Who and Why

Why Special Friends Pet Care?

 Hi, my name is Leslie Barnhill.  I am the owner of the Special Friends Pet Care.  While carrying for animals is not new to me, owning a business and writing a blog certainly is.   But I wanted to explain why I am starting this business.  My whole life I have always loved animals – many of us have and I realize saying this is nothing new in the pet care industry.  However, as I have watched my dogs (and now a cat) age, I have grown passionate for caring for senior and special needs animals. I have been blessed to own multiple dogs in my adult life.  These pets have faced challenges such as arthritis, torn ligaments, spinal injuries, neurological issues, behavioral issues, organ failures, and other special circumstances, so I understand many challenges that owners go through as their pets change life stages.  Through each of the issues that my own personal dogs have had, I have always found myself dreaming of taking my experience to other owners who may struggle with the same challenges and offer potential solutions. This has been the ‘why’ for starting this business.  This has also been the ‘why’ for me to continue my education in the field of veterinary medicine as a technician. 

I grew up with a couple family dogs, and while being blessed with sisters, I often spent more time with the family dog then my siblings.  As I grew up, became an adult, which included employment, I never considered the animal or pet industry.  It wasn’t something that other family members did, so why should I?  When I found myself in my 20s working in a field with little reward, I decided I wanted to change careers.  With a very supportive husband who had more faith in me than I did at times, he urged me to find something that I would be happy doing.  I soul searched, researched, and narrowed fields down to either science education or a field in veterinary medicine.  Seeing that I struggled in undergraduate school, both of these fields required more schooling.  After speaking to professionals in both fields, I chose to become a science teacher.  Long story short, I became an educator, earned masters’ degrees in Geosciences and Academic Advising and began my love as a life-long learner.  I ended my decades-long career with the coolest education job as running all aspects of a planetarium in two local districts.  While I loved my job, my retirement age was approaching and I got the desire to do something different. And being fairly young, I still want to work in a field that is rewarding to my soul.

During my adult life with my husband, I have had the luxury of acquiring multiple dogs (most of them chose us).  While it started with one dog, most of the time we had two to three dogs at any given point.   (Each individual dog will have their own place in this blog with their own special struggles).  While being blessed to own so many dogs, they have been my biggest teacher.  As an educator, days were long and often tiring, but coming home to a household of dogs always changed bad moods to good, tears to laughter.  I began volunteering at my local municipal shelter and my passion for animals began to increase rapidly. As my dogs aged, I also gained a new perspective on being a pet parent.  I visited the veterinary office more often with the dogs, learning about the changes they were going through and how to make them comfortable as they grew older.  My passion grew even more, so I worked as a part time as a pet sitter for a year.  Then I started taking classes at a local community college and earned my veterinary assistant certification. Loving formal education, I continued by earning a certificate as a Companion Animal End of Life Doula.  I am now taking classes to become a certified veterinary technician.  This landed me a part time position at veterinary clinic that uses an integrative approach to medicine and I love it.  I actually get to work with that are aging, recovering from injury, or have owners that want to add therapeutic care to their pet’s life. 

While I love my job, the people I work with, work for and the clients I see, I have always had this business in my mind.  If I had my way, all pets would live pain and stress-free forever.  But since they cannot, if I can be of service to you, please reach out and contact me.

-Leslie Barnhill, owner of Special Friends Pet Care