Purina. Your Pet. Our Passion. My Story.

To say my husband, Preston, loves dogs is an understatement. He is obsessed with dogs. I like having my few little Jack Russell yard dogs and the occasional house dog, but Preston would fill every acre of our 40-acre ranch with dogs if he could (or I would let him).

Can you guess how many dogs we have? 4…5…10? Nope. We have a whopping 20 dogs. No joke. While most of those dogs are hunting dogs, they do not live like your average hunting dogs. They all get fed Nestle´ Purina Sport 30/20 and are on regular heartworm and flea/tick preventatives. These dogs live and eat better than I do!

With my husband’s dog obsession, I had to find ways to help feed all those pups while in veterinary school.

During my second semester of veterinary school, I applied for the Purina Student Representative position with about 20 other candidates. Purina and other food companies are both strong supporters of the OSU veterinary program providing scholarships and other opportunities to students. While I was in school, you could also sign up to receive a free bag of dog or cat food each month from both companies. Yes, please!

During my interview with Purina, Dr. Elaina Goldsmith (OSU Purina college rep) asked how many dogs I had and what I fed them.

Brace yourself.

“I have 20 dogs.”

I probably would have been disqualified for reason of insanity if I hadn’t continued.

“Because we were given one free bag of dog food from Purina and one free bag of dog food from the other food company, I fed half of my dogs Purina and the other half from the other company. My dogs that were on the Purina diet had a better hair coat, performed better and required less feed than the other product. For me personally, I saw better results with Purina so I stopped receiving the other product and continued with Purina.”

I was hired!

Over the next few years, I was able to grow as a leader and learn about nutrition all because of Purina.

What I learned at Purina:

the value of nutrition
how to be a leader
how to plan events
the value of working with others

Why Purina is so cool:

Purina donates over 6 million pounds of dog food to various welfare organizations every year. That is a lot of food!
Their website is a treasure trove of helpful information from tips about puppy care, kitten care, getting a dog/cat, behavior and training tips to dog health. You should check it out at www.purina.com
Purina LOVES pets as much as you and I do!
They believe in a great work environment. They let their staff bring their pets to work! I love this.
Animal welfare is top priority.
Purina is the global leader in pet nutrition research.

My overall experience working for Purina during school was one of the most rewarding parts of veterinary school. Planning events like the Walk-N-Wag, a benefit 5K, where all the donations went to the Humane Society was a privilege. It wetted my appetite for charitable giving. And of course, the knowledge I picked up about their various products and the extensive research that went into each product makes it easier to speak with clients about the diets their dogs are on.

I know this sounds like a Purina commercial, but I promise I’m not being paid to say it. I just love Purina like my husband loves dogs.

I’m headed to St. Louis this weekend for the Purina Ambassador Conference, and I can’t help but feel excited! Because Purina cares so much about their ambassadors they are allowing me to speak about my book, “Rosie the Pig” at the conference. They are so proud that one of their own is stepping out to do something like this and want me to share this adventure with the other ambassadors.

I’ll even have a table set up where ambassadors can purchase my book or order copies to sell at their clinics and businesses. Wish me luck!