because she has three dogs or four dogs. She has seven dogs in her East Village apartment and four cats. Did I get that right, Gloria? Three cats, and any other animals we should know about now?

Gloria Bardin:
No, I just have the seven dogs and the three cats only. Only those, just those, just those.

Annie:
No turtles or gerbils, or hamsters?

Gloria:
No, I had a Guinea pig, but my mom has it now. She really likes it. I do foster occasionally though.

Annie:
Oh my goodness

Gloria:
So I actually just had two puppies in my house that I just got adopted this weekend.

Annie:
So for a little while there you had nine dogs and three cats?

Gloria:
Yeah.

Annie:
Okay. So I wanted to talk to Gloria both about how she got to this place and what it's like having to take care of this kind of menagerie in a New York City apartment. And just so we get an idea, how big is your apartment?

Gloria:
I live in like a, a pretty standard one bedroom. But I guess part of it is I'm the only one living there, so it just often feels like there's so much space. Like, if I'm in one room, it feels like the rest of the apartment is empty.

Annie:
Wow. [laughs]

Gloria:
I mean maybe it's just, you know, I've grown up in New York my whole life, so have I used to live in that apartment with three other people, so it might just be like a relative thing. Now it's just me, so it feels really big.

Annie:
Even with all that company.

Gloria:
Yeah.

Annie:
Tell me a little bit about your professional life because I know you've worked with animals outside of your home for a long time.

Gloria:
Yeah, so pretty much my whole life I've been working with animals. I've always been really interested in them since I was a kid. It's probably a good thing I didn't live in a more, you know, rural, suburban area cause I would have been that kid that brings home like every single animal that you see on the street. But living in New York, I didn't have as much exposure to animals as I would have liked. My parents were definitely super supportive but also realistic about what could be done in a small New York City apartment. I was really excited when I turned 10 and got my first dog who is going to be turning 18 next month, it's very exciting.

But then as soon as I was able, I started working at a store in the East Village called Puppy Love and Kitty Cat. They do organic, you know, healthy natural foods.

Annie:
And then you worked at the Petco.

Gloria:
So I ended up at Petco. But I was really happy when I moved on to working at the ASPCA. It had been my dream since I probably found out what the ASPCA was to work there and help animals. And they had just opened a new program called CARE, um, which stood for that Canine Annex for Rehabilitation and Enrichment. And the purpose of CARE was to take the animals that had been seized by the NYPD in various cases. Sometimes it had to do with the dog directly, someone was abusing the pet. Sometimes maybe there was a drug bust, and they found, you know, 10 dogs in the basement. But the dogs would be seized as evidence and it was our job to take care of them. And if they had issues, which a lot of them did, try to rehabilitate them and find them new homes. That was a really great rewarding job and it definitely took a lot of, it took an emotional toll. But it was still, you know, the good outweighs the bad at the end of the day.

Annie:
So you must've been doing some degree of training then?

Gloria:
Oh yeah, definitely. All those dogs had training protocols and certain things that they had to do and it was very, very important because if you didn't follow the training protocols, that could be life or death for that dog.

Annie:
I've heard about the CARE program and from what I understand, it's new because prior to that, the ASPCA had basically its own police force, right?

Gloria:
Yeah. So they had a humane law enforcement. There was even like a TV show about it that I used to watch. I'm not sure why the decision was made to close that section of the ASPCA. But they did. And instead the job of the humane law enforcement was then passed on to the NYPD, and it was pitched as, you know, now we have all these thousands of officers to help with regulating the way that animals are treated and help with cases of animal abuse. Which sounded great. But at least at the very beginning I had experiences with police officers and they would just honestly tell me that they didn't know what constituted animal abuse or if something was right or wrong, and they wouldn't really have anywhere to direct you. Because it was their job now, but they weren't properly educated.

Annie:
It's interesting. It's a fine line. I was actually, I listened to Brian Lehrer on WNYC a lot, and they were talking about this a few weeks ago about this program on animal abuse, and I tried to call in, but they ended up ending the segment before they took my call. But what I wanted to mention was how so much of what I think people consider training, in my opinion, is animal abuse. And so much of what people do with a dog that they don't think is a problem, I would say is animal abuse. I mean everything from, you know, on one side like leaving your animal home alone in a crate for 12 to 14 hours at a time. Or tied to a tree outside, you know, maybe outside of Manhattan, which something people do for days at a time. To, you know, people who are overusing prong collars or using shock callers or, you know, like full on just hitting their dogs and in the name of training, all of those things.

Gloria:
Alpha flipping.

Annie:
Yeah. I mean if someone has a shock collar on their child, that would be considered child abuse. But if someone has a shock collar on their dog, that's just considered dog training to many people.

Gloria:
That’s actually what I always say to people, I'm like, if you see someone doing something with a dog that you wouldn't want to see them doing with a child, that's probably not right.

Annie:
Except letting them eat food on the floor from a bowl. I wouldn't do that with a child

[laughing]

Gloria:
I mean maybe not a collar and a leash with the child. Though I do see those little leash kids in daycare. But I think that's a safety thing.

Um, yeah, I think that's definitely something that I think about all the time when it comes to the law. It's kind of sad, but basically a dog needs food, water and shelter. If they have that, they're considered, you know, having a good life. So a dog, you know, you see those junkyard dogs that are out guarding the junk yard or car lot or whatever. And if they have a dog house out there and they have access to food and water, that's not considered anything wrong. And, we've learned a lot more about animals in the last couple of decades, and we know that a dog can't survive happily on just food, water and shelter, but, it’s the law.

Annie:
But then again,their lives are better than most the lives of most chickens.

Gloria:
Yes. This is true.

Annie:
So I know you, you went from the ASPCA to Blue Pearl and you were there. Blue Pearl for those who are not in New York City is a very reputable animal hospital, right?

Gloria:
Yeah. They're actually across the country. Yeah, they're all over the country. And they bought, what's the one that's in PetSmart? Banfield. They bought Banfield recently. So taking over.

Annie:
So you, you have both sort of a background in rescue and vet care.

Gloria:
Yeah. It's definitely very different. I kind of took the job because I was at home at the time and not able to work at the ASPCA because of an injury and I felt like I was just going crazy having to sit at home all day. And I was looking for any job that had any kind of work with animals. I applied for a bunch of jobs. I got called to Blue Pearl and I took the job. Originally I thought I was going to be very uncomfortable working there because of the for profit nature of the company. It's, for people who don't know, it's actually owned by Mars that’s known for their chocolate, I guess is probably the best way to talk about Mars. So I just definitely had some concerns.

If you've been to Blue Pearl, I think that they give great service, but the price tag is definitely very high. Some people, I've experienced some people leaving who are unsatisfied with how much they paid versus what kind of service they got. So it was something I was definitely concerned about. I did really like my job there. I felt, you know, working in rescue is very rewarding, but you do get compassion fatigue. The way that the system is set up for animals is just, it's problematic at best. And it was hard to see certain things happen with certain dogs.

Annie:
I mean, is there an anecdote you want to share about your time at ASPCA?

Gloria:
Well, one of the things with the police cases is that the dogs actually become evidence in the case. So they're considered just like, you know, a bloody knife that's Exhibit A, that's what a dog is in the law, in the case. So you can have a dog in the care facility that is happy, healthy, could very easily go to a new home, but they can't go anywhere because they're considered evidence and they have to stay in the facility. And that was actually a big problem when the dogs from the NYPD were being brought to ACC because Animal Care and Control has very limited space, and they would have an issue where they'd have to euthanize–

Annie:
Well, maybe can you explain the difference between ACC and ASPCA for those who don't know?

Gloria:
So, ACC is the city, Animal Care and Control. They have to take every single call.

Annie:
It's part of the Department of Health.

Gloria:
Yeah. Every single call that happens in New York, whether it's a raccoon or a dog, they have to take care of it. If a dog is found, they have to admit it. Any kind of animal they have, snakes, birds, whatever, they have to take care of them. They’re a government organization.

The ASPCA is a private nonprofit organization that is able to choose what animals they admit to the shelter. They sometimes can go to ACC and say, Hey, we'll take that dog, we'll take that dog, we'll take that dog. But if you, for example, show up to the ASPCA to surrender an animal, they're probably going to say no. Whereas if you go to ACC, they really have to take it.

Annie:
So the ASPCA works with the city even though it's not a city organization, as a private organization?

Gloria:
Yeah. So that's what the care program started doing. The ASPCA definitely works with ACC. There's the, ASPCA also has a kitten nursery. So during kitten season, which is getting longer and longer and longer, it's when all the cats are out there making babies, and then there are a lot of kittens that are abandoned without parents, without anyone to take care of them. The ASPCA will take them in. So that's a program where they work with ACC cause ACC is also often picking up, you know, kittens and cats. So they work with them, but they, unlike ACC, they have a choice with what they do. They can always say, no, we can't take this. No, we're full. They don't often do that, but they can. That's kind of the difference between the private organization and the city organization.

Annie:
So were there any, any times at ASPCA? I’'m just thinking maybe there's like an anecdote you can share about a specific dog or a specific case that left an impression.

Gloria:
One of the hardest cases for me was a dog that was golden pit bull. Just such a sweet dog, you know, really great pet. But his case dragged on for a while. He had been there before I started and he was probably there for almost another year after, maybe more like nine or 10 months after I had started. And it was because his case was going on so he couldn't be adopted. Nothing could be done with him.

And he got what they call Kennel Crazy, which is, you know, they're living in these small kennels. They get a couple of walks a day, they get to go into a play room with enrichment, but it takes a toll living in these tiny kennels and not getting the attention a dog needs, not having the enrichment and exposure that they need. And by the time it was, he could have been adopted, he had developed a guarding issue when it came to toys and balls where he would get aggressive if you tried to take the toy away. And it was so bad that he ended up being euthanized. And it was just really sad because, you know, you can kind of understand if you get to play, if you're a dog and you get to play with a ball once a day, you're going to want to keep it.

And also I think he was very smart and he figured out that you can't put the dogs back in the kennel with toys, because then you might not be able to get them out safely. So I think he figured out that as long as he had the ball, he wouldn't be put away. He just wanted to be out with the people.

Annie:
That’s heartbreaking.

Gloria:
Yeah. It's very sad.

Annie:
I always think, of all the things that dogs do that bring them to trainers, that, resource guarding as we call it, it's like kind of the most understandable because no one wants anyone to take their shit.

Gloria:
Yeah.

Annie:
So now let's talk about your, your personal, uh, shelter that you run. So you have one dog who's 18, that's a dachshund, right? And what's his name?

Gloria:
Her name is little D. She actually does not live with me. She lives with my parents. When they retired, they needed to take at least one dog. And I figured, she's a dachshund. She's very stubborn. She loves to be the center of attention. She loves to sit in the sun and do nothing, you know, she's very, very happy being retired.

Annie:
So how did you wind up then with dog number one? Well, first you want to maybe introduce all these pets?

Gloria:
Sure so my dachshund, who's 18, I got when I was 10, she was my first dog. I begged my parents for a dog forever. And finally they gave in. I really wanted a Doberman pinscher and I thought that because a dachshund looked like a Doberman pinscher, it was the same type of dog, but smaller. [laughs]

Annie:
I should say Gloria is wearing a shirt that says, “this girl loves Doberman pinschers,” and bracelets. Let's see what your bracelets say. One says “dog mom.”

Gloria:
And one says “Doberman lady,” you know, I like Dobermans a little bit.

Annie:
What is it about Dobermans, is it because they look a little bit like Dachshunds?

Gloria:
Well, no, I liked them prior to liking dachshunds, it's actually a very strange story. When I was about two years old and I was walking along Avenue A between sixth and seventh. There used to be a cafe that had outdoor seating on that side of Avenue A. And I was just walking maybe a few feet behind my parents and someone had a Doberman and I wasn't paying any attention. And the Doberman reached out and bit my hand. It wasn't like a bad bite, there wasn't any broken skin or anything like that, but ever since then, and I can't tell you why I've loved Dobermans. I for some reason thought getting bit was very cool.

Annie:
That's a really weird story.

Gloria:
It is. I can't explain it.

Annie:
Do you still like being bit?

Gloria:
Not especially, you know, no.

Annie:
Huh. Well, maybe it was the first time you had any interaction with a dog.

Gloria:
I think that's what it might've been and it didn't, I just remember being very surprised. Like, I mean, I'm sure it hurts somewhat, but I wasn't like crying or upset. I just remember being very surprised.

Annie:
So you don't live with Miss D anymore, so who are the dogs that you live with?

Gloria:
So I have Teddy who will be 11 in October. He is a German Shepherd Golden Retriever Chow mix, we think.

Annie:
Where'd you get him from?

Gloria:
He is from the SPCA of Greenwich, Connecticut. When I was in college, we were thinking about getting a second dog and we went to a event, you know, stupidly in our head we were like, “well, we might not come home with a dog. We'll just look.” And of course, you know, came home with a dog. Me and my mom and my dad just fell in love with him.

Annie:
And then who's next?

Gloria:
Next would be Bo, who's my Havanese. Bo is a service dog. She's a great dog. She was trained to remind me to take medication. She’s a very smart, very helpful dog. I feel bad sometimes because I'm doing much better than I was, and I don't rely on her as much and I feel like she kind of is like, what happened to my job? Like, you know, what am I supposed to do all day now?

After Bo was Rex. That was when I got my apartment to myself, and I'd wanted a Doberman my whole life. Rex is a red Doberman. I had my own place and I was finally just like, you know, I'm finally getting my Doberman and I'm doing it. I'm so excited. Rex is from a woman who I became friendly with.

Annie:
And then who came after Rex?

Gloria:
After Rex was, so it's Nero and Amicus who are the two dogs that

Annie:
That you brought to puppy playtime?

Gloria:
Yes.

Annie:
And they're Dobermans too, right?

Gloria:
Yeah. Amicus is a Doberman Australian Shepherd mix. So what happened, and let me preface this with, I'm not proud of this at all. This is a self control issue. But I was supposed to get, Rex's nephew from the woman, and there's was one person ahead of me, and there ended up being one boy and I wanted a boy.

So I was supposed to get–Rex's nephew ended up not working out because the person ahead of me took the only boy that was available. And I didn't feel like I could safely take a girl. But I was so ready to have a Doberman and I really wanted a playmate for Rex. So I ended up getting Nero who is from South Carolina. He was very small. He was like living outside. He had all kinds of cuts on him when I got him. He was a puppy. Yeah, he was living outside. You know, I guess that's something they do there, I don't know, but he was very, very small and he was just covered in all kinds of cuts and stuff. He's much better now. But it took a while for him to heal and be a normal size dog.

And after I got Nero, the woman who I got Rex from, I guess she felt bad and she called me and she was like, I know we couldn't give you Rex's nephew, but the same dog who would have been the father who's not related to Rex, it's the sister. The same father was having puppies with her daughter's Australian shepherd and she was like, you know what, I’d really like to give you one. And I definitely could have said no, it's one of those things, but he's such a cute little puppy and it was just so hard to say goodbye to that and not–I also felt a little bit indebted because I felt like she was really doing me a favor, but it's not something I'm super proud of, not something I recommend.

I always tell people, you know, don't get two puppies at once. It's not a good idea. And then I went and did it myself. So definitely a hypocrite there.

Annie:
They look very similar.

Gloria:
Everyone thinks they're related, they're not related, but they are about nine days apart in age.

Annie:
So you have Nero and Amycus and then you have Bo the Havanese and Rex the Doberman. And gosh, I already forgot the other–Teddy the German shepherd. So that's five, right? So who are six and seven?

Gloria:
So my original plan was to have the actually have four, no five dogs. Yeah. And I was just just supposed to get–that's still a lot. Don't get me wrong. That's still a lot. So I had this year where I was like, okay, I'm going to get one puppy. So first I ended up with two, then I was doing my foster thing. I had Alesso who is a, I think he's a Dachsund pit bull mix. He's got the brown and the black and tan coloring, but he's like obviously a pit bull and he's kind of short and long.

Annie:
So you were fostering him.

Gloria:
So I was fostering him from ACC. He had come into the hospital, just blood coming out of every orifice when he was a baby. It turned out he got into rat poison and he was treated for a long time at the hospital. And what happened was, ACC was ready to take him back, but the treatment for rat poison is just vitamin K. You know, they're not sick, they're not contagious. Just you're supposed to give them medication. And the policy with ACC is when you're giving them medication, they have to be isolated and they can't be on the floor for adoption.

And I'm looking at this very hyper young puppy who obviously needs socialization and thinking, Oh my God, he's going to go sit in ACC for, you know, 28 days with no socialization, no exposure to other dogs.

Annie:
So you offered to foster him.

Gloria:
So I offered to foster him. I was like, my house is perfect. You know, it's got dogs, it's got cats. It's got people, what better than could you ask for. Alesso was so cute. I thought he was getting adopted like right away. I thought it was going to be super easy to find him a home. Love him. But he's a handful.

Annie:
What makes him a handful?

Gloria:
He’s a very good dog if he gets his exercise, he needs a lot of exercise. So, you know, a inexperienced dog owner might have trouble with Alesso, you know, just following instructions. He does have resource gardening issues. He’s a little bit of a mischief maker, we’ll have times where he's like, I want attention, I'm going to grab every single thing. I'm gonna grab your paperwork, I'm going to grab and just destroy whatever I can. So he's not a bad dog. He just needs a little extra work than what I'd say like the average dog needs. But he's also, he's also very cute and like a very appealing dog.

So there was kind of like the concern that someone would see him and be like, Oh, like look at this super cute sweet dog. Let me take him, not have the appropriate experience to handle him and end up with a problem dog. That could not be well-adjusted at that point. And I'd had him in my house for so long, and he got along with my other dogs so, so well, and they loved him. And it just, I just felt, I felt bad. I couldn't imagine something happening to him. And again let me say these are my reasons. They're not excuses. I don't recommend anyone to have seven dogs in a New York City apartment. This is just my feeling.

Annie:
Who's the seventh?

Gloria:
So the seventh is Tyco

Annie:
And the three cats, did you get them as kittens?

Gloria:
They're all from the ASPCA when I was working there. So this was when I had three dogs that I got my cats. And I worked in care and care is right above the kitten nursery. You know, you see those kittens every day. And I mean, the cats are so easy going and just like, comparing them to seven dogs, of course anything's going to be easy going. But you know, they're just so relaxed and so sweet and it's so fun to see them. Like bossing the dogs around like a little seven pound cat, just like giving the 85 pound Doberman the business.

Annie:
What are the cats names?

Gloria:
The two ones I got together with–one of them was named Albus Dumbledore and one of them’s named Aberforth Dumbledore, and then, the other one, he's a bangle. His name is Hobbs, for the comic Calvin and Hobbes. He just reminds me, I feel like if he could talk, he would say the things that Hobbes does.

Annie:
So let's get into some numbers here. Like how many hours a day do you think you spend taking care of this brood?

Gloria:
I would say pretty much all my free time is dedicated to taking care of them. It's not that–if I want to do something else, like if I want to go see my friends or something, I can dedicate some time to doing that and like plan out, you know, what I'm going to do. But if I'm not, if I don't already have plans, I'm with my dogs. I'm taking care of them. I'm doing stuff for them.

Annie:
Like how many, like tell me about feeding them.

Gloria:
Oh my God. Feeding time. It's like, I don't, it's, it's quite an adventure.

Annie:
Do they all eat the same food? You feed them in bowls? Do you feed them in the same place?

Gloria:
I wish I had a trough. No, they all eat in bowls. They all eat the same food except for Rex who has allergies, so he gets the same type of food but a different flavor.

Annie:
What do they all eat?

Gloria:
They eat the Honest Kitchen. It's a dehydrated, raw diet. I do dog nutrition and cat nutrition and that's just one of the best foods, I really think. You know, buying the raw meat for your dog is also really good, but it's totally not doable with seven, you know, mostly large dogs.

Annie:
What do you think you spend on dog food in a given month?

Gloria:
I'm very lucky in that the Honest Kitchen gives me wholesale prices. So I spend less than if I was buying at the retail price, but I probably buy two 40 pound boxes of dog food every week. And I think each box is like $35 or $40. And then Rex's food I probably buy every month and a half. So I guess that would be about 2– 260 –270 a month, not including Rex’s food, which is a little bit alternating. Rex’s is very expensive compared to their food. I think four boxes of breakfast food is, it's definitely like 200 and something dollars, but he goes through it much slower.

Annie:
Right, right.

Gloria:
But it’s still much more expensive.

Annie:
Wow. So that's, so 40 times 2 a week is 80, times four is 320 plus Rex’s food. So something like $400 a month.

Gloria:
Yeah.

Annie:
And then the cats?

Gloria:
The cats eat much less.

Annie:
And do they eat Honest Kitchen too?

Gloria:
No. Uh, the only reason they don't eat Honest Kitchen is. They like it, but they don't consistently eat it well and I don't like to free feed them. So what ends up happening is they just don't get enough…

Annie:
So what do they eat?

Gloria:
They eat Merrick. Yeah, they Merrick, uh, basics, dry food. And then they get like a variation of their wet food. Right now they're eating wet food.

Annie:
And do you have to separate all the animals when you feed them?

Gloria:
I have to separate the dogs from the cats, but the dogs all eat at the same time.

Annie:
So do you feed on different levels then? So you can separate the cats?

Gloria:
Yeah, the cats eat, uh, the cats, they eat at a different time, but sometimes they'll eat at like the top of the closet, sometimes eat in the bathroom by themselves. Sometimes they eat near my TV.

Annie:
Now tell me about litter. Do the dogs try and get into the cats’ litter, do you have a system for that?

Gloria:
Yes. I actually, I didn't know what to do for a really long time. And then a neighbor gave me the idea to put it in the closet and make it so that the door is closed enough that the dogs can't get in, but the cats can get in.

Annie:
Huh. Okay. Yeah. I used to have like a litter box that had like a top to it. Litter–I forget what it was called. But–ut and walks, how do you deal with walking? All those dogs? Do any of them go inside?

Gloria:
Occasionally Bo goes inside, not because of a lack of a walk, but she's a long haired dog. You know, she's Havanese and she's very low to the ground. And so if it's raining or snowing or like wet out in any way, and she goes for a walk her entire stomach and paws. She's a white dog and they turn black. And so I'll be honest, some days when it's like really bad out and I don't have time to give her a bath after every single walk, she'll go inside on like a Wee Wee pad. But the other dogs, I definitely like to walk. You really don't want to deal with a Doberman poop inside your apartment. They're huge. And you know, I have the little walk groups that I take them on. I like to walk the three Dobermans together, and all the dogs get along. They play together, they love each other, but it's just, you know, when you have a hoard of dogs, it's very cute to see the kind of individual personalities and friendships and relationships.

Annie:
Now we should also mention that you live up how many flights of stairs?

Gloria:
I live on the fourth floor. So it's three flights. Old building. No elevator.

Annie:
So you're taking, you're doing three groupings of dogs up three flights of stairs and down three flights of stairs, three times a day. How many walks do you do?

Gloria:
Three times a day at least. I try to get the Dobermans and Teddy to the park so they can really let out. So sometimes that's like an additional walk. Sometimes it takes over the mid day walk.

Annie:
And do you have people helping you?

Gloria:
My dad helps me a lot. I'm very, very fortunate to have such an awesome father. He retired to New Jersey with my mom. But he comes into the city to help me, because, when I,, after my injury, it's been a little bit hard to fit, to walk the dogs outside.

I have trouble with stairs. Before I was injured it really wasn't a problem. Fefinitely keeps me active. Keeps me actually leaving the house.

Annie:
Mhm. Do, did they, have they ever said to you, Gloria, why do you have this many pets? Are they into it?

Gloria:
They've never asked me why. I think that they definitely, I don't think they worried. I think originally they worried about me. Just like, you know, being able to have a social life, being able to afford, take care of the animals, just like typical things parents worry about, but as they, you know, they've seen how I deal with my animals and how happy they make me and how happy they are and just our relationship and being a part of it. And they're happy for me. But like if you ask them like, would you have wanted your daughter to have–so of course not like, you know.

Annie:
Do you feel like you field criticism, or how should I say it. Do you feel like people criticize you or, or look at you in a funny way when you tell them you have so many animals?

Gloria:
Yeah, I mean, I definitely face that. One thing that I actually really don't like is, a lot of people–A lot of times when I meet people my age and I tell them my situation, they go, Oh my God, that's so cool, I wish that that was my, like I did that. And I know it sounds weird to say I don't like that, but I think that people don't understand the extent that having this amount of dogs is. I'm 28, I'm not–a lot of people my age, they're going out, they're going to bars every night. They're, you know, really living a very great social life. I'm not doing that. And I'm okay with that. That's the life I chose. I love my dogs, I love taking care of them. I don't buy new clothes very often. My money goes to my dogs, like everything. My life is around them. Can I go on vacation? Like probably not, you know, but I just feel like sometimes people say those things to me and don't… it makes me worried that they will..

Annie:
It's like they're envious but they don't really get it.

Gloria:
Right. And it's like, it just makes me worried that, you know, there's a lot of issues with people just getting one dog and not being able to properly take care of it. And it makes me worried that they don't understand how–how can I put this.

Annie:
The kind of commitment.

Gloria:
Yeah. The kind of commitment and the kind of energy you should and need to put into owning an animal and that it's not just like an accessory, it's a living thing with a life that, you know, you don't…I feel like very often people get dogs and they want their dogs to adjust to certain things, but on some level you also have to adjust to your dog. And there's things that the dog is not gonna change. And I just worry about the understanding. I guess. I don't want to perpetuate like, Oh, just get a bunch of dogs, and it's fun.

Annie:
Just go back to like the raw numbers. Talk to me about vet care. What are you, what are you spending on vet care in a year, would you say?

Gloria:
Well, one of the things about having all these dogs is I've had to network my whole life to be able to afford these dogs. I have connections in the vet world, I have connections in the dog food world, I have connections in the behavior world, where I can get help. So vet care. I actually use a friend that I've had in the vet business for a while and a person a comes to my house and charges me for maybe one or two general exams, and then for the raw materials of vaccinations and stuff like that where, you know, if I was going to a vet, like just completely regularly, you know, say an office visit is a hundred plus dollars, you know, plus all the other stuff. It would be insane. It would be over a thousand dollars a year just for checkups.

With this, I'm spending maybe $200 to $300 and I'm just very fortunate to have people who care.

Annie:
For every checkup. And you do that maybe twice a year?

Gloria:
Mhm. And additionally, after I started working at Blue Pearl and seeing all the emergencies and just the really hard situations of people having to choose between financial, you know, their finances and their best friend's life, I got insurance for all my animals. I got pet insurance.

Annie:
What company do you use?

Gloria:
I use Trupanion which I really, really like and I highly recommend. One of my jobs at Blue Pearl is to actually file insurance for everyone. And so I see all the different insurance companies. I deal with them and I find that Trupanion is just the easiest. They take care of what they say they take care of. They're not going to try to give you the run around and try to get money out of you where they shouldn't. They just simply will take care of it.

Annie:
So what are you paying for those, for all the animals, every month”

Gloria:
So monthly, I do get a discount on that. And monthly… it's over $200 monthly. Cause like for the dogs I have half off. And then the other three I don't have half though.

Annie:
I would have thought it was more than that for, especially for older dogs

Gloria:
Well, I have a very high deductible. So the way that I kind of look at it is my dogs really don't get sick often. I'm very blessed that I have healthy dogs and for me, if something bad happens to my dog, I'm very happy to put out a thousand dollars and for the deductible. But you know, the monthly money you don't give back, you know, you pay what you pay. It's kind of a gamble. And so I pay a low monthly fee. I'm hoping that nothing bad happens to my dogs and if something bad happens that I have a high bill.

Annie:
And then what about cleaning? I haven't been to your home. What would you tell me about your environment, what’s it like?

Gloria:
So I mean, You definitely know I have pets. I don't want it to smell bad or anything, but it's impossible to disguise the fact that I have a bunch of animals in my house.

Annie:
Do you have air purifiers?

Gloria:
I do. I clean very vigorously. I've tried a bunch of different things. I tried those like Febreeze plugins. I've found that the best thing to help the room smell good is candles. The candles kind of, I feel like they kind of burn out the any bad scent, if that makes sense. It's not just like covering it with some other scent.

Annie:
Do you have a preferred kind of candle?

Gloria:
Yeah, have you seen those pet candles that are specifically meant for pet owners?

Annie:
I've seen those. I've never known if they're for real.

Gloria:
Yeah. I got the privilege of being able to try one cause I always looked at them and

Annie:
Is there a specific brand?

Gloria:
t's called, Oh, what is it called? It's, it's labeled like “Pet Candle”. Oh my God, I'm forgetting the name. Um, but they're great. I never really bought one cause I was like, it's probably doesn't work. And then I got one and I was amazed, honestly.

Annie:
Is vacuuming something that you have to do daily or?

Gloria:
I have one of those Roomba self vacuums that I turn on at night and it seems to do the job. I haven't really had any issue with vacuuming. I definitely like Swiffer jet a lot. I really am very, I just really want my apartment to be clean, so I definitely spend a lot of time cleaning during the day and I feel like I just, I'm a little bit overly paranoid about germs and stuff like that. So I probably over-clean a little bit.

Annie:
Any, any tips on, on budgeting or, or products when it comes to like cleaning?

Gloria:
So one of the new things I discovered when it comes to cleaning up after my dogs is these essential oils that I've gotten into, especially with my health not being great. I used to use Nature's Miracle all over my house. You know, love nature's miracle, you know, great. But..

Annie:
Do you have a lot of pee and poop in the house?

Gloria:
Especially with the puppies I did for a while. But there's a cleaner that I use with the essential oils, which is so simple. I just make it at home. It's the lemon essential oil, vinegar and water and that's all it is. The lemon essential oil is maybe, I think it's like $15 to buy it. So, a big gallon of Nature's Miracle was costing me like $35 and the same amount is, you know, like 20 or like 15 and then however much vinegar ends up costing. Not much. And it's just nice cause it's not, it's, you know, it's natural. Those are the three ingredients in it. Lemon is something that, you know, the dogs can ingest.

I hope they're not sitting there licking the cleaner, but if they do like it, if it gets on their paws, whatever, I don't have to worry about them getting sick and it actually cleans. I feel like it cleans much better than the nature's miracle. I'm able to get stuff up more quickly. And also if there is an accident that smells bad, it cuts through the smell really well with the lemon. Um, lemon is a natural antiseptic. Um, it's stronger than purell or any of that stuff. So you're really getting all that stuff out safely. Um, but I like to make sure the floors are clean and you know, the dog started sometimes jumping on the couch and stuff. And making sure that stuff is cleaned.

My laundry. I have so much laundry that I do cause I have a lot of stuff that covers to make sure that the dogs don't get anything dirty and you know, just constantly washing that. But cleaning is definitely a huge part of having these dogs and probably the least fun part really when it comes down to it.

Annie:
Do you see yourself continuing to have this many dogs? And cats?

Gloria:
Yeah. I mean ultimately I really want to have a rescue slash shelter. I love my dogs and I think I do a lot to take great care of them. I think they're very happy, but I would love to have them in a bigger space that's not a New York City apartment. I would love them to have exposure to their own yard, you know, to nature. And so ideally I am trying to purchase some land that they can enjoy and I can also bring other animals, not pets, but other animals that need help and need a place to stay and hopefully get adopted but if they don't get adopted, they have a place to stay. And I don't want more personal pets. I think that seven dogs is definitely, I'll say past my limit.

Annie:
I know your’e on disability right now cause you fell when you were working at the ASPCA

Gloria:
Yes.

Annie:
But how do you manage going to work for like an eight hour day and leaving the pets when you were doing that?

Glora:
When I was doing that, they would be home for the eight hour day in the middle of the day. Someone would come walk them, whether it was my father or a neighbor or someone I hired and that would break up the day for them pretty well in terms of going out and going to the bathroom. And then, they're in the house. I have nanny cams all throughout my house that I would watch them at work. You know, those four hour periods between, they seemed to be fine.

I just wanted to make sure that the biggest thing for me with them is to make sure that they have the proper exercise when they're in the house. They're actually really, really lazy and don't like, you know, you'd think, Oh, a big dog is gonna run around the house. They're mostly sleeping. As long as they get a good amount of exercise.

Annie:
Sometimes big dogs make better house pets because they just take so much energy for them to, to live. They rest a lot.

Gloria:
That's my experience. I know the great Dane is one of the number one rated apartment dogs.

Annie:
Yeah.

Gloria:
So, I believe that big dogs, I mean I've had small dogs in the apartment and they're a little more hyper. They're more work, you know, the big dogs…

Annie:
Anything else surprising you think about having so many animals that people would want to know?

Gloria:
I think that for me, part of the problem was once I hit maybe like four or five dogs, having another dog was not very different.
[laughing]
It was not, and that's not like a, a great thing, but you know…

Annie:
It's kinda like going into debt.

Gloria:
Yeah. It's exactly what it is.

Annie:
Once you're $10,000 in like, what's another, you know, 10,000.

Gloria:
That's exactly what it is. And, I foster dogs still right now I'm with my seven dogs. I just had two little puppies in my house for about a month and people were like, Oh my God, you know, you had two more dogs. And it's just like, honestly, I barely even noticed the difference that they're there and that's not a good thing necessarily. But, I think that was like a big problem in me kind of ending up with more and more dogs, its it's just, it's not that much more work because you have everything–you don't need to get a new collar, you have this hand me down collar, you don't need to get new food. You are buying this food already.

So that makes it seem like a much, it makes it seem just really easy. And on some level that's a little bit true. But you know, it's still a whole nother animal. And I love my dogs. I wouldn't change anything about it for the world, but it's–they’re my whole life. I don't have anything else without them. And it's a commitment I made and I'm okay with my decision. But I definitely caution other people–unless that's what you want. If you want to do that, you know, fine. But it's not an easy thing. It's a really big job.

Annie:
Big payoff?

Gloria:
Big payoff. I mean, the reward of having these animals is, it's you just, it's incalculable how amazing it is. How great I feel every day. Just seeing all those wagging tails and all the kisses and all the love, it's just, it's so wonderful. I don't think any I've ever experienced anything….

Annie:
If you would like to keep up with Gloria's adventures with her many pets, you can follow her on Instagram at 40 paws verse two feet. I will put a link in the show notes. I think she's going to do an Instagram takeover some point soon, possibly this weekend for our account. So, make sure to check out our stories where we have a different dog owner do a takeover every weekend.

Our Woof Shout Out this week goes to our dog student Giuseppe, who we call beBee and h, he is a Cirneco dell'Etna, which is a breed of dog originally from Sicily. He actually lives with another Cirneco named Lorenzo. You can find them on Instagram at b.and.zoe. Anyway, poor beBee fell off of a fifth floor roof a few weeks ago. He nearly died, but somehow he pulled through. He now has two metal plates in his back legs.

And his wonderful human has kept up his training. He works with my partner Kate Sinisi just so that they can come up with fun ways to keep his mind engaged and busy since he can't do very much right now while he's healing. So big high five to Sarah, that benzos owner for just being a totally amazing dog mom. You made so much progress with beBee before this accident. And you are really helping to enrich his life during what must be a hard time for him. And of course for you too.

And our Fun Dog Fact of the day. Actually I'm going to do another cat fact since cats feature in this episode. But actually last week, in our episode about PIP, the ginger adventure cat, I came up with so many good facts about orange cats that I had some leftover. So this one actually, this is a fact that I learned during a brief stint I had about 10 years ago, writing questions for the game show Cash Cab, a very fun job I had for a little while when I was working as a freelance writer: Did you know that the G in Gmail originally stood for Garfield? Garfield, the big orange lasagna, loving cat? Years before Google launched Gmail, Garfield had his own Gmail account that anyone could sign up for. His Gmail was called email with Catoosa and it provided email accounts for Garfield lovers. Thank you so much for listening. Catch you next week!

Thanks so much for listening. You can support School for the Dogs podcast by telling your friends about it, leaving a review or shopping in our online store. You can learn more about us and sign up to get lots of free training and resources when you visit us online at schoolforthedogs.com.