Paws and Reflect

Paws and Reflect

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Haley's Journal

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My dog is going to die. How do I live with that?
An interview about anticipatory grief with author and animal lover E.B. Bartels
 • Haley Young and E.B. Bartels
Four years since: What my first foster dog taught me
Big realizations and tiny seeds planted by our first foster dog in 2022, a bully-breed mix on medically mandated crate rest
 • Haley Young
Why I don't use "it" to refer to nonhuman animals
They're living beings, not inanimate objects. And they shouldn't be solely defined by their relationships to people!
 • Haley Young
My dog didn't know I "rescued" her
And expecting her to be over-the-moon grateful would have been weird?
 • Haley Young
I don't believe in testing a dog's commitment to relaxation
If Scout is at liberty—lying down not under command, with no instructions from me to do a specific thing—and I stand up quickly? Standing with me is the…
 • Haley Young
A story of positive punishment and prancing prairie dogs
Dog training nuance highlighted by sharing space with Montana's wild creatures.
 • Haley Young
My dog is slowing down, but I can't imagine her death
How much time have I wasted on adrenaline in social-media comment sections when instead I could be loving my dog right here, right now, in front of me?
 • Haley Young
Why I encourage my dog to play with things that aren't toys
I consider it one of our greatest accomplishments that Scout has been expanding her idea of what constitutes a “toy”.
 • Haley Young
It's just a slip lead, but sometimes an object becomes memory
It’s just a slip lead, but it’s one of the first things I ever had made just for her. Scout, the leather reads in a perfect serif typeface. This leash…
 • Haley Young
A squirrel, some chaos, and the circle of life
Oh, and romanticizing—delighting in—the little things. Always.
 • Haley Young
Hills I will die on as a dog lover
The more specific a guideline, the more likely I am to take issue with it. But I stand behind some overarching beliefs.
 • Haley Young
Gifts for and of an old dog
She greets me when I walk in the door—everything different and everything the same—as if we had not spent the bulk of our lives hundreds of miles apart.
 • Haley Young
© 2026 Haley Young · Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
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