039- Kitchen Confessions
Happy Monday! On today's episode, it's all about mental and emotional resiliency as a pet sitter . Collin talks about needing to hear that everything is going to be ok. Meghan tells us of a great way to still be around pets when we're not working. We finish the episode with an encouraging story.
Topics on this episode:
It’s going to be ok
Fostering a pet in need
Stop trying to be productive
Oh the places you’ll go
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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
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SUMMARY KEYWORDS
pet, productive, foster, home, shelter, talk, megan, dad, episode, emotionally, watching, dog, songs, emotion, stories, pet sitter, people, knowing, happy, important
SPEAKERS
Meghan, Collin
Meghan 00:17
I'm Collin and I'm Meghan. And this is pet sitter confessional, an open and honest discussion about life as a pet sitter. Hey guys, welcome to another episode. Today we're doing a kitchen confessions. We have some topics that we wanted to bring up. And
Collin 00:37
Happy Monday guys
Meghan 00:38
and just talk about the past week. So I think the biggest thing for us is that as of today, Monday April 6, we are state is now under a stay at home order. So as our state of Missouri has finally caught up with three fourths of America and so we are Kind of now starting to feel everything that you guys are feeling as far as staying at home and, and just getting into that kind of routine or not routine.
Collin 01:14
Right. It's been making I've talked about this before. Oh, just how weird it has been being in the middle of the country and being in Missouri one of the last holdouts as far as states to not issue a statewide shelter in place, stay at home mortar, and watching everything around us change and watching it slowly creep in over time. And what that's been like watching it kind of slow motion. It's been
Meghan 01:37
very unsettling. Yeah.
Collin 01:39
Yeah. So we are in a state home order until the end of the month. And we'll, we'll see how this goes.
Meghan 01:49
So we are all in this together.
Collin 01:51
On that note, I wanted to take a moment to discuss some things as far as emotional and mental resilience NC, I kind of had a moment last recently where I called my dad and I call my dad a lot. And I've been calling him a lot more recently. And I called him the other day and I just wanted to hear his voice and talk to him because everything was just really starting to weigh on me. And I noticed that I wasn't handling it very well. And I just wanted my dad to tell me that everything was going to be okay. I know that sounds kind of silly. As a 30 year old man with a wife and two kids. I needed somebody to tell me that everything was going to be okay. And because how scary everything is, and the unknowns, and so I sat with my dad for half hour and just talked with him and talked through everything that had happened in the past and how everything turned out. Okay, different. But okay. And I really needed that this week from my dad. And so I don't know if you have somebody in your life that can tell you that or That has told you that. So from Megan and I, we want to let you know that everything is going to be okay. Different. But okay. Sometimes when we are trying to process everything that's going on, we can feel conflicting or confusing emotions, where we don't really know what to feel at any given moment. And that can be unsettling on top of everything else that is going on. This is this confusing emotions conflict. So I want to challenge you and this is something that I practice this past week and I'm going to continue to do that when you have those moments where you are confused about what to feel or what exactly you're feeling. Listen, watch or read something that you know will bring out a certain feeling. I think we all have those songs that we know will immediately make us cry, or those movies that will make us laugh. Or maybe you have a favorite book or story that will read that will make your blood boil. So for me, I have my happy songs and the is just a general band with a local band here from the Ozarks, called Big Smith. I love every single one of their albums and every single one of their songs. I used to go see them live when they were still together. And they're just brings back a lot of memories. When I want to feel happy or want that elicit that emotion. I know I can go listen to those songs, if I want to laugh, and I think this is very apropos. For us. It's a movie called Best in Show. It's a mockumentary about dog shows. And I'll just leave it at that. But I have never an interesting, I've never not watched that and not laugh. So I was curious. Megan, do you have anything that you like to listen to or watch to elicit a particular that you know, will make you cry or make you happy or make you sad or mad?
Meghan 04:44
Um, well, I growing up in the 90s as I'm sure some of you did as well. Basically, most TV shows from the 90s or most movies from the 90s will elicit that nostalgia feeling so right now I'm working my way through the TV show Mad About You. It was a sitcom in the 90s. And so that just, I had never watched it really before just a couple episodes here and there, but I just having that nostalgia of like, oh, when I was a little girl, I saw this on TV. And so it just makes me feel good.
Collin 05:22
In those moments, again, where you're feeling confused about what to feel, or how to process that. That's one way that's one tool to hone in on one particular feeling and one particular emotion and get you through that.
Meghan 05:34
We had a question come in that somebody had wanted us to talk about fostering a little bit. So many shelters and rescue groups right now are really overcrowded. And they're asking for fosters during this time, and if you are interested in that or wanting to do that, I think that's a great noble thing. We are all familiar with taking care of dogs. That's what we do. But being a foster mom or dad can be a different kind of scenario. So before you agree to foster, there's a lot of things to consider because it's not just about taking, you know, a new client into your home. It's kind of a different things you want to ask a lot of questions beforehand to the shelter or the rescue group. So, like, how did the dog come to be at the shelter? If the pet has any medical concerns, behavioral concerns, that's really something important to know. And basically all the normal questions that you would ask a client at a meet and greet, is the dog house trained? Does it get along with other dogs? Is it up to date on vaccines, and the shelter or rescue group may not have all the answers to these questions, but getting the most knowledge about the pet as you can before agreeing to foster so that you know the situation that you're getting into. Also, if you have never fostered before, knowing what the process all of the process entails and all the paperwork that they need from you I think another important question is asking how long you would be fostering. So would it be until the pup finds a new home or until the shelter is less crowded? That's something important to know. Also, who pays for the food and any medical bills that could arise? So a lot of times the shelter will pay for that. But in these uncertain times, you want to know for sure, and I'm sure it's outlined in the contract that you would sign but just knowing that ahead of time so that in case anything were to happen to the pet, that you would not be liable or if you're okay with those bills that you know that ahead of time, will you be required to bring the pet to adoption events, those may not be happening right now because of gatherings. Knowing when and where you need to be bringing the pet is important. And then I think most crucial of all is what happens if you can no longer care for the pet. These times are very uncertain, and this fostering is a very, like I said a very kind and noble thing to do. But you may not be able. But there may come a scenario where you're not able to care for the pet anymore and knowing what you need to do with the pet during that time also preparing your home for the foster. Most of us have extra supplies on hand leashes, bowls crates, but considering how your home may need to be different to care for an extra four legs for the long term, if you have other pets in your home, introducing them slowly to the new pet just like you would add, just like you would introducing a new client to your home, but really expecting the unexpected. Remember that these pets may be scared. They've been shuffled to and from places and most likely, they don't understand what's going on. So treat them with kindness and love as I'm sure you do all of your clients
Collin 08:49
and this is a really good way to deal with some of the anxieties and separation anxieties that we're all dealing with for missing being around pets in the animal. It's also as Megan mentioned, a really great way to help them out right now, in such uncertain times of how much longer a lot of these things will go on, and whether people will be able to come and see the pets and, and adopt those pets. So if you're in a position where that works for you, and you want to do that, and just fits with where you are right now, I can't think of a better thing to do for pets. When a lot of us are unable to care for some form as a business,
Meghan 09:34
right? It's a win win, you get to help the shelter and you get to fulfill that desire of longing for lots of for Yeah, and
Collin 09:44
there was a meme going around recently that said something like if you don't exit this time, having if you haven't learned something new, expanded your knowledge or done something productive with your time. It wasn't that you didn't have the time. time it was that you aren't motivated. And all of us are talking about how we can be using this time appropriately.
Meghan 10:09
Yeah, I mean, we even did we talked about in a previous episode, how we're, you know, don't waste this time be productive and we listed off things you could be doing with this time online courses and all that.
Collin 10:20
I guess at this point, I want to take a little step back and state that if you are not in a good place, emotionally, mentally, physically or spiritually, being told to be more productive and doing more is that doesn't help. Right. So if you are at that point and you are being you see these things around you that you are not being productive, so you must be lazy or these other things. Know that that's not the case that first and foremost you have to make sure that you are okay in every aspect
Meghan 11:00
Right like the oxygen mask thing
Collin 11:01
Yeah, they can talk about that you have to take care of yourself
Meghan 11:05
first, but I see both sides of it. So I I see your point but I also see like if now if ever there was a time to be marketing your business and keeping up with social media and doing all that it's now when everybody is stuck in their homes just looking at the phones all day and you know that this is the time to be getting your your number out there your name out there working on
Collin 11:28
your website and working on your facility and all of that. Yeah, absolutely. I don't I don't want to take away from the fact that this is a wonderful opportunity to be as productive as you can. But it's that last part of as you can be, if you are not okay enough to be productive if you need to take some some mental health days and wrap your brain around. everything that's going on in the big scary world right now. Kind of like I did last week where I needed to call my dad like That's okay. Like that day, I can be honest, like I was not productive at all, like, not much happened that day.
12:08
And that's okay. There's gonna be another day. And and so
Collin 12:16
I don't want the idea of being productive to turn into this toxic idea that those who are being productive are somehow superior superior or better than those who didn't do anything today or yesterday. Like, that's we don't need to go there as a society or as pet sitters and pet care providers. When we are trying to help other people and listening to their stories, that our first reaction is to be, oh, that person didn't work on their website at all. I, I worked on my website and I worked on my mailing list and I and I did all the stuff and I got the certified like, that's okay. Those are all good things. I don't want them to be held over somebody's head because they were really struggling emotionally. Maybe they started out strong. And then as the deadlines got extended and shelter in place was extended by weak given weak and weak and weak like that, at some point, just make sure that you're okay being staying at home and being mentally resolved is is enough work true for a lot of people to then add on the okay and now you've got to be as productive or more productive than you've ever been in your entire life when there's a global epidemic and pandemic and a world melting down around you. I just want to caution against that and, and make sure that we're okay first. That you guys out there listening are okay first before you send us your first email or before you start taking a crack at your website that you have emotionally been able to, to deal with everything going on. Because it's a lot. It is. It is an awful lot to work through. And especially on the changing every day, every day, every hour. new stories on the global scale and
Meghan 14:04
putting the phone down.
Collin 14:05
Mm hmm. So this comes into the making sure you're okay emotionally setting up some barriers that we talked about last week. Putting those in place go a long way to these little steps. It's not big, massive steps at any given point, it's little steps, day in, day out, to get you to where you need to be. But the key is where you need to be not where you are compared to somebody else or where somebody else is where you need to be. I don't know if you need absolution or or whatever right now, but if at the end of this all you have done is maintain your sanity and emotional health. I want to say congratulations, and that was a job well done in a in a battle well fought if you were able, or if you did more. Congratulations, battle Well, one more well thought. I know this episode is not very happy. On the How to Choose or what to do as a business or things along that line. It's more about taking care of yourself personally. And where Megan and I are right now with all the news changing and our lockdown in place. We read to our kids all the time. And one of their favorite stories is by Dr. Seuss. My daughter's favorite one is called Oh, the places you'll go. And if you have not read this, I strongly encourage you to. And so I want to pull a few highlights from that as a word of encouragement to us all in these kind of dark, scary times as they continue to drag on and we don't always see the end. And we know what's going to end we hope it's going to end that's what we that's what we hope and long for. But in those times where you start questioning that I know Dr. Seuss has some few words for you. Oh, the places you'll go. There is fun to be done. There are points to be scored. There are gains to be won. And the magical things you can do with that ball will make you the winningest winner. Have all fame, you'll be famous, famous indie with a whole wide world watching you in on TV. Except when they don't, because sometimes they won't. And this next part I really think speaks to overall battling with right now. I'm afraid that sometimes you'll play lonely games to games you can't win, cuz you'll play against you all alone. Whether you like it or not, alone will be something you'll be quite a lot. And when you're alone, there's a very good chance you'll meet things that scare you right out of your pants. There are some down the road between hither and yon that can scare you so much You won't want to go on
16:43
and that's where we are right now.
Collin 16:46
Those times we're really scared and we don't know what to do next. But on you will go though the weather be fell on you will go kill your enemies prowl. On you will go the hacking cracks power Word Up many of frightening Creek, your arms may get sore and your sneakers may leak. And on and on, you will hike and I know you'll hike far and face up your problems, whatever they are, and will you succeed? Yes, you will indeed 98 and three quarter percent guaranteed. Now that part
17:20
A lot of us think is unsure. But as we started this episode with, everything is going to be okay. It's gonna look different.
Collin 17:29
But you're going to be okay. So be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray or Mordecai alley Van Alen O'Shea, you're off to great places. Today is your day. Your mountain is waiting. So get on your way. If you guys want to call and talk to us, we have a voicemail. The line is 636-364-8260
Meghan 17:53
We really appreciate you guys. And we hope that you do reach out if you need help or you need somebody to talk too, or you just want to call and say hi and then hang up. We got our first voicemail tonight and it really encouraged us a lot. It felt very good to hear that, that other sitters like you are out there, dealing with the same things, dealing with the uncertainties, but knowing that
Collin 18:25
there's somebody at the other end of the line, and as caregivers and helpers, and all of that, there is a community, there are people out there that are concerned about you and want to make sure that you are doing okay to that the voicemail that we got tonight was was very touching. And it meant so much to hear. And to know that people were thinking about us too. later on this week. We have a couple interviews on from Auntie M's pet sitting, talks about her story, getting started and What she's learned and some of the things that she's struggled with along the way. I it's very encouraging to hear from her and I hope you guys will get a lot out of that too.
Meghan 19:10
So please continue to join us for multiple episodes every week. And if you would like to join our Facebook group, it's sitter confessionals. We are also on Instagram and Facebook and you can call us with your voicemail if you would like
Collin 19:24
talk to you guys soon.
