Animal Lovers…
I See You.
HI, HOLA, WOOF!
I'm Katya—a Harvard educated, 15+ year animal shelter volunteer, dog foster, & champion for both animals & the people who care for them.
If you’re here, I already know one thing about you: you care deeply. You are driven by something inside, crave purpose, seek to make a difference, take relationships meaningfully, and may not pause to take a break or rest even when you need to. In the quiet moments between words that won't come, in the tender exhaustion that rises up every time you give your heart to a creature who depends on you—there lives a simple, profound feeling of who you are. And it’s beautiful. We need you to keep doing it because it is not just your work…it is a compilation of your gifts and your glow, and the animals bask in it. They heal in the presence of your youness.
My philosophy
After fostering over 70 dogs and experiencing both the heights and the depths of its benefits and burnout, I've realized what sustains a heart-led human, which is not a good planner for time management or a strategic-leaning brain, but the practice in turning tenderness inward onto ourselves. Not outsourcing it, not neglecting our need for softness, but instead allowing in the love we wish for, that same love we easily give to everyone else, by redirecting some of that care our own way. We are in charge of watering our own bloom.
As a former certified dog trainer, dog foster who specializes in seniors, and animal advocate, I've walked the paths of stress and grief many times. I’ve learned that self-discovery and self-empathy are necessary to cultivate inside ourselves in order to have that abundant supply of compassion to shine onto others.
What I've found through both personal and professional experience is that fulfillment comes when we grant ourselves the space to process, integrate, and reconnect with our essence, our authenticity. When we stop abandoning or ignoring our truths, we realize we are whole and capable, brave and valuable, unique and important just for BEING. We stop keeping away what we most want and FEEL into it in the present moment. It happens in your body, with your breath. And it takes nothing away from the animals we love. It is only when we resource ourselves and pour back into ourselves that we recognize how much more we have to give, and how love is a regenerating infinite force when we get some too. THAT’S what this community was designed for.
YOU MIGHT HAVE SEEN ME FEATURED IN:
My Credentials
Certified Positive-Reinforcement Based Dog Trainer
Certified Family Paws Educator
Foster to over 70+ dogs
Award-winning author, “Be Your Dog’s Best Friend”
Certified Creative Grief Coach
Certified Trauma-Informed Breathwork Facilitator
Masters, Harvard Graduate School of Education
BFA, New York University Tisch School of the Arts
Over a decade of experience working professionally in animal welfare nonprofits
My Book
Be Your Dog's Best Friend: The Benefits of Mutual Bonding and Relationship Building
2025
Bonding with a dog is good for the animal and good for us. Along the way to achieving the behaviors we desire from a dog, we change our behaviors too, taking us right to the intersection between dog guardianship and personal growth.
This how-to-bond book, set against the backdrop of a true love story, explores what happens when we prioritize the relationship with our canines over the results we get from them.
With a woven narrative that features various foster dogs as well as exercises to practice with your own dog, it positions dog adoption as both a selfish and a selfless act.
Every dog has the capacity to help us be the best version of ourselves, day after day, and in bonding to improve the relationship with our pet, we end up strengthening the relationship we really want: the one with ourselves.
Fun Facts About Me
(Because Why Not?)
Here are a few things that light me up:
🐾
I love feet ( Not in an Only Fans kind of way, don’t judge me!) Feet - and paws! - say SO MUCH about someone. It’s your personality on display, the goofy you, there in your lower extremities 🙂
🎶
I’m obsessed with Tina Turner’s voice. There’s just something about her raw power and passion that makes her one-of-kind perfect in my ears. All that divinely feminine grit, so gorgeous.
🖊
I can’t get enough of e.e. cummings’ poetry—he speaks to my creative soul. He wrote in accordance to feeling, not necessarily in line with grammar rules, but from the heart.
Having read what I’ve written above, these may go without saying, but:
→ I consider cringe a love language.
→ I love the weirdos, I run towards them, I am one of them! Your authenticity will not cost you my affection.
→ My favorite space is invisible space, the relationship between things. I am humbled for any chance to tune into the felt sense and how things connect. Access is what I came with— I’m honored by it. Mystics, let’s join forces, I think the world needs us.
→Quirky pops of realness remind me that life is so beautiful, messy, and meant to be enjoyed! That’s the vibe I bring to the time I spend with you and the animals lucky enough to know (and be known by you.) What is the energy you naturally bring? Come share it. Come be yourself in safe company. Let’s co-create our animal-loving community.
My Mission
To help you love big
without losing yourself in the process.
I Help You Do Your Best with More Bliss, Boundaries, & Balance.
I believe we’re all capable of serving from the heart, with enjoyment, resilience, and empowerment. But too often, the very work or relationships we are most devoted to become what drains us. My mission is to help you reclaim your energy, process the emotional, mental, and physical intensities that arise from this work, and support you in letting more delight! To guide you towards listening to yourself, and coming from a place that feels good for you.
I don’t want you to have to leave animal volunteering to be okay… you can give AND be well. I don’t want you to have to get rid of a pet to be okay… you can keep this dog (the one who might be driving you crazy and who is in your life for a reason) AND be well. What if what we feel around animals reflects what we need to learn right now, where we need to evolve, and how we are being challenged to grow into deeper, more expansive versions of ourselves? What if they are the transformation? What if the love possible with them, from them, is a mirror for you?