Meet a local pet! Have you seen a Jindo before? Well, this one is GORGEOUS!
This week’s interview with Maria Santamaria is so full of great information about local pet events, how to build an incredible pet community, and some pictures of a SUPER cute pup!
–
Find Maria and Coconut here –
Facebook: https://www.
Instagram: https://www.
Now, let’s get to the interview!
Transcription:
Laura Wombwell
Hi there, it’s Laura from Laura Wombwell Photography. And joining me today is Maria, Santamaria, and her dog Coconut. Welcome, Maria. I’m so excited to have you here today.
Maria Santamaria
Thank you. I’m very excited to be here.
Laura Wombwell
So today is all about meeting a local pet. So Coconut is a Jindo mix, and how did she come to live with you?
Maria Santamaria
That is a good story. I love telling the story. So we adopted Coconut from Korea. Three and a half years ago, we had just moved into a new house. And my partner and I were just settling in and I knew I always wanted a dog of my own. I grew up with dogs. So it just made sense for me that once I moved out and got married, I’d have a dog. And we knew we wanted to rescue. So we started looking on Petfinder mainly. And I saw her picture one day, and so, so coconut has a head tilt. It’s very distinguishable. And it turns out that when she was in Korea, she unfortunately was in a car accident. And so they found her. Yeah. And so because of the car accident, she has permanent head tilt. So it’s very quirky. Yeah. So we’ve taken her to a chiropractor, and they said that she doesn’t have any pain. And because it’s been so long, they don’t think they can fix it. It’s not really worth it. Since she seems to be fine. We think she’s a little bit deaf in one ear. And she can’t catch with her life. I don’t know if that’s because of the head tilt or she’s really not very coordinated. But anyway, so I saw her picture. We applied to adopt her and the process was super easy. It all happened so fast. To be honest, I thought it would take a while but be applied. I think the next day they reach out to us. And then within a couple of days there was somebody doing an in house inspection.
Laura Wombwell
Oh,
Maria Santamaria
I think within a week we were at the airport, going to pick her up. Yeah. So we drove to Toronto airport, and we waited for her at arrivals and they brought her out in her crate. And oh, it was so surreal is such a good experience. And yeah, we got to take her home and introduce her to her new home with us. And yeah, she’s been with us ever since. And she’s come a long way. She was super shy when I first got her she didn’t know how to use the stairs. was very afraid of men. And it was a typical with rescues often they sleep, like all curled up at first and once they get more comfortable then they start sleeping all sprawled out. So now she’s all over the place. But yeah, she’s come a long way. She’s made a lot of doggy friends. But yeah, that’s how that’s how we got our little Coconut.
Wow. I remember when we brought our first rescue home and the rescue handed her over. It was like, Oh my gosh, just bringing home like, legitimately your new fur child. Oh, it was so exciting. So I can’t even imagine like, compounded by that dog having just traveled to a different country. That’s amazing.
Yeah, 14 hour flight. I know My poor baby.
Laura Wombwell
So what can you tell me about the rescue that she was adopted through?
Maria Santamaria
So the rescue we adopted her from is called Free Korean Dogs. Super great organization. We actually intended to find a rescue that was local. But they’re based in Toronto. So that’s why they popped up on Petfinder. And I was already, for sure, I was already in love. I was like, that’s the dog I’m getting. And then I found out that she wasn’t even in the country. She was in Korea. But I mean, I was sold. But the people are super nice. They go over there in Korea. And they rescue street dogs. They rescue dogs from high kill shelters. And they do a lot of rescues from dog meat markets. And the the lady who has, her name escapes me right now. She’s fantastic. She’s super sweet. Even now, my partner is a developer. And so whenever they have issues with their website, we’re always on hand to to help them. But they’re super sweet people. Free Korean Dogs is the name, I highly recommend checking it out. They have a website and you can see all their dogs that are available for adoption. And they were fantastic. And their network is so great. We have a group on Facebook with all the adopters that have adopted in the past and everyone is super kind to each other. With rescues, you never know what what you get. And so whenever someone has a concern or an issue, they post and all the adopters will chime in with their advice and the recommendations and their experiences and it’s been great. Yeah, definitely, highly recommend them.
Laura Wombwell
Excellent. It’s it’s always so nice to have that support from the rescue. When you’ve just adopted a pup, what are some of the challenges that Coconut has overcome through through living with you and having a loving home?
Maria Santamaria
I would say the biggest challenge was meeting new people. She’s very shy and even now she is not the type to go up to random strangers. When we first got her it was a winter. And so there was a lot of people with the hats and the big coats and you know, they’re all bundled up and so it can be a little bit intimidating so she would growl a little bit. Coconut does not bark. She rarely barks. Really, but yeah, she is she’s a super quiet I think for the first like six months we didn’t even know she had a voice because she never barks. She was so quiet.
Laura Wombwell
Oh, yeah.
Maria Santamaria
She’s more comfortable now. Yeah, now she’ll bark a little bit, but the doorbell would ring nothing. She was just like, she was so quiet. Apparently that’s a Jindo thing. But I mean, I don’t know. And, but yeah, meeting new people. I think it’s the biggest thing she even now she won’t generally let people touch her. So usually we’ll have to if we’re petting her, she’ll let someone else pet her. And it sucks because she’s so cute. She’s a very, very good looking dog. I don’t want to like toot my own horn here.
She’s a very, very good looking dog. She said this big fluffy tail, these very soft, pointy ears. And little pink nose. Very cute. So people tend to want to pet her and go up to her. But she she doesn’t like she she like recoils and she’s like, Don’t touch me. But she’s come a long way. She doesn’t growl at men. She doesn’t. She’s not as scared anymore in the winter when people are bundled up with their with their scarves and hats. And she’s a little more adventurous now. So when we first got her she couldn’t do stairs. We had to carry her. Luckily, we live in a back split. So the stairs was literally like six stairs. But yeah, at first she would not touch the stairs, but I think it’s because we have hardwood. And so she was kind of slipping a little bit. She didn’t like that. But now she’ll she’ll go wherever she wants. But aside from that, like we didn’t really, we’re very lucky. We didn’t have that many challenges with her. She was already house trained. She didn’t bark, leash walking she was okay. We did a little bit of training. And it resolved itself. And I mean, she’s a mama’s girl, for sure. She’s a mama’s girl. So I mean, she’s her bond has grown a lot with my partner. Um, but if you were if you had to choose between one of us, it’d be me. So I mean, personally with me. I’ve never really had any big challenges with her. She was such a good dog. We’ve been super lucky, which makes me nervous about getting a second dog because we really want one. But I I don’t know if we’d like use up all of our luck with her. The next one’s gonna be like a like a total psycho. I’ve no idea. So I’d be nervous to get another one. But yeah, with her honestly, we were super super lucky with her, actually, because she was hit by a car. I thought she was gonna have issues with vehicles like just cars and being in the street. Nothing. She has zero fears loves being in the car. she’ll fall asleep. She’ll stick her head at the window. Zero issues. So that was also a bonus.
Laura Wombwell
Wow. So what is your very favorite thing about Coconut?
Maria Santamaria
Oh, gosh, that’s such a good question. I think her head toe is my favorite. She, oh, and she’s so she’s always smiling. And plus the head tilt. I just I can’t say no to that face. She’s I just want to like snuggle her every time I see her. Second would be her tail. If I were to pick a second, her tail is super fluffy and big. I love looking at it.
Laura Wombwell
And what are some of your favorite things to do as a family here in southwestern Ontario?
Ooh, that’s a really good question. So personally, I love going to all the dog like conventions I’m going to call it conventions – it is not the right word, but the word that comes to mind. So top of the list for sure is Pawlooza, obviously pre COVID. Pawlooza is my ultimate favorite. I love going every single year. Rain or shine. I will be there. I love looking at all the booths. I love the location, is super nice. Everyone there is a delight. I love going and then Woofstock is okay, I go to Woodstock when I can. And then the pet expos I’ll go to those as well. And then there’s definitely one more missing but that stuff is usually the stuff we go to. I’m going to be honest with you. I’m a homebody so I don’t travel much unless it’s for one of these. conventions, or fairs or expos, or whatever, although the rescues they’ll do fundraisers to every year, we’ll go to those too. Those are always lots of fun. But I’d like to do a bit more exploring. I’d really like to take Coconut camping.
Maria Santamaria
Nice. Are there any, whether it’s resources or or sort of dogs specific venues that we don’t have here in southwestern Ontario that you wish we had more of?
I’m from what I’ve heard, what I really like to see is a lot more enrichment areas that are split into sizes. So I have a couple of friends that live in the States. And where they are they have tons of dog parks that are I don’t know what you’re gonna see, I don’t know where the money comes from. But there’s it, they show me pictures. And it’s, it’s split into two big dogs, little dogs, sometimes even like in the middle. And they have sandboxes and little hills and all this enrichment. I’d really like to say something like that, I think at a minimum sizing, but I think would be really good. We have a lot of dog parks here. But one of the biggest complaints I hear is that all the sizes are mixed up. And people get nervous. And I totally understand that. And so I think be having the ability to kind of go into your right little section, depending on how big your dog is, I think it’s something that we could really use. Such as it’s so dense in this area, like in the city, not everyone can get out, you know, an hour away to where there’s more room or rent a space. So I think in a high density city, like like Waterloo, for example, it’d be nice to have something like that. I mean, we have Kiwanas, but it’s such a walk to get there from your car. So I’d like to see like something like that. To be honest, it’s been tough with with COVID. I’m like forgetting everything I used to do before.
Laura Wombwell
I think we all are.
Maria Santamaria
I know right? Yeah. I think Yeah, I guess renting like the ability to rent more facilities. I know it sounds so silly. But you know, hosting a dog meetup or a dog birthday party, having somewhere like a facility that caters to that kind of audience, I think would be really nice to have. But I know some people have mixed feelings about that. But personally, for me, I think it’s really awesome. I mean, I used to host meetups all the time. So for me, it’s something that would be valuable. But I think that’s it.
So you mentioned when you were talking about the dog trade shows and events that you share them in a group that you are an important part of. So you were the admin for the dog owners of kW group. How did you get involved?
All this also such a good question. So when I first got Coconut even though I was brought up with dogs, I had so many questions. I had no idea what it felt like I had no idea what I was doing. And I just found that there weren’t that many resources. I believe at that time. The dogs have a Guelph group. I think it’s called Dogs of Guelph. They were already around, but it was for Guelph. And I had more questions about KW. And I remember telling my husband, you know, like, I have questions, I don’t know what to do. And at that time, I was also working on starting a business related to something to do with dogs. I think at that point, I bounced ideas. I think at that point, the idea was to create an app. And there was a rescue directory, just had a list of all the rescues and a bunch of information. And I remember thinking, you know, what, I need any feedback, I need more information. And it’d be nice to meet with other dog owners and I had all these all these ideas, or questions rather than not know where to post them. And so, my husband was like, why don’t you just like start a group on Facebook? Everyone’s, everyone’s doing something like that. And I was, I was terrified. I was like, Are you crazy? I was like, I’m gonna get roasted people would have, no one joins. I was so embarrassed. I was like, it could be mean five people. No way. Like, it’s terrible idea. And he kept bugging me about it. And then eventually, I thought, you know what, he’s right. Like, I should stop being so embarrassed. And if only five people in it, there’s only five people in it, that’s okay. You know, at least I get my answers. And so I made the group. And sure enough, sort of like me, three people, I think it’s like me, my sister, my husband and my brother in law, it was just four people. And it’s like, you know what, it’s okay. You know, at that point, I think I just had hopes that maybe it would grow to like, 50 people, maybe. But yeah, before I knew it, it grew to 100. And then 500 and 1000. I think now we’re almost 5000 people. And, yeah, it turned into something I did not expect. Honestly, my first intention for the group was just to please to ask my questions, I didn’t really think it’d be much, much more than, than that. I didn’t expect that other people would have so much would have so many questions as well. I thought it was just gonna be me, this noob dog owner, posting my amateur questions, and then other people gonna help me. It turned out to be like this whole network of people who also were in the same boat as me, who also didn’t know a lot of things that just were hoping they could find somebody. That would be nice enough to help them with the questions that they had. But yeah, that was the same time I’ve had her, so three and a half years ago. Yeah.
Laura Wombwell
That’s incredible growth. I can’t even imagine managing a group that size. Are there any challenges that you encounter? Trying to manage that many folks?
Maria Santamaria
Ah, yeah, yeah, there’s a lot of it. It’s been a roller coaster. It’s been such a roller coaster. When I first started, it was great. Honestly, it was, the first bit was fantastic. The initial growth because I feel like everyone was was in on this, like, new group, like, let’s help each other. And I was so ignorant, because I thought that was it. Like I won the lottery, this group is gonna grow so big. Everyone’s so nice. It’s fantastic. No, that was very short lived. Um, once we reached, I’d say about, like, 500 people. That’s when the drama started. And that’s when I really got introduced to the controversial topics in the dog world, and about dog ownership. And I really learned a lot about having thick skin.
And I mean, for me, the best part of having the group was meeting other people. It was about the dogs and I loved doing the giveaways and I loved setting up the the dog meetups and the dog parties. I loved that. That was my favorite part. But it after a while, it became this thing where it was more about stopping the fights, and less about making meetups. And I reached this point, I think, probably are a little after 1000 people were in the group where I, my anxiety was so high all the time. I was constantly on edge. I think I had cried like at least a couple times a week, because of mean things and people were upset and the fights and I kept thinking to myself like, this isn’t fun anymore.
But I kept telling myself I was like, I want to do this, I know I can be good at this. And I stuck with it. And I learned how to have thick skin. And and I learned, I mean, I’m very grateful because I work in operations and customer care, specifically I worked in in customer care setting. This is my first job, since I was 15. I was like, I won’t reveal my age, but honestly, it’s a really long time ago. And so for me, like, it was easy. And I knew that I wanted to be an admin that was always respectful, that, you know, was polite, and tried to be a mediator. You know, and because people would tell me, like, just kick people out, like, just cares, like just, you know, swear at them back or whatever. But I didn’t want to do that. I’ve never been that type of person. It’s wired into my brain from working in Customer Care for so long that, I don’t want to it call the customer’s always right. But it’s just this thing where you just got to be respectful. And but it got to the point where every time I got a notification on my phone, my heart would start racing. And I’d get so nervous. And all I could think was like, Oh, no, what have I done this time? You know, who have I upset this time? What did somebody say? And there was times it was all the time, it was constant all day, I would be, you know, scared to go to bed? Because I’d be like, what if someone posts something while I’m sleeping. And in the morning, I’d wake up to, you know, 15 notifications and a bunch of messages really, really upset people because somebody said something, and I wasn’t there to stop it in time. And after the group had reached a couple 1000 it was just too much for me. I was like, What do I do, but I couldn’t, the people had to just feel like, why don’t you get another moderator? But I kept saying to myself, how can I ask somebody else to put in, you know, time out of their day, to watch this to babysit, essentially, I’m like, I can’t pay them. And I would feel terrible if somebody was mean to somebody else. Like it’s okay, if you know, you’re mean to me, fine. I, I’m the admin, I can handle it. I think I could handle a little bit better. But I don’t think with myself, if I had a moderator. And somebody was bullying them or something or said somebody said something mean. But I actually talked to moderators and admins of other dog owner groups. And they were so helpful. They were so sweet. And they’re like, you know what, I get it. I know what you’re going through, you know, just just put a thing out, just see what people are saying. And you know, you never know you might have someone who’s actually really interested. And sure enough, I made a post. And Casey, who’s a local dog owner, and her dog is Finn, and he’s a Newf, flippin cutest thing ever. She was like, yeah, I’m in. And I was like,
Oh, my God, really? And she’s like, yeah, I’ll do it. And she’s been moderating for me as well. And huge help. enormous, enormous weight off my shoulders. But yeah, I’d say that the biggest challenge is, is keeping the peace. It’s been tough. And with so many different opinions, and everybody’s got, you know, ideas of what they think is right from training philosophies to raw versus kibble, vaccinations versus non vaccinations, rescues versus pure bred, everything, everything, somebody’s got an opinion on it. And you know, people message me all the time really upset thinking, you know, you’ve chosen the side, why don’t you say this, I want you to say that. I’ve had people swear at me, I’ve had people threaten me. I’ve had people try to sue me. It’s, it’s tough. It’s very, very hard being an admin. But I gotta remind myself that I do for the dogs, I do it for the for the dogs, and it’s worth in the end, and it’s gotten easier. I’ve learned a lot. I’ve got much thicker skin now. And I’ve learned to, to set limits for myself. And you know, at night when I go to bed, my phone turns off, and I have to just be okay with if something happens at night. It’s okay. You know, I’ll deal with it in the morning. And it’s not the end of the world if something happens. But yeah, keeping the peace has been a challenge. But it’s always worth in the end. I love what I do. I love the group. I love the people that I meet. And once COVID is over, and everything in life is back to normal. I’m so looking forward to the meetups. I love the meetups. But yeah, sorry, I rfeel like I went on such a rant there.
Laura Wombwell
Well, at the end of the day, it’s all about building community and and helping to support our pets as a community. So on that note, are there any dog friends that coconut has met through the group?
Maria Santamaria
Absolutely. Oh my gosh, it’s gotten to that point, I’m sure a lot of people will tell you that have dogs, You know who the dogs are, you don’t know the parents names. So she’s got a couple besties. So Coconut’s best friend is Bosley, who’s a French Bulldog. And then Bosley a couple years ago, got a brother. And so they’re all besties now. They’re two frenchies, she misses him a lot, she loves Bosley. So she met Bosley with Bosley was a puppy. And so every time they would see each other, he would go crazy and Coconut would go crazy. And they just bonded. So well, I miss I miss those guys. So she has Bosley and Bosley’s brother whose name is escaping right now cuz I’m trying to remember all the dog names. I haven’t seen them in so long. So I feel like I haven’t said their names in so long. And then Ernie, obviously, handsome, handsome Corgi who I miss dearly, and his mom is so nice. She’s helped with a lot of a lot of dog events too. And then there’s another Swedish Vallhund. Oh my gosh, names. Let me pull up my phone while I pull my Instagram. I can get these names because I’m drawing, I’m drawing blanks here. So I think I’m too nervous.
Laura Wombwell
So you have forged such an incredible community of pets and pet owners through through that group and, and through what you’ve been doing. That’s just incredible.
Maria Santamaria
Thank you. It’s been, it’s been a lot of hard work. But I love, I love every moment of it.
Laura Wombwell
So if people in southwestern Ontario, wanted to support the Dog Owners of KW group, or support you in managing the group, what’s the best way that they could do that?
Maria Santamaria
Join the group for sure. And if they want to, if they, there’s a lot of dog groups out there, honestly, for me, you don’t have to be my group, if they just wanted to join a group on Facebook and just be part of a community of dog owners. Whether you know, they have a golden retriever, and then this is a golden retriever one. And Casey, the moderator she also admins a group for for Newfies, you know, join that group, it doesn’t have to be my group. But if you wanted to support, absolutely join my group, I’d love to have you. The more the merrier. I’d love to have more people in there and, and get more insight and more pictures of dogs. So that’s another thing if you join, please share a picture of your dog, please introduce your dog to me, tell me all about them. I want to know everything. Bonus points for dogs with food names cuz I love dogs with food names, and they wanted to support, like the group itself. I guess I would love to have more moderators. Casey, I, if you’re hearing this, Casey, I appreciate you so much. I would love to be able to have someone else share the work with us. It’s a lot of hard work. It’s not that much work. I like to believe it’s actually not that much work.
But I would love to have more help. It’s a lot of it’s a lot of like looking, you don’t really do too much. It is a lot of moderating, I guess like observing. But I’d love to have you if you want to help to send me a DM and then just, I guess posting, it’s super, super helpful when people post just things that they hear like whether it’s a dog friendly place that they’ve they’ve seen or some kind of secret dog menu. And all places have little treats for pets, if you if you ask or if they tried a new treat, a new food little anything, if you just have something to share, please post it I the more content, the better. It’s a lot of work creating content, I’m sure you know, there’s a lot of effort that goes into it. And, you know, I as much as I my life revolves around dogs, I do have other stuff. And so sometimes I don’t get around to creating, you know, content. And it’s it’s very helpful when people can post stuff. And honestly, at a minimum, if you post a picture of your dog, I’m happy with that. That’s all I care about. That counts as content to me. So that would probably be the best way to if you wanted to help out the group.
And here’s Miss Coconut joining us. Hi, Coconut. Nice to see you. So before we end off, I would love to ask you some rapid fire questions about you and your pup. Are you ready?
I’m ready. Excellent.
Laura Wombwell
So, cat or dog
Maria Santamaria
Dog.
Laura Wombwell
Favorite breed?
Jindo?
Maria Santamaria
What is Coconut’s favorite treat?
Oh, that’s such a good question. Ah, a liver. beef liver.
Excellent. Is Coconut full of beans full of dreams are full of something entirely different.
Full of beans.
If Coconut were to be played by a human actor in a movie, Who would play Coconut?
Angelina Jolie.
Yeah, for sure. That’s excellent. So, so elegant.
Yeah, she’s so pretty.
Laura Wombwell
Perfect. And the last one. If money were no object, and we weren’t under any restrictions, what one amazing thing would you do to spoil your dog?
Maria Santamaria
Oh, I would build her own Park. All the fun doggy stuff in a big sandbox and a very, very shallow pool. And like slides, I don’t know just like a little like, automatic dog treat dispenser. And I don’t know. Yeah, just a big park. And then she could have all her doggy friends there too. And she got parties all the time.
Amazing. I love that answers so much. Well, Maria, it has been such a pleasure chatting with you today. Thank you so much for giving up some of your time
Of course.
And it was really nice to meet Coconut and I hope that you have all the continued success with the Dog Owners of KW group.
Thank you.
Laura Wombwell
Well, this is Laura from Laura Wombwell Photography here with Maria Santamaria, and the beautiful and talented Coconut the Jindo and we all hope that you and your pets have an awesome day. Bye!
Do you want to be the next interview? We’d love that!
You can connect with us on Facebook, Instagram or send us a message! Can’t wait to see you next time!