Stephanie Hancock

Hi there! I’m Stephanie, editor of WhereDogsMeet.com. I’m a stay at home mom and full time freelance writer. I have seven children and eight fur-children, combined with my fiance Rick, there’s a total of 17 people in our family. The seven children that live with us, either full time or part time, range in ages from 19 to 8 - yes, everyone, my house is messy and it can be crazy at times. Yet, amidst the clutter and fur-covered furniture, we are all very happy and wouldn’t change a thing. We live in Alberta, Canada in a rural town setting and love it here.

We have 5 cats (MoeMoe, Jake, Pippy, Bogey/Booger, and Rogue), ranging in age from 11 years old to just a few months old, all of our cats are male. They all get along with our three large dogs and often you can find the fur family members curled up together, all eight of them, on our bed. I should mention ‘Outdoor Bob’ - a stray cat that I’ve been feeding on our deck for a few months. Come winter time though here in blustery and cold Alberta, Canada, ‘Outdoor Bob’ will likely become ‘Indoor Bob’.

My puppies are my pride and joy - I love working with them all and for individual reasons.

Ceile, (pronounced Kay-Lee) is a 4-year-old Golden Retriever, with an intelligence that is unmatched. Smart as a whip, Ceile picks up new orders and commands in minutes and retains them for a lifetime. She is our oldest dog, but leaves the ‘alpha title’ to her sister, Zoe. Ceile is content to lay with you, as long as some part of you is touching her at all times. She loves to be loved!

Ceile is smart as a whip - truly. When we got her at eight weeks old, my fiance and I worked managed and ran a local bar and hotel. Having just got her, she didn’t know her name or any commands and it was a busy Friday night at the bar. Rick had to leave to go out for dinner with his kids and I was left with Ceile and a busy bar. She whined in her kennel, so I let her out. I tripped over her once, and from that point on she learned her name, come, sit and stay in about 15 minutes. She followed my every move all night, listened to what I needed her to do (lay down and stay out of my way, lol) and was the hit of the party, needless to say. About a year later, Ceile was getting bored and had eaten a full set of furniture down to the boards, so we got her a sister - Zoe.

“Zoe” (pronounced Zoh-ee), is a Great Pyrenees (a mountain dog). She is 3-years-old and can be very stubborn at times. Owning a dog her size has truly been an eye-opener - one needs to be both strong and vigilant when training a 110+ pound dog who can pull or push over 200 pounds with her neck alone. Although she is a ‘brute’, she is loving and she is, and always will be, the ‘alpha dog’ of this household, second only to mom and dad.

Zoe is large yet quite affectionate, however if she doesn’t want to obey a command, she knows there’s not much I can do to make her - she nearly outweighs me! We are very strict with Zoe because we have to be. She loves to do her training and is good at everything she knows how to do - she lives to be praised and petted. No dog is perfect, and while Zoe is not perfect, I love her to death. She is our ‘big white dog’. She is fiercely protective of me, Rick, all of the children and all of the animals and is never off leash outside unless in an enclosed area. If she gets out unattended, it’s nose down, butt up and long gone. She comes home - eventually. Zoe has mastered the ‘big white paw of doom’ - which she employs when she needs to go outside or wants attention.

About two and a half years after we got Zoe, we sort of ‘ended up with’ Buddy.

“Buddy” (pronounced bud-ee) is a Golden Lab and is still very much a puppy at eight months old. He is a sweet and intelligent dog who chose his own name, even though we had a prestigious name in mind for him, he ignored it and only responded to ‘Buddy’. Now, he is every-buddy, some-buddy, no-buddy and every-buddy!

Buddy is the last addition to our fur family. He is already proving to be very smart, as smart as Ceile is, and then some. He is strong like Zoe and smart like Ceile, thank goodness for the smarts with the strength! I’m not sure I could handle both a big white dog and a big yellow dog at the same time! Buddy has a lot of personality, it shines through his droopy sad-sack eyes every day and he loves his sisters as well as all his kitty-brothers - well, he really loves everybuddy!

Well, folks, those are my pups and all there really is to know about me! I hope you enjoy the postings on the blog…see you there!

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