June 9, 2025 • 27 mins
Niall Harbison's addiction landed him in the hospital, but that moment changed the course of his life. In his recovery, he moved to Thailand where he began feeding street dogs. What was once one dog, turned into thousands. His book Tina: The Dog Who Changed The World is all about the journey and Tina, the rescue dog who stole his heart. Niall is Morgan's favorite account to follow on Instagram for all his efforts to change the world for the better, especially for rescue dogs. His story is all about second chances and inspiring us to leave things a little kinder than we find them.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Personally, Felds Men, This job is so fun for me
because I get to interview people who are inspirations for me,
and Nile Harveston is one of those people.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
He went from being an addict in a hospital bed
to changing the world for street dogs in Thailand, and
he did it all because he wanted to leave a
positive impact on the world. These are the kind of
people that I love to highlight and bring on here
for interviews. He's a favorite follow of mine on Instagram,
so it's as equally exciting for me. So let's do this.
(00:53):
I could not be more excited right now because I
have Nile Harveson On with me. Nile, thank you so
much for joining me. It's great to get to meet
you and talk with you today.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
Yeah, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
I have Tina, the Dog who Changed the World, and
I'm really excited because it just came in the mail
like three days ago, and I cannot wait for this
book to be read. But to truly honor your story
and this amazing book that you've written Tina and all
the other dogs that you've saved, we kind of have
to start from the beginning of your story. So what
brought you to Thailand.
Speaker 4 (01:25):
Well, it was actually it's a long story, but I
was actually always an alcoholic for twenty five years, and
I suffered from depression and anxiety, and I went to
Thailand for a healthy life, to try and sort of
enjoy the sunshine and live healthy. But actually things got
worse and I ended up in hospital. I nearly drank
myself to death, if I'm honest. So I was in
(01:46):
ICU for four days and it was a horrible experience.
But during those four days, I hit rock bottom and
I haven't drank since. And that's when I started to
think about changing my life.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
And you started this by when you were there and
you went to Thailand, you were running mental health, trying
to just get through this really hard time in your life,
and you started to see a whole bunch of street dogs.
Is that correct.
Speaker 4 (02:14):
Yeah, So I'm still recovering, and obviously you don't sort
of recover overnight. I moved to Thailand, and it was
during my recovery that I started seeing so many dogs
that were just really struggling on the streets. There's ten
million street dogs in Thailand, and I just started helping
one or two, to be honest. The first was go lucky,
and I got her better and started feeding her, and
we grew up to four dogs, and then eight dogs,
(02:36):
and then eventually, like now we feed on thy two
hundred street dogs every day.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
So it was a real journey of recovery.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Were you always an animal lover or did this just
kind of come out of such a horrible situation for you?
Speaker 3 (02:49):
No, I was.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
I didn't have loads of animals, but I had my
own dog, Snoop, who is a lovely dog, and he
was the one thing when I was in hospital, I
just couldn't stop thinking about him.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
I didn't want to let down.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
He got me through the dark days, to be honest,
So I loved animals, But just when I was in
that hospital bed, I just started thinking about, Okay, I'm
gonna die.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
What have I done in my life that's meaningful?
Speaker 4 (03:12):
And know, all I could think about was Snoop and
dogs and playing football and silly things. I didn't think
about anything about, you know, iPhones or a job promotion
or a you know that fancy new house that yet
like none of that made a difference. It was just dogs.
So that's how I kind of went in that direction.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Do you feel like fate stepped in and when you
saw these street dogs who were like this is meant
to be and I'm meant to be here and help
these dogs or what was that turning point for you
where everything was like, this is the path that I'm
meant to be on.
Speaker 4 (03:44):
Yeah, one hundred percent. I mean it's not like when
you look at it now and read the book. It's
kind of like you would think it just happened, you know,
all planned out and all overnight, but it was actually slower.
I fed one dog and then I went back the
next morning and I saw her tail was wagon waiting
for me.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
And as an.
Speaker 4 (04:02):
Alcoholic, you let a lot of people down, whereas this
was the first time I was kind of being reliable,
and so I got addicted to sort of helping dogs,
which is a much better addiction to have. It just
they need so little care and they ask for so
much that it made me feel really good.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
To be honest, Yeah, I could imagine. Getting to see
one dog makes me happy. And I've fostered and helped
several of my own. My first ever like soul dog,
who I adore and has been my connection for song,
is laying right here on my lap. Her name's Remy
and I have a I don't know if you can
see her, she's kind of passed out.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Oh her beautiful, beautiful.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
She's a lot kiddy. But Remy is very much my
soul dog. And this book, even just the very little
I've read so far, I have a feeling Tina and
potentially Snoop were your soul dogs. So when did Tina
come into the picture?
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (04:55):
I think soul dogs a great term, isn't it. It's
like you understand it, and a lot of owners understand that.
It's maybe alien for somebody who doesn't understand, they probably think, like,
what are we talking about, like a soul dog?
Speaker 3 (05:07):
But it's true.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
They dogs that touch you in a way, or maybe
come along at a special time in your life, or
you know, people are struggling that that dog comes along.
Tina was an amazing dog. She was on a chain,
she'd been used for breeding. She was living in her
own mess, and she came along and I helped build
her back up. She was really, really thin, and built
(05:29):
her back up. She only lived for six months because
unfortunately the damage had been done to her kidneys internally,
but the six months that we had together, she was
the most unbelievable, just loving creature. And she just what
I loved about her is she showed that dogs live
in the moment, they don't live in the past. She
never was angry or bitter or scared or anything. She
(05:51):
just wanted to just be full of love, which after
the life she had, was amazing to see.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
What do you feel like is the biggest and you
learned from Tina, given that she was one of your
soul dogs.
Speaker 4 (06:05):
I would say, just like I said, live in the moment,
but also that you can have a second chance in life,
you know, like we've all have setbacks. I talked to
so many people who maybe have depression, who have grief
or anxiety, or they've lost a child, or you know,
there's a thousand things. And I was down and out
(06:26):
and had nothing in my life. Tina had nothing in
her life, But you can't. I kind of linked the
two stories. You can rebuild your life if you've had
a setback, you can have a second chance, you can
have a comeback.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
Tina is now on book covers all over the world.
Speaker 4 (06:40):
Were building a hospital in her name, so she'll have
a wonderful legacy. Even though she didn't have a good
part in her life. So if you're a human or
a dog, there's always a comeback to be had.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Yeah, I love the saying. I see a lot of
rescue videos and it's always the comeback story. And I
think so much of rescue dogs is the comeback story.
But you, your comeback story too, is also incredible. And
I know so after following you for so long, you
really don't like the side of you where you have
to focus on you. You like focus on the dogs, and
(07:11):
this is what you love to do. But your story
as well as a comeback story, how does that feel
for you? Looking at the bigger picture.
Speaker 4 (07:17):
Now, it's really weird because I genuinely I will get
stopped in the street now and people want to talk
to me and take selfies and stuff.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
And that's a million miles, as you know, it's a
million miles from what I want to do. I just
want to be with the dogs in the jungle, helping them.
Speaker 4 (07:30):
But I also understand that I'm really privileged with that.
Not every charity has that, not every person trying to
help dogs. So even though it's uncomfortable for me, I
can use it to help more dogs. It would be
bad if I didn't use the exposure that we have
to try and help even more dogs, because we help
a lot now and it's a big organization and it's
(07:51):
just wonderful to have that support.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
Even though I'm a bit of an introvert myself. To
be honest, I.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Know I can tell by some of your posts where
you're just like, I get it. I know you guys
want to talk to me and hang out with me,
but like, do you see all the dogs? Because this
is what it's really all about.
Speaker 4 (08:05):
Yeah, But I mean, you know, a little bit of
that comes from I think everybody's dream. Like you're a
dog person, I think everybody inside them has a little
bit of when they're having a tough play at work
and they're like, oh my god, I just love to
run off and you know, save dogs and live in
the sunset.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
So I do have a bit of.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
A dream life that people would love to see themselves doing.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
I think, yeah, and you speak of the good days,
but there's plenty of hard days, which I've seen all
on your posts. How do you keep going, especially given
your past experience which also involves mental health problems, So
how do you keep yourself moving in the direction to
continue to keep doing this.
Speaker 4 (08:44):
Yeah, it's tough because like I have seen dogs shot,
I've seen dogs poisoned, and road traffic accidents and abuse.
I've seen everything. And what keeps me going really as
Tina's big face. Anytime I have a tricky situation, I
just have a mental image of her face my mind,
and I'm like, it's not about like, I just have
to put my emotions to one side and fix the
(09:05):
problem in front of me, because the dogs really really
neat us there.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
That's super hard too, because I followed your story of
the poisoned dogs and that was so difficult to watch,
even from Afar, so I cannot imagine that experience seeing
it up close and personal, and to be the one
to help a lot of them say their final goodbyes.
So the stuff you're doing is comes with its own
(09:32):
difficult moments too.
Speaker 4 (09:35):
Yeah, it does, and it's I'd lie I said it
was easy. There's still days where, especially if a dog dies,
even though it's a street dog or you know, Alba
or any of the dogs that I have, it's so tough.
It's just there's days where I end up under the
bed covers.
Speaker 5 (09:49):
Just like wondering how I'm going to keep going or
how I'm gonna bounce back from this one, because you know,
I think a dog diying is one of the saddest things,
Like we all think about it and we dread the
day that that's going to come, you know.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
So I see probably two or three a week. So
even though their street dogs is still very, very hard.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
Yeah, well, you're forming special connections with them that even
just in that short time like you had Tina, six
months can mean ten years. It doesn't matter how long
you've had a dog. That connection is something different that,
like you had mentioned earlier, is really hard sometimes to
explain to people.
Speaker 4 (10:26):
Yeah, you build the connection with the dog, and even
if it's two weeks, it's still the dog. When they
die or when they're very sick, they do. You can
see it in their eyes. They're looking for you. They
really look for that connection for you. And I've seen
it even when they die, and even when they are sick,
you can see it in their eyes that they're scared,
you know, and they want a human connection with them
where they want somebody to you know, like if you
(10:48):
were in hospital you've won. They really do love the
sort of attention and they're very you know, caring creatures. So, yeah,
it's tough.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
You mentioned Alba, and I think me and a lot
of the huge rest of the world was watching along
as we were cheering for album and really hoping that
she pulled through to have her shining moments. When a
moment like Alba, like, how does that impact you.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
It's very tough. I use it as sort of fire.
Speaker 4 (11:20):
She was a wonderful little dog, and she only lived
for fourteen nights and fourteen days. It's offsets but our sunrises.
But she I use that as sort of fire. So
now we've built you know, she was very malnourished and
she'd been on a chain, but now we've built a
kitchen where we feed a thousand and two hundred dogs
(11:41):
and we can call it Alba's kitchen. So I kind
of used those toughest moments and try and turn them
around into something positive. She's a dog in Thailand that
would never nobody would have known, but now people all.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
Over the world know her.
Speaker 4 (11:52):
She's got a little song, she had a bandana, she
had a name. I think that's you know, it's not
a great life for her, but she she had some
dig at the end.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
When you see how much a dog in Thailand changes
the world like that, And you see all these people
coming together, even in the comment section of your videos
or responding on social media, are you like, holy crap,
we're really doing something here.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (12:19):
I nearly get embarrassed because everybody's like saying, oh, you're amazing,
You're I have nearly read them because it's just my
head would be too big.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
It's but what I.
Speaker 4 (12:30):
Do love the people who talk to each other and
help themselves through their own problems, and it's just such
a positive community. And that's why I started it, because
there's so much negativity in the world at the moment,
especially unlike get very done or depressed if you just
read online news at the moment. So I try and
put some positivity out there, and that's what people love.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
I think they resonate with that a lot. Well.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Yeah, and seeing the positive change that you're making in
the world. I think any dog or animal out there
would love to do what you're doing every day and
helping change the world for a lot of animals. But
I think more than that, I want to focus on
the fact that it's not as easy as people think
to do what you're doing every day, because there is
(13:16):
so many hard moments with that. Like we think of
the dream, right, We're talking about this dream and this
is what everybody wants to do. But there's so many
hard moments in that, and it's not easy each day
to wake up and say I'm going to keep going
and feed all these street dogs and see the really
bad pain in the world.
Speaker 4 (13:36):
Yeah, but on the flip side of that, I feel
blessed because I was in that hospital and I got clarity.
There's also a lot of you know, I would say
ninety five percent of people in life are sort of
have not that they don't have a purpose. Like you
might want to have a kid, you might want to
have a good job, you might you know, there's things
like that, but everybody feels like they want to figure
(13:58):
out some meaning that I want to just be doing
spreadsheets or you know, sitting on the commute on the
tube or the train, or they want something more.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
And I've got that.
Speaker 4 (14:08):
I'm really lucky that Like if I save a dog
in Thailand, I go to sleep and I sleep so
much better than I did in the corporate world. I'm
just like I've made a different and I feel lucky
to have found that I wouldn't have found it if
I hadn't hit rock bottom. So yeah, being able to
help a dog, But I also think you don't have
to open a sanctuary in Thailand or help thousands of dogs.
(14:31):
Like the people who adopt one dog from a shelter
or you know, bring a dog into their family. I
think their heroes as well, like they're changing their life
in just as much a way as I am.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Well, and I've been watching you as you've been on
promoting this book for Tina, and you've gotten to go
and see a lot of the dogs that you've helped
that have gotten adopted. And what is that like for
you to see you were there at the very beginning,
you helped them, nourish them back to health, and then
they're in this home and living this pride amazing spoiled life.
Speaker 4 (15:03):
Yeah, totally surreal. And like going back to your question
about how I keep going, like that is how I
keep going. At the end of a long day, we'll
look at Instagram to see some of the adopted dogs
and to see a dog, look, I get whack ear
if I got it out, but I took him into
the vets and emergency like he was close to death
(15:24):
and to see him, you know, living in Scotland with
parents who love him more.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
There's another dog, Snickers, who lived on the streets.
Speaker 4 (15:30):
She lives in Washington, DC, or Brad Pitt lives in
Long Beach in California.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
For me, that's the bit that really keeps it keeps
me going.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Oh yes, I do remember Snickers too, because I loved
seeing Snickers bring you all kinds of gifts every time,
every morning when you do adopt one out, is there
this kind of little piece of your heart that goes
with him and you're like, dang, it's really cool. But
also I'm sad to see you go.
Speaker 4 (15:58):
Ye be honest, no, because obviously I missed them and stuff.
But I can only like, we have so many dogs
that I get like you would see Snickers on my Instagram,
but I might get to spend ten fifteen minutes with
her because there's so many dogs in a day. Whereas
if they go into a home, they have you know,
a family, they have maybe another dog there, They have
(16:19):
a structure, they get attentional, they they can sit with
their parently expired a better life, like my job is
being done and it's time. Of course, I missed them,
and I'd love to see them, but it gets a
dog into a great home, and it also frees up
a space for another dog to come in.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
It's sad for me to miss them, but for they're
greater good. It's amazing.
Speaker 4 (16:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Well, and I see a lot of comments on there.
I wanted to ask that question because I see a
lot of comments, so how can you let them go?
Or why are they leaving? And I know the side
of that story because it's often whenever I bring a
foster dog into my home, it's they look so happy
with you. They're at home. Yes, but this is just
part of their it's not their whole story exactly.
Speaker 4 (17:03):
That's a very good way of putting it. And it's
lovely that you do the foster and it's like, there's
so many people. It's the one thing that I before
I hit rock bottom and went to Thailand, I wish
I'd done more that never went charity to help them
walk or faster.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
I could have done more of that.
Speaker 4 (17:20):
And people always wonder they want to start, They want
to quit their job and go and open the sanctuary
or do something in day one, like you don't have
to you can do a little bit, and I'm sure
you're unbelievable from that foster and that you're doing, or
the animals that you're helping. In a funny, selfish way,
it helps you just as much as it helps the dog.
You know, it makes you feel fantastic.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
Oh yeah, it's always the who rescued Hugh type situation,
and that's very true for all of them. Watching you
guys grow to where you are now. You have Happy
dogg o Land and it's a sanctuary where you get
to save all these street dogs. And you have the
kitchen that you mentioned, Albo's kitchen. You're feeding all these
(18:00):
street dogs, a field clinic, you're building Tina's hospital, which
I believe is very close to being finished. How does
it feel to look at all of that and just
say we did this.
Speaker 4 (18:14):
It's surreal to be honest, especially from somebody who was
an alcoholic and wasn't reliable before. I could do things,
but it would be very up and down. So to
be delivering it, and like that's what I talk about
in the book. It's just I'm doing it for Tina,
and if it wasn't for her. To be honest, there's
times where I might have given up or slowed down
or you know, burn out or but I just wake
(18:35):
up and if something goes wrong, I just think of
her and I think, once she was dying in my arms,
I made promises that I would do certain things, and
it's it's amazing to see. I mean, I it feels
it feels like a movie or something.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
To me.
Speaker 4 (18:48):
It doesn't feel like I feel like I might just
wake up one day and I'm back in the hospital sick,
because it feels too good to be true the impact
were having.
Speaker 3 (18:56):
But it is also hard work. Obviously.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
Yeah, it's a lot of hard work. And I know
it's easy for anybody to hear your story and be like, oh,
well he did this, but this is years. This is
years of long work and a lot of time and
a lot of people that you've brought on board, and
also watching you bring on people from Thailand onto your
team to help the communication within the community. You're not
(19:19):
just changing lives for these dogs, You're also changing the
story people are telling themselves about animals, and I think
that's a very important piece to this too.
Speaker 4 (19:29):
Yeah, I think that's hopefully that's working because I think
like I can do a little bit, but I need,
you know, a team, and then I need hundreds of
people around the world to be advocates, and I need
people to adopt dogs and foster dogs and tell other
people to do the same. It's kind of like a
mission or a movement, and I'm lucky to I get to,
like I said, way too much praise at the front
(19:52):
of it. But the tea demands other people, people who donate,
people who subscribe, people who share the like there's just
it's you know, it's hundreds of thousands of people who
are making change.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
And that's that's what feels amazing.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Well, and I know you love to put that on
so many other people, but I do want to recognize
how big of a role you do play in this.
You are the center of this, and none of this
would have started without the change that you made in
your own life to go and move to another country
and say, you know what, this is what's gonna happen.
And I know that's very hard knowing I follow you.
(20:27):
I know that you're like, no, no, no, this isn't it.
But you are a big piece to this story.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
Do you know what.
Speaker 4 (20:37):
I make the videos on my phone and I'm in
the jungle. I don't see many people, you know, like
I'm just worth the dogs. So I've come there to
promote the book, and I'm in England and American and stuff,
and I meet people and they tell me the impact.
It's hard, and it's very I'm just very shy about
that sort of thing, but it's nice.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
It also adds fuel. It also makes.
Speaker 4 (20:55):
Me think that I'm doing something worthwhile to get through
the hard days. But I would rather melt into the
background eventually, but I'll be doing my whole life, but
I just.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
Inside of things.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
Yeah, And that makes sense again, because that is your
personality originally before all of this ever started. But I
would not be good at doing my job and sitting
here if I didn't tell you the importance that you
have in the role that you play. So recognizing that, I'm.
Speaker 4 (21:25):
Going to go back to Thailand and tell all the
dogs that everybody's been saying these things, and I'll have
a really big head now and I'll be uh, I'll
be going around telling them I'm a big.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
Shot, and they'll just wag their tails and be happy that.
Speaker 4 (21:38):
You have yet right exactly, they couldn't care less, which
is why I love them exactly.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
When you were talking about being in the hospital bed
and you were thinking of all these things and having
this legacy and hoping that you impacted the world. Do
you feel like you have accomplished somewhat of that now?
Speaker 4 (22:00):
Yeah. I always said to ways I again, I don't
want to die, you know, I'd love to live forty
more years. But if I die this afternoon hit by bus,
I would be very happy with what I've done and
with what the way I'm living my life is just
more honest and more making a difference. And I don't
want to die in any way now, but I would
definitely feel like I've made a difference.
Speaker 3 (22:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
Yeah, And I know that's hard to look at after
the things that you've been through. And I know at
the very end of this book, because I managed to
get through some of it and then I started flipping
to make sure I had all of my information correct.
But at the very end, you were talking about these
different moments where you would have to do things for yourself.
And I think when you look on social media and
(22:46):
see all the things that you do every day, you're like,
how does now ever have a moment for himself to
actually take care of himself? But A big piece to
the story is your mental health and the things you
went through. So how do you take care of yourself
when all this stuff is going on.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
I'm not great at it. If I'm honest, I get
to burn.
Speaker 4 (23:04):
Then my problem is just just so many animals that
need your help.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
So I find it very hard.
Speaker 4 (23:10):
To just like if I know, you know, if I'm
exhausted at seven o'clock and I know that two miles
down the road there's an animal that I can save,
I kind of how do you ignore that? You know?
Speaker 3 (23:20):
Like, it's not like a It's never finished. Is the problem?
Speaker 4 (23:23):
The work I do need to I know that I
need to manage my own health a little bit better.
But it's just, yeah, so dedicated to it, and so
I love it so but if I want to do it, like,
I'll be doing this when I'm seventy five eighty years old,
so I do need to maybe pace myself a little
bit better.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
I think it also shows that you're human, ni All
that everybody's seeing you and you are the superhero and
people are loving what you're doing, but you're also a
human who's been through some stuff and you've also struggle
with the same problems that a lot of us do.
Speaker 4 (23:56):
Yeah, And I think people are very good at putting
a brave face on it, so you can get up
in the morning and put on our shirt or put
on our makeup and put on our happy face and
go out. But there's a lot of us are hiding
stuff behind that face, that we're carrying a lot of baggage.
Speaker 3 (24:12):
And I think it's I'm looking on a boss really
or anything.
Speaker 4 (24:15):
So I think I like to say that that it's
okay to not be okay for most people, you know,
like we're a little bit harder on ourselves. Maybe one
thing you can do is just you know, be built
more open and talk to a friend. Especially maybe guys
are not you know, as good at that, so just
go easier on people. It's a tough ole world out there,
and we all have our we all have our little
(24:36):
baggage to carry.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Absolutely. I always end my podcast by sharing having you
have the platform of sharing a piece of advice, inspiration,
or something that maybe we didn't touch on or talk
about that's super close to your heart. So I give
you the florest total yours as if it wasn't already.
But the floorst totally yours.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
I know this is like it's very wooly or very
very sort of lovely lovely.
Speaker 4 (25:04):
But you know, if you open especially if you're in America,
if you open up your apps and you open up
your news, whatever it is you watch, everything is bad.
Everything is negative, politics, cost of living, money issues, everything.
Speaker 3 (25:18):
And then if you it feels like a very dark world.
But if I would say one thing is like, just
go and walk your dog.
Speaker 4 (25:25):
If you walk out into the park and I meet
so many people who are seventy or eighty years old,
six years old, retired, homeless, anybody as a dog, just
talk to them. And if you talk to them on
a human level and you just are honest and just
the dog can be the opening part of that, you'll
find that people are very very nice, and very very
(25:49):
insecure and very wanting to talk. It's just the world
I think has conditioned us to be angry and political
and just angry really, So like I talk to people
and just listen to them, and you'll find out that
most people are a lot better than you think.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
They are a lot of people and a lot of
animals too. I think you have changed the narrative for
so many dogs out there and changing the narrative is
where it all starts, and you're doing just that. So
now thanks for joining me, and make sure you guys
go get his book, Tina the Dog Could Change the World.
Is it so cool to see you and Tina a
picture of you, guys, and you're just everywhere.
Speaker 4 (26:24):
It's ridiculous seeing her be so proud.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
It's so sweet and the picture on the book is
so adorable. So guys, go get the book. I think
you'll love it. And now just thank you for what
you're doing. And it's so cool to be able to
share your story and for you to be here and
talk about it.
Speaker 3 (26:45):
Thank you very very much.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
While this interview was inspired by our love for rescue
dogs and all the work that goes into rescue, now
is also a great example of second chances and truly
showing all of us that change is possible and it's
okay if you one day want to put a stop
to things and go to another country and save dogs,
which you know, maybe one day I can do that too.
(27:07):
I hope this episode found you where you needed to
hear it. I hope as things in the world continue
to shift, that you're taking care of yourself and encouraging
yourself to chase the dreams that you've always wanted. I
posted this quote on my Instagram this week, and it
feels very important to end this episode on Imagine looking
back one day and realizing that you were brave enough
(27:27):
to chase the life you wanted and it worked. So
go with that into the world as you will. And
I thank you for listening to this podcast and being here.
I love you guys, Talk with you next week.
Personally, Felds Men, This job is so fun for me
because I get to interview people who are inspirations for me,
and Nile Harveston is one of those people.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
He went from being an addict in a hospital bed
to changing the world for street dogs in Thailand, and
he did it all because he wanted to leave a
positive impact on the world. These are the kind of
people that I love to highlight and bring on here
for interviews. He's a favorite follow of mine on Instagram,
so it's as equally exciting for me. So let's do this.
(00:53):
I could not be more excited right now because I
have Nile Harveson On with me. Nile, thank you so
much for joining me. It's great to get to meet
you and talk with you today.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
Yeah, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
I have Tina, the Dog who Changed the World, and
I'm really excited because it just came in the mail
like three days ago, and I cannot wait for this
book to be read. But to truly honor your story
and this amazing book that you've written Tina and all
the other dogs that you've saved, we kind of have
to start from the beginning of your story. So what
brought you to Thailand.
Speaker 4 (01:25):
Well, it was actually it's a long story, but I
was actually always an alcoholic for twenty five years, and
I suffered from depression and anxiety, and I went to
Thailand for a healthy life, to try and sort of
enjoy the sunshine and live healthy. But actually things got
worse and I ended up in hospital. I nearly drank
myself to death, if I'm honest. So I was in
(01:46):
ICU for four days and it was a horrible experience.
But during those four days, I hit rock bottom and
I haven't drank since. And that's when I started to
think about changing my life.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
And you started this by when you were there and
you went to Thailand, you were running mental health, trying
to just get through this really hard time in your life,
and you started to see a whole bunch of street dogs.
Is that correct.
Speaker 4 (02:14):
Yeah, So I'm still recovering, and obviously you don't sort
of recover overnight. I moved to Thailand, and it was
during my recovery that I started seeing so many dogs
that were just really struggling on the streets. There's ten
million street dogs in Thailand, and I just started helping
one or two, to be honest. The first was go lucky,
and I got her better and started feeding her, and
we grew up to four dogs, and then eight dogs,
(02:36):
and then eventually, like now we feed on thy two
hundred street dogs every day.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
So it was a real journey of recovery.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Were you always an animal lover or did this just
kind of come out of such a horrible situation for you?
Speaker 3 (02:49):
No, I was.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
I didn't have loads of animals, but I had my
own dog, Snoop, who is a lovely dog, and he
was the one thing when I was in hospital, I
just couldn't stop thinking about him.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
I didn't want to let down.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
He got me through the dark days, to be honest,
So I loved animals, But just when I was in
that hospital bed, I just started thinking about, Okay, I'm
gonna die.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
What have I done in my life that's meaningful?
Speaker 4 (03:12):
And know, all I could think about was Snoop and
dogs and playing football and silly things. I didn't think
about anything about, you know, iPhones or a job promotion
or a you know that fancy new house that yet
like none of that made a difference. It was just dogs.
So that's how I kind of went in that direction.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Do you feel like fate stepped in and when you
saw these street dogs who were like this is meant
to be and I'm meant to be here and help
these dogs or what was that turning point for you
where everything was like, this is the path that I'm
meant to be on.
Speaker 4 (03:44):
Yeah, one hundred percent. I mean it's not like when
you look at it now and read the book. It's
kind of like you would think it just happened, you know,
all planned out and all overnight, but it was actually slower.
I fed one dog and then I went back the
next morning and I saw her tail was wagon waiting
for me.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
And as an.
Speaker 4 (04:02):
Alcoholic, you let a lot of people down, whereas this
was the first time I was kind of being reliable,
and so I got addicted to sort of helping dogs,
which is a much better addiction to have. It just
they need so little care and they ask for so
much that it made me feel really good.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
To be honest, Yeah, I could imagine. Getting to see
one dog makes me happy. And I've fostered and helped
several of my own. My first ever like soul dog,
who I adore and has been my connection for song,
is laying right here on my lap. Her name's Remy
and I have a I don't know if you can
see her, she's kind of passed out.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Oh her beautiful, beautiful.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
She's a lot kiddy. But Remy is very much my
soul dog. And this book, even just the very little
I've read so far, I have a feeling Tina and
potentially Snoop were your soul dogs. So when did Tina
come into the picture?
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (04:55):
I think soul dogs a great term, isn't it. It's
like you understand it, and a lot of owners understand that.
It's maybe alien for somebody who doesn't understand, they probably think, like,
what are we talking about, like a soul dog?
Speaker 3 (05:07):
But it's true.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
They dogs that touch you in a way, or maybe
come along at a special time in your life, or
you know, people are struggling that that dog comes along.
Tina was an amazing dog. She was on a chain,
she'd been used for breeding. She was living in her
own mess, and she came along and I helped build
her back up. She was really, really thin, and built
(05:29):
her back up. She only lived for six months because
unfortunately the damage had been done to her kidneys internally,
but the six months that we had together, she was
the most unbelievable, just loving creature. And she just what
I loved about her is she showed that dogs live
in the moment, they don't live in the past. She
never was angry or bitter or scared or anything. She
(05:51):
just wanted to just be full of love, which after
the life she had, was amazing to see.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
What do you feel like is the biggest and you
learned from Tina, given that she was one of your
soul dogs.
Speaker 4 (06:05):
I would say, just like I said, live in the moment,
but also that you can have a second chance in life,
you know, like we've all have setbacks. I talked to
so many people who maybe have depression, who have grief
or anxiety, or they've lost a child, or you know,
there's a thousand things. And I was down and out
(06:26):
and had nothing in my life. Tina had nothing in
her life, But you can't. I kind of linked the
two stories. You can rebuild your life if you've had
a setback, you can have a second chance, you can
have a comeback.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
Tina is now on book covers all over the world.
Speaker 4 (06:40):
Were building a hospital in her name, so she'll have
a wonderful legacy. Even though she didn't have a good
part in her life. So if you're a human or
a dog, there's always a comeback to be had.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Yeah, I love the saying. I see a lot of
rescue videos and it's always the comeback story. And I
think so much of rescue dogs is the comeback story.
But you, your comeback story too, is also incredible. And
I know so after following you for so long, you
really don't like the side of you where you have
to focus on you. You like focus on the dogs, and
(07:11):
this is what you love to do. But your story
as well as a comeback story, how does that feel
for you? Looking at the bigger picture.
Speaker 4 (07:17):
Now, it's really weird because I genuinely I will get
stopped in the street now and people want to talk
to me and take selfies and stuff.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
And that's a million miles, as you know, it's a
million miles from what I want to do. I just
want to be with the dogs in the jungle, helping them.
Speaker 4 (07:30):
But I also understand that I'm really privileged with that.
Not every charity has that, not every person trying to
help dogs. So even though it's uncomfortable for me, I
can use it to help more dogs. It would be
bad if I didn't use the exposure that we have
to try and help even more dogs, because we help
a lot now and it's a big organization and it's
(07:51):
just wonderful to have that support.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
Even though I'm a bit of an introvert myself. To
be honest, I.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Know I can tell by some of your posts where
you're just like, I get it. I know you guys
want to talk to me and hang out with me,
but like, do you see all the dogs? Because this
is what it's really all about.
Speaker 4 (08:05):
Yeah, But I mean, you know, a little bit of
that comes from I think everybody's dream. Like you're a
dog person, I think everybody inside them has a little
bit of when they're having a tough play at work
and they're like, oh my god, I just love to
run off and you know, save dogs and live in
the sunset.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
So I do have a bit of.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
A dream life that people would love to see themselves doing.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
I think, yeah, and you speak of the good days,
but there's plenty of hard days, which I've seen all
on your posts. How do you keep going, especially given
your past experience which also involves mental health problems, So
how do you keep yourself moving in the direction to
continue to keep doing this.
Speaker 4 (08:44):
Yeah, it's tough because like I have seen dogs shot,
I've seen dogs poisoned, and road traffic accidents and abuse.
I've seen everything. And what keeps me going really as
Tina's big face. Anytime I have a tricky situation, I
just have a mental image of her face my mind,
and I'm like, it's not about like, I just have
to put my emotions to one side and fix the
(09:05):
problem in front of me, because the dogs really really
neat us there.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
That's super hard too, because I followed your story of
the poisoned dogs and that was so difficult to watch,
even from Afar, so I cannot imagine that experience seeing
it up close and personal, and to be the one
to help a lot of them say their final goodbyes.
So the stuff you're doing is comes with its own
(09:32):
difficult moments too.
Speaker 4 (09:35):
Yeah, it does, and it's I'd lie I said it
was easy. There's still days where, especially if a dog dies,
even though it's a street dog or you know, Alba
or any of the dogs that I have, it's so tough.
It's just there's days where I end up under the
bed covers.
Speaker 5 (09:49):
Just like wondering how I'm going to keep going or
how I'm gonna bounce back from this one, because you know,
I think a dog diying is one of the saddest things,
Like we all think about it and we dread the
day that that's going to come, you know.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
So I see probably two or three a week. So
even though their street dogs is still very, very hard.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
Yeah, well, you're forming special connections with them that even
just in that short time like you had Tina, six
months can mean ten years. It doesn't matter how long
you've had a dog. That connection is something different that,
like you had mentioned earlier, is really hard sometimes to
explain to people.
Speaker 4 (10:26):
Yeah, you build the connection with the dog, and even
if it's two weeks, it's still the dog. When they
die or when they're very sick, they do. You can
see it in their eyes. They're looking for you. They
really look for that connection for you. And I've seen
it even when they die, and even when they are sick,
you can see it in their eyes that they're scared,
you know, and they want a human connection with them
where they want somebody to you know, like if you
(10:48):
were in hospital you've won. They really do love the
sort of attention and they're very you know, caring creatures. So, yeah,
it's tough.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
You mentioned Alba, and I think me and a lot
of the huge rest of the world was watching along
as we were cheering for album and really hoping that
she pulled through to have her shining moments. When a
moment like Alba, like, how does that impact you.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
It's very tough. I use it as sort of fire.
Speaker 4 (11:20):
She was a wonderful little dog, and she only lived
for fourteen nights and fourteen days. It's offsets but our sunrises.
But she I use that as sort of fire. So
now we've built you know, she was very malnourished and
she'd been on a chain, but now we've built a
kitchen where we feed a thousand and two hundred dogs
(11:41):
and we can call it Alba's kitchen. So I kind
of used those toughest moments and try and turn them
around into something positive. She's a dog in Thailand that
would never nobody would have known, but now people all.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
Over the world know her.
Speaker 4 (11:52):
She's got a little song, she had a bandana, she
had a name. I think that's you know, it's not
a great life for her, but she she had some
dig at the end.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
When you see how much a dog in Thailand changes
the world like that, And you see all these people
coming together, even in the comment section of your videos
or responding on social media, are you like, holy crap,
we're really doing something here.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (12:19):
I nearly get embarrassed because everybody's like saying, oh, you're amazing,
You're I have nearly read them because it's just my
head would be too big.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
It's but what I.
Speaker 4 (12:30):
Do love the people who talk to each other and
help themselves through their own problems, and it's just such
a positive community. And that's why I started it, because
there's so much negativity in the world at the moment,
especially unlike get very done or depressed if you just
read online news at the moment. So I try and
put some positivity out there, and that's what people love.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
I think they resonate with that a lot. Well.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Yeah, and seeing the positive change that you're making in
the world. I think any dog or animal out there
would love to do what you're doing every day and
helping change the world for a lot of animals. But
I think more than that, I want to focus on
the fact that it's not as easy as people think
to do what you're doing every day, because there is
(13:16):
so many hard moments with that. Like we think of
the dream, right, We're talking about this dream and this
is what everybody wants to do. But there's so many
hard moments in that, and it's not easy each day
to wake up and say I'm going to keep going
and feed all these street dogs and see the really
bad pain in the world.
Speaker 4 (13:36):
Yeah, but on the flip side of that, I feel
blessed because I was in that hospital and I got clarity.
There's also a lot of you know, I would say
ninety five percent of people in life are sort of
have not that they don't have a purpose. Like you
might want to have a kid, you might want to
have a good job, you might you know, there's things
like that, but everybody feels like they want to figure
(13:58):
out some meaning that I want to just be doing
spreadsheets or you know, sitting on the commute on the
tube or the train, or they want something more.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
And I've got that.
Speaker 4 (14:08):
I'm really lucky that Like if I save a dog
in Thailand, I go to sleep and I sleep so
much better than I did in the corporate world. I'm
just like I've made a different and I feel lucky
to have found that I wouldn't have found it if
I hadn't hit rock bottom. So yeah, being able to
help a dog, But I also think you don't have
to open a sanctuary in Thailand or help thousands of dogs.
(14:31):
Like the people who adopt one dog from a shelter
or you know, bring a dog into their family. I
think their heroes as well, like they're changing their life
in just as much a way as I am.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Well, and I've been watching you as you've been on
promoting this book for Tina, and you've gotten to go
and see a lot of the dogs that you've helped
that have gotten adopted. And what is that like for
you to see you were there at the very beginning,
you helped them, nourish them back to health, and then
they're in this home and living this pride amazing spoiled life.
Speaker 4 (15:03):
Yeah, totally surreal. And like going back to your question
about how I keep going, like that is how I
keep going. At the end of a long day, we'll
look at Instagram to see some of the adopted dogs
and to see a dog, look, I get whack ear
if I got it out, but I took him into
the vets and emergency like he was close to death
(15:24):
and to see him, you know, living in Scotland with
parents who love him more.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
There's another dog, Snickers, who lived on the streets.
Speaker 4 (15:30):
She lives in Washington, DC, or Brad Pitt lives in
Long Beach in California.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
For me, that's the bit that really keeps it keeps
me going.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Oh yes, I do remember Snickers too, because I loved
seeing Snickers bring you all kinds of gifts every time,
every morning when you do adopt one out, is there
this kind of little piece of your heart that goes
with him and you're like, dang, it's really cool. But
also I'm sad to see you go.
Speaker 4 (15:58):
Ye be honest, no, because obviously I missed them and stuff.
But I can only like, we have so many dogs
that I get like you would see Snickers on my Instagram,
but I might get to spend ten fifteen minutes with
her because there's so many dogs in a day. Whereas
if they go into a home, they have you know,
a family, they have maybe another dog there, They have
(16:19):
a structure, they get attentional, they they can sit with
their parently expired a better life, like my job is
being done and it's time. Of course, I missed them,
and I'd love to see them, but it gets a
dog into a great home, and it also frees up
a space for another dog to come in.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
It's sad for me to miss them, but for they're
greater good. It's amazing.
Speaker 4 (16:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Well, and I see a lot of comments on there.
I wanted to ask that question because I see a
lot of comments, so how can you let them go?
Or why are they leaving? And I know the side
of that story because it's often whenever I bring a
foster dog into my home, it's they look so happy
with you. They're at home. Yes, but this is just
part of their it's not their whole story exactly.
Speaker 4 (17:03):
That's a very good way of putting it. And it's
lovely that you do the foster and it's like, there's
so many people. It's the one thing that I before
I hit rock bottom and went to Thailand, I wish
I'd done more that never went charity to help them
walk or faster.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
I could have done more of that.
Speaker 4 (17:20):
And people always wonder they want to start, They want
to quit their job and go and open the sanctuary
or do something in day one, like you don't have
to you can do a little bit, and I'm sure
you're unbelievable from that foster and that you're doing, or
the animals that you're helping. In a funny, selfish way,
it helps you just as much as it helps the dog.
You know, it makes you feel fantastic.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
Oh yeah, it's always the who rescued Hugh type situation,
and that's very true for all of them. Watching you
guys grow to where you are now. You have Happy
dogg o Land and it's a sanctuary where you get
to save all these street dogs. And you have the
kitchen that you mentioned, Albo's kitchen. You're feeding all these
(18:00):
street dogs, a field clinic, you're building Tina's hospital, which
I believe is very close to being finished. How does
it feel to look at all of that and just
say we did this.
Speaker 4 (18:14):
It's surreal to be honest, especially from somebody who was
an alcoholic and wasn't reliable before. I could do things,
but it would be very up and down. So to
be delivering it, and like that's what I talk about
in the book. It's just I'm doing it for Tina,
and if it wasn't for her. To be honest, there's
times where I might have given up or slowed down
or you know, burn out or but I just wake
(18:35):
up and if something goes wrong, I just think of
her and I think, once she was dying in my arms,
I made promises that I would do certain things, and
it's it's amazing to see. I mean, I it feels
it feels like a movie or something.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
To me.
Speaker 4 (18:48):
It doesn't feel like I feel like I might just
wake up one day and I'm back in the hospital sick,
because it feels too good to be true the impact
were having.
Speaker 3 (18:56):
But it is also hard work. Obviously.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
Yeah, it's a lot of hard work. And I know
it's easy for anybody to hear your story and be like, oh,
well he did this, but this is years. This is
years of long work and a lot of time and
a lot of people that you've brought on board, and
also watching you bring on people from Thailand onto your
team to help the communication within the community. You're not
(19:19):
just changing lives for these dogs, You're also changing the
story people are telling themselves about animals, and I think
that's a very important piece to this too.
Speaker 4 (19:29):
Yeah, I think that's hopefully that's working because I think
like I can do a little bit, but I need,
you know, a team, and then I need hundreds of
people around the world to be advocates, and I need
people to adopt dogs and foster dogs and tell other
people to do the same. It's kind of like a
mission or a movement, and I'm lucky to I get to,
like I said, way too much praise at the front
(19:52):
of it. But the tea demands other people, people who donate,
people who subscribe, people who share the like there's just
it's you know, it's hundreds of thousands of people who
are making change.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
And that's that's what feels amazing.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Well, and I know you love to put that on
so many other people, but I do want to recognize
how big of a role you do play in this.
You are the center of this, and none of this
would have started without the change that you made in
your own life to go and move to another country
and say, you know what, this is what's gonna happen.
And I know that's very hard knowing I follow you.
(20:27):
I know that you're like, no, no, no, this isn't it.
But you are a big piece to this story.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
Do you know what.
Speaker 4 (20:37):
I make the videos on my phone and I'm in
the jungle. I don't see many people, you know, like
I'm just worth the dogs. So I've come there to
promote the book, and I'm in England and American and stuff,
and I meet people and they tell me the impact.
It's hard, and it's very I'm just very shy about
that sort of thing, but it's nice.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
It also adds fuel. It also makes.
Speaker 4 (20:55):
Me think that I'm doing something worthwhile to get through
the hard days. But I would rather melt into the
background eventually, but I'll be doing my whole life, but
I just.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
Inside of things.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
Yeah, And that makes sense again, because that is your
personality originally before all of this ever started. But I
would not be good at doing my job and sitting
here if I didn't tell you the importance that you
have in the role that you play. So recognizing that, I'm.
Speaker 4 (21:25):
Going to go back to Thailand and tell all the
dogs that everybody's been saying these things, and I'll have
a really big head now and I'll be uh, I'll
be going around telling them I'm a big.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
Shot, and they'll just wag their tails and be happy that.
Speaker 4 (21:38):
You have yet right exactly, they couldn't care less, which
is why I love them exactly.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
When you were talking about being in the hospital bed
and you were thinking of all these things and having
this legacy and hoping that you impacted the world. Do
you feel like you have accomplished somewhat of that now?
Speaker 4 (22:00):
Yeah. I always said to ways I again, I don't
want to die, you know, I'd love to live forty
more years. But if I die this afternoon hit by bus,
I would be very happy with what I've done and
with what the way I'm living my life is just
more honest and more making a difference. And I don't
want to die in any way now, but I would
definitely feel like I've made a difference.
Speaker 3 (22:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
Yeah, And I know that's hard to look at after
the things that you've been through. And I know at
the very end of this book, because I managed to
get through some of it and then I started flipping
to make sure I had all of my information correct.
But at the very end, you were talking about these
different moments where you would have to do things for yourself.
And I think when you look on social media and
(22:46):
see all the things that you do every day, you're like,
how does now ever have a moment for himself to
actually take care of himself? But A big piece to
the story is your mental health and the things you
went through. So how do you take care of yourself
when all this stuff is going on.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
I'm not great at it. If I'm honest, I get
to burn.
Speaker 4 (23:04):
Then my problem is just just so many animals that
need your help.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
So I find it very hard.
Speaker 4 (23:10):
To just like if I know, you know, if I'm
exhausted at seven o'clock and I know that two miles
down the road there's an animal that I can save,
I kind of how do you ignore that? You know?
Speaker 3 (23:20):
Like, it's not like a It's never finished. Is the problem?
Speaker 4 (23:23):
The work I do need to I know that I
need to manage my own health a little bit better.
But it's just, yeah, so dedicated to it, and so
I love it so but if I want to do it, like,
I'll be doing this when I'm seventy five eighty years old,
so I do need to maybe pace myself a little
bit better.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
I think it also shows that you're human, ni All
that everybody's seeing you and you are the superhero and
people are loving what you're doing, but you're also a
human who's been through some stuff and you've also struggle
with the same problems that a lot of us do.
Speaker 4 (23:56):
Yeah, And I think people are very good at putting
a brave face on it, so you can get up
in the morning and put on our shirt or put
on our makeup and put on our happy face and
go out. But there's a lot of us are hiding
stuff behind that face, that we're carrying a lot of baggage.
Speaker 3 (24:12):
And I think it's I'm looking on a boss really
or anything.
Speaker 4 (24:15):
So I think I like to say that that it's
okay to not be okay for most people, you know,
like we're a little bit harder on ourselves. Maybe one
thing you can do is just you know, be built
more open and talk to a friend. Especially maybe guys
are not you know, as good at that, so just
go easier on people. It's a tough ole world out there,
and we all have our we all have our little
(24:36):
baggage to carry.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Absolutely. I always end my podcast by sharing having you
have the platform of sharing a piece of advice, inspiration,
or something that maybe we didn't touch on or talk
about that's super close to your heart. So I give
you the florest total yours as if it wasn't already.
But the floorst totally yours.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
I know this is like it's very wooly or very
very sort of lovely lovely.
Speaker 4 (25:04):
But you know, if you open especially if you're in America,
if you open up your apps and you open up
your news, whatever it is you watch, everything is bad.
Everything is negative, politics, cost of living, money issues, everything.
Speaker 3 (25:18):
And then if you it feels like a very dark world.
But if I would say one thing is like, just
go and walk your dog.
Speaker 4 (25:25):
If you walk out into the park and I meet
so many people who are seventy or eighty years old,
six years old, retired, homeless, anybody as a dog, just
talk to them. And if you talk to them on
a human level and you just are honest and just
the dog can be the opening part of that, you'll
find that people are very very nice, and very very
(25:49):
insecure and very wanting to talk. It's just the world
I think has conditioned us to be angry and political
and just angry really, So like I talk to people
and just listen to them, and you'll find out that
most people are a lot better than you think.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
They are a lot of people and a lot of
animals too. I think you have changed the narrative for
so many dogs out there and changing the narrative is
where it all starts, and you're doing just that. So
now thanks for joining me, and make sure you guys
go get his book, Tina the Dog Could Change the World.
Is it so cool to see you and Tina a
picture of you, guys, and you're just everywhere.
Speaker 4 (26:24):
It's ridiculous seeing her be so proud.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
It's so sweet and the picture on the book is
so adorable. So guys, go get the book. I think
you'll love it. And now just thank you for what
you're doing. And it's so cool to be able to
share your story and for you to be here and
talk about it.
Speaker 3 (26:45):
Thank you very very much.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
While this interview was inspired by our love for rescue
dogs and all the work that goes into rescue, now
is also a great example of second chances and truly
showing all of us that change is possible and it's
okay if you one day want to put a stop
to things and go to another country and save dogs,
which you know, maybe one day I can do that too.
(27:07):
I hope this episode found you where you needed to
hear it. I hope as things in the world continue
to shift, that you're taking care of yourself and encouraging
yourself to chase the dreams that you've always wanted. I
posted this quote on my Instagram this week, and it
feels very important to end this episode on Imagine looking
back one day and realizing that you were brave enough
(27:27):
to chase the life you wanted and it worked. So
go with that into the world as you will. And
I thank you for listening to this podcast and being here.
I love you guys, Talk with you next week.
Host
Morgan Huelsman
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