Rock Solid w/ Kristin Ann Jones

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A Rock of Stability to Stay Focused & Active

About The Episode

While she did a lot of moving around when growing up, Kristin Jones always remembered each place through the dogs she had at the time (who were always golden retrievers). Even though they were more in the background amongst the rest of life – such as school and friends – all her childhood dogs maintained an important memory in her life.

When she became a mother herself, Kristin gave the joy of that experience to her daughter Sara, too, with having dogs in their house from a young age – a yellow lab named Milo and a black lab named Penny. During this time, the relationship with their dogs was still a little more in the background amongst the rest of life happening.

Later on, Kristin was going through a career transition and personal adjustment. She had originally worked as a street officer in Portland for 10 years before moving to the DA's office as an investigator for cases around child abuse, sexual assault, domestic violence, and more. However, after developing cervical vertigo, she was unable to go back to doing street work when called upon and had to retire early on disability. She was worried about the situation of having to leave a job that mattered a lot to her, as well as the financial implications that came from it.

By this point, Kristin's daughter was in high school and there were no dogs in their household anymore. Sara asked if they could get a puppy. This idea sparked Kristin's interest, as she had been researching therapy dog teams, and thought a new dog would be a gratifying volunteer activity to support her community. So they got Archer, a yellow lab, and soon after Kristin's daughter went to college she officially got certified, with Archer, as a therapy dog team.

Kristin and Archer were approved by Pet Partners to volunteer at local schools, elderly facilities, and military rehab locations. They also joined HOPE Animal-Assisted Crisis Response to comfort civilians traumatized by manmade and natural disasters. Through this practice, Kristin saw the incredible natural and intuitive empathy of Archer and the compassion he showed towards anyone he met.

Around all of this happening, there were other events that led to an especially tough time for Kristin. She lost her mother, who she was really close with as the only daughter of four children, and at the same time Kristin's own daughter Sara developed some serious health issues. It was all overwhelming, and Kristin didn't want to deal with the world, so she often stayed home to avoid stress.

However, Archer became her rock. He kept her focused on helping other people through their therapy dog work, he helped her get out of the house and be active across the Pacific Northwest, and he helped her to find the motivation and stability she needed.

As part of her therapy work, Kristin had started writing and illustrating children's books about Archer to give to them when they visited to teach programs. When Archer had some health issues of his own in 2019 and the pandemic struck soon after, she needed to find a new way they could help people. Kristin realized how many lessons she had learned from Archer, so she wrote her new self-published book Everything I Know about Life, I Learned from My Dog as a way to pass on some of those takeaways.

About The Guest - Kristin Ann Jones

Kristin Ann Jones is an artist and author who is based in the Pacific Northwest. Along with her dog, Archer, they have done endless hours of therapy work together and have certificates from the American Kennel Club, Advanced Canine Good Citizen, and work with the Pet Partners and HOPE Animal-Assisted Crisis Response organizations. Kristin's children's books, which she made for her therapy work in schools, include: Archer Is, Archer’s Little Thoughts, and Archer’s Hats – which set the foundation for her latest book, Everything I Know About Life, I Learned From My Dog which dives deep on the valuable life lessons that dogs can teach us.

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