Dear Animal Lovers…
I See You.
I'm Katya—a Harvard educated, 20 year shelter volunteer, trainer and champion for both animals and 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 often don’t 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…this work is who you are.
My philosophy
After fostering over 70 dogs and experiencing both the heights and the depths of its benefits and burnout, I've discovered what truly sustains a heart-led human: turning tenderness inward onto ourselves, no longer outsourcing it, but instead allowing in the love we’ve been wishing for and giving to everyone else. We are in charge of our own bloom.
As a certified dog trainer, senior dog foster, and animal advocate, I've walked the paths of stress and grief to learn that self-discovery and self-empathy are necessary to cultivate inside ourselves in order to shine compassion out 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 essential self, our authenticity. When we stop abandoning or ignoring our true nature, 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 with your body, with your breath. 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.
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
Fun Facts About Me
(Because Why Not?)
Here are a few things that light me up:
🐾
I love feet (Yes, you read that right! It’s not an Only Fans thing—don’t judge me!) Feet - and paws! - say SO MUCH about someone. I see you, 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 eyes and ears. All that divinely feminine grit.
🖊
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 with 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 domain of choice is invisible spaces and the relationship between things, tuning into what is being ignored, and how things connect. Access is what I came with and I’m honored by it. Mystics, let’s join forces, the world needs us.
→Quirky bits remind me that life is beautiful, messy, and meant to be enjoyed—and that’s the vibe I want to bring into everything I do with you and the animals you’re lucky enough to know (and be known by.)
My Mission
To help you love without losing yourself in the process.
I Can Help You Do Your Best with Ease, Joy, and Balance.
I believe we are all capable of serving and connecting with heart, enjoyment, resilience, and empowerment. But too often, the very work or relationship we are passionate about becomes a thing that drains us. My mission is to help you reclaim your energy, process the emotional intensity of the areas in your life and work that are leaking your joy, and guide you back to a place that feels good for you. I don’t want you to have to leave the animal shelter world to be okay… you can spend time there AND be okay. I don’t want you to have to get rid of a pet to be okay… you can stay with this dog, the one who might be driving you crazy but is in your life for a reason, AND be okay.