Episode 10 - Human to Handler

So explain to us about what it is living in America, being a pup play, being LGBT, because I know there's a lot of things going on at the moment.

I don't really want the, we know a lot from the news, but I want to know personally, do you know what I mean? I want you to, we want to learn about you and want to learn about what it's like to be you and living with what we're hearing.

Do you know what I mean?

Yeah, it's, well, I mean, it's tough, honestly.

It's really hard.

I think specifically from the handler standpoint, I do consider myself a community handler.

In fact, before I had any title, I self-titled myself the community handler of LA because that is truly how I feel.

And I have yet to meet a puppy in LA who hasn't said to me, yeah, absolutely, that's correct.

So it's really tough because we are dealing with ice and ice raids.

And that is very scary because the majority of our population are Latinx folks.

And especially here in L.A., because I'm about a three hour drive from the Mexican-American border.

So it's scary.

There are pups in the community who can no longer take public transit because for fear of ICE raids.

And that has, it's really put a damper on the community.

Don't get me wrong, we are still, we're still out here and mashing on the mats and everything.

But I think that it's important to be realistic about how the community is being affected by our current authoritarian regime.

It is, yes, we're still going to the bars and we're still living our lives, but it is scary and it is really tough right now.

So...

I think from a handler standpoint, a lot of my brain capacity is just consumed by, are all the dogs okay? You know what I mean? And is everyone in the community okay in general? Because as a community handler, I feel that all the pups are mine to look after.

When I am in a space with puppies, I feel that all the pups are mine to look after and care for.

And the reason I wanted to ask you that is because a lot of times we see all the news and I think we forget the individuals involved.

And also, and a lot of this is about community.

We have a lot of people come on the community and I think people don't really think that's happening to our community because we're so far away, you feel disconnected from it because all we see is news articles.

And when someone says how it actually is... and you're hearing their own words from someone from the community, it feels real to me.

If you can connect to it more and you understand what's going on.