When I was growing up, I loved animals. I especially loved dogs the most. My all time favorite wild animal is hands down, a wolf. I love that they are pack or family-oriented, and I thought that was just like me. When I was graduating high school, I got in a bad accident that changed my life. I never imagined that I would own a dog boarding facility when I was growing up. I just knew I wanted to do something with animals. I had thought about being a veterinarian for a long time, but that all changed one day.
When I had just graduated from high school, my family, as well as some family friends, went on vacation. We went to Florida to the same city we always go to. One day when we were at the beach, some friends and I saw a sandbank roughly one hundred yards from shore. We are all strong swimmers, and we knew we could make it out to the sandbank. We began swimming out. On our way out, we passed over a reef that was maybe twenty feet below us. We got out to the sandbank and were proud of ourselves. After about ten minutes of fun and games, one of my friends shouted shark. We were obviously scared and made the decision to stay on the reef since we had some land. After five minutes, we decided to try and swim for it. This was not the best choice. On the way back, I was attacked but fought back. It let go but not before taking a chunk of me with it.
I made it back to shore but blacked out right away from the pain. When I woke up, I was in the emergency room being told that the shark had bitten part of my large intestine and I would need a colostomy procedure immediately. Shortly after, I passed out again due to all the pain medication. When I woke up, I was in a different room, and the doctor there told me that I was going to be alright now, and I was in the surgery recovery room. I looked down, and to my shock, I had a weird puffy pink-red thing sticking out of my abdomen. The doctor then said that it was called a stoma. This is where all my bodily waste would exit.
Shortly after my procedure, I had a vision per se, and I knew from there I would start my own dog boarding facility. I got in contact with some people who I know are in the industry and asked them how I should get started. After about a month, I got everything in order and opened it. It was tough at first with adjusting to having to work with my ostomy bag, but eventually, I was able to manage. I have to do my best to ensure no dogs jump on me as they can accidentally hurt my stoma.
I never imagined that I would be the owner of a dog boarding facility. After a lot of hard work and dedication, I have managed to build this place from nothing. I am going on close to six years now of owning this facility, and I would not change it for the world.
