Holly McCarrick

If you listen to your dogs, they will tell you what they need

You will often hear me saying the phrase “I love Pudge” - the affectionate nickname we give my hefty beefcake of a dog, Rocky. He has been a part of my life for over three years. I found him in northern Vermont at a shelter I was working for at the time. It was love at first sight.

Throughout the years, Rocky has taught me so much about dogs and our relationships with them. Not only that, but their relationships with one another as well. They are all so unique; dog behavior, suddenly, was not as black-and-white as I had always thought.

Disclaimer: Rocky is a no-doubt-about-it-full-fledged pit bull (Staffordshire bull terrier, to be exact). As an ambassador for the breed myself, there's a lot of things about the pit bull taboo that get on my nerves - none quite like, however, the phrase, “It's all in how they're raised.”

The word “aggression” has become a danger word, a shameful word for dog owners.

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My animal shelter work was everything — and it was killing me

My intimate work with pets and their owners was so consuming that I lost sight of what I was fighting for — and who I was as a person

His name was Sam. To know Sam was to know, intimately and sometimes unfortunately, the innermost workings of an animal rescue organization. And then, there is Rocky. To know Rocky is to reawaken the hope, love, and passion that brought me into animal welfare. In the fall of 2012,

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Vermont policy causes rapid exodus of citizens, volunteers

As an active member of the Manchester/Dorset-area community and a person deeply involved with a number of not-for-profit entities, I have had the privilege over the years of working with some of the state's older, more committed, and certainly generous citizens. Many of these individuals have had a great...

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The art of dancing

In September of 2000, Beth Wood was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. It began with simply forgetting to turn off the stove after she was done cooking one of her famous meals, or needing a reminder of her son's phone number. Then, as most Alzheimer patients do, she began to forget to eat or bathe. She would wake up unaware of where she was. She'd imagine people were stealing things, simply because she could not remember where they had previously been.

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