Hello, my name is Tim Story. Welcome to Miracle Mentality. Remember rooftops, drawn spaceships on the ground. It's for the dreamers, the doers, the believers in something greater. In each episode, I'll invite you to rise above the mundane, to push past the messy, and learn to live boldly in the miraculous. Every episode will have practical wisdom, spiritual insight, and my guests will explore what it takes to activate your miracle mindset. Remember to subscribe, follow, and like. Welcome to the Miracle Mentality Podcast. Today I'm coming right from my house because what I'm doing today is I'm bringing you into one of my life coaching sessions. So I have been a life advisor, life strategist, life coach for over three decades, and what a privilege to do it with people literally from all over the world. So it's the first time that I'm actually going in with a client to talk about a subject that is very, very important to all of us. And that is our pets. Our pets mean so much to us. Our pets serve many, many purposes in our life, from friendship to family, companionship, love. They definitely help with loneliness and even studies find that even people that are anxious just to have their pets around are so important. And in this session, it's gonna be very, very interesting because the person that I am going to be coaching is named Krista, and I've known Krista since she was even a teenager. She is a young actor. She has modeled for years and does many other projects. And I just started talking to her one day and she told me that her dog was ill. And when she told me about this, she became very emotional. So I wanna welcome to the Miracle Mentality, Krista. Krista, good to see you today. Hey, Tim, how are you? Thank you for having me on. So I think one of the things because of knowing you for so many years, when I would see you post on social media, a lot of it was you running, you were running or you would like the roller blade, you were always outdoors, loving life. You're one of the few people that I know that can cook at a very high level, like at a 10, right? And then the other thing that I noticed that I even told your dad about, who's a great friend of mine, is how you always love your dog around. Tell us a little bit about your dog. Yeah, he is a bull mastic. I've had him since probably two months. He used to be the size of his head. Wow. And yeah, and we're definitely companions. I love him with all my heart. It's been wonderful to have him with me. And man, I don't know what I would have done if I didn't have him in my life. Yeah, so I find that interesting because you're a very social person, okay? You've been in relationships. It's not like you're just a woman who's never dated before. So tell me why for you, your dog, whose name again is, I know, but tell them. Kratos. K-R-A-T-O-S. Yeah, tell everybody why Kratos is so important to you. That's different than a man, are different than your cool sisters you have and your amazing mom and dad. Well, I mean, I feel like a lot of dog owners will say this, but the joy that they bring, the unconditional love, you're gone one minute to throw the trash and they're like, hey, where are you? But the difference really is, is it's the way that he's always there, no matter what, he's there with you when you're feeling sad. They feel you, they feel you when you're feeling sad and the comfort and even when you're happy. I mean, there's times where I'll be grilling and I'll throw on some music and I'll dance and he looks at me and he definitely has been with me through all the ups and downs. Yeah, so I was doing a lot of research on pets. You know, obviously you have dogs, you have cats, we have a lot of cat lovers here. Michael Jackson, I just saw that movie recently, he had a chimp and a llama that he found a connection with. But your connection with Kratos, so interesting that he's so big. Do we know how many pounds he is? Now he's probably only like 90-ish pounds, he was like one or so. Okay, but you would take this 110 pound dog with you on road trips. Yes. Even with your family, was your family okay with all that? Of course, we're animal people and man, I'll tell you what Kratos has been to a lot of cool places. He's even gone rafting, river rafting down the Oklahoma River. Yeah. Trips to Texas, camping, he's a great travel dog and he definitely keeps you warm. I don't know this about Kratos, but some of my other friends, dogs or cats have their own social media. Does Kratos, I don't know. No, I never did. I should have, but no, I mean, technically my social media is usually all him for the most part when I do post. Sometimes the dogs and cats, they demand that you put them on social media. So, Crystal, let's get into what has been happening recently. We found out that Kratos is ill and when did you find out how many months ago? Now it's probably seven weeks ago. Man, yeah, it was, yeah, probably about seven weeks ago. Okay. And then how did you start to see the difference in maybe the way he was acting or responding or how did you find out? Well, actually the main reason I had taken him into the vet was because overnight there was a growth that like popped up and he was acting weird. He woke me up, which he usually doesn't do. He sleeps in. He sleeps in more than I do. So I took him out. I saw the girl that I called the vet immediately and so they had to do blood work. They did scans and they did the whole everything. And so they're like, look, this is just an infection, but we found out some things that we need to address and I was like, okay. So she took my left. That's a scary thing because so many of us that have children were used to that with our children of taking the child to the doctor and then you have blood work done. And many times it can come back not so positive because as a life coach and as a pastor, I hear about so many things that take place. So when you had the work done, was there a major concern or just a little concern that something could be wrong with your dog? It was pretty high. My vet, she's amazing. She broke it down for me and she's like, she took me through all the blood work, the scans and everything. And she said, look, this thing that I found on his heart, it's very alarming and my red flags are going up. So it's really up to you. If you want us to send it in to get confirmation of what I think it is, that's completely up to you. She talked about cancer therapy and stuff like that. And just kind of went through everything. But I was like, you know what? I have to know because I need to plan accordingly. Yes. Staying home, literally just staying home. So it was alarming and there was a period where I had to wait and so I literally just went to the marina and I sat there, I got a smoothie and I cried and called my dad. But so I just had to wait. That waiting period was the worst. No, of course. Because it could go either way. Yeah, help me with this one. And I think so many people that are listening right now, you could relate to this because you have lost a pet or your pet is ill. I watched this movie with Morgan Freeman that was such a good movie. And in the movie, they had a dog that was ill. And the vet told them how much the surgery would cost if they were even performed the surgery. And then Morgan Freeman and his wife in the movie, they had to go back and forth because some of these surgeries can be so expensive. So for you being single still, and then acting and modeling and all the things that you're doing, you don't have to tell us the price. But when they told you the price of going forward, what went through your mind and how did you then deal with that? Well, the process is they give you a breakdown of all the tests and how much that's gonna cost and the medication they wanna send you off with. So I'm like, okay, I literally took out a credit card for him. So that's the first step. The second step was for her to ask me like, what would you wanna do? Would you want to do treatment? Cause that's a whole different conversation. And when she told me, I asked, I was curious, it's crazy. It's like a car, more than a car. And my main goal is quality of life. That was my goal for him. So very expensive. Okay, so you get the results of what Kratos had. And so what did they finally diagnose him with? They found a tumor on his heart, which means for it to reach there. She said that cancer is all through her, all through his body. So I said, how long? As I'm like, bawling my eyes, I was like, how long? She said a few weeks, but he can surprise you. Yeah, that's pretty intense. And the fact that I know you and you do some projects even with the lead with love movement. But I think that so many people listening and watching right now, they can identify with you because I know a friend that told me this just two weeks ago, his dog passed away, was 15 years of age. And he said to me, and he's a 50 year old man, he said, I will never get another dog because it was so, so, so difficult. So I started doing my research knowing that I was gonna talk to you about this and that for some, the loss of a pet is at such a high level. I'm not saying that it's equal to the loss of a human being, but it's at such a high, high level. So when you hear this news and you realize what's taking place, what starts to go through your mind as far as just emotionally? Are you feeling fear? Are you feeling anger? What are the emotions you were going through? I think the biggest one was definitely sorrow. There's a lot of sorrow, sadness, heartache. Cause I've experienced heartache before, but this is like a really deep level. Yeah. And yeah. Yeah. Okay, just so the viewers and listeners can understand how old is your dog Kratos right now? He's 11, he turned 11 in December. Okay, so if they were to just go by how many years he is supposed to live because he hasn't passed yet. And we do believe in miracles. And I want to tell everybody that even the Catholic church, they will have masses where they pray over animals. And I told you, I want to pray over him. And I'm being totally sincere. Yeah, thank you. I was in Texas and they brought me a horse to pray over. And I couldn't believe I had to go in there to where the horse was. They had wheeled the horse in. Cause I do believe in the power of prayer even for animals. I think animals are very important to God. But how old is Kratos supposed to live if you just look at it with the type of dog that he is? Yeah, big dogs can range, I mean, eight to 14 years, some 15, 16. Yeah. But that's pushing it. I mean, bigger dogs don't last as long. You'll see little Chewawa's. My mom's Chewawa lived, I think she was 18. Yeah, yeah. And the interesting thing that I need to bring in as a life coach is that, tell people that you truly love animals and that one of the things that you do sometimes is you're a dog walker. So tell me about that side of your life. Yeah, I do. I genuinely love animals from birds to hummingbirds, squirrels all over the above. We have a joke actually, I say my family, but a beautiful lady by the name of Felicia, she calls me Snow White. But for the dog walking, I actually started a little thing because there's a lot of elderly people in my neighborhood. And they have big dogs and young big dogs. So I started a little side hustle where I would actually run them. So I would take them for a run, get them tired out so that the owner and the dog could actually enjoy time together and not be stressed. So it helped the elderly owners. I also now take care of a gecko and cats. Okay, so let's get into this. What kind of treatment have you decided to go with because you're a single person again, you're working your jobs, you're very good as an actor, you do commercials and that kind of thing. But with the budget that you're on, what did you decide to do as far as the treatment? So I opted out of treatment. Again, my main goal was quality of life. And with the treatment, it would have caused a lot of, it just wouldn't be quality of life for him. And I don't want him to go through that. So we're just taking it day by day and we're really enjoying time together. And I'm learning to just really take it slow and be kind to myself in moments, embrace what I'm feeling and yeah, so no treatment, no treatment as of now. I wanna tell you from the life coaching perspective, so one of the things that I was reading about, I'm gonna actually read it off my notes. It says, except that your grief is real. Like when you have a dog or cat or animal that you love, some people would whore at you. Psychologists emphasize that an ailing pet can hurt as deeply as losing or even an ailing human family member because pets can provide unconditional love, routine, companionship and emotional safety. And these psychologists that I was learning from the last few days, knowing that I was gonna coach you is are talking about the fact that you have to be able to just accept your grief. How are you dealing with your grief? That's a tough one. I think there's not really one answer and there's really not a timeframe of how to completely understand or feel. I think for me, I'm just being kind with myself and third times where I'll be working and then I feel this just like heavy weight and I'm like, okay, so then I let myself cry and then I get back up and I usually go to the room though because I don't want Kratos to feel me. I swear he can smell my tears or he can feel my energy but it's a process, it's a process for sure. Definitely being kind with myself and accepting it slowly but surely and trying not to think too much about him being gone already. I think that's where I was at the beginning where I was so distraught, if you will, that I had an aha moment where it's like, okay, you're grieving him so hard right now that you're not enjoying the time with him now. He's still here. So snapping yourself out of it but also having the balance of letting yourself cry. Yeah, okay, so for those of you just coming on live coaching Krista and she's dealing with her dog Kratos who she's had for many, many years who had a diagnosis of having an illness that was supposed to give him just a few weeks to live. We're believing that that will not be the case but in the meantime, she's having to deal with the grief of this being very real. Another thing that psychologists say, let me read this, it's right what you said, Krista. It says, you may feel sadness, anger, guilt, numbness, anxiety, relief or even confusion. These are all normal. These are all normal. And so for people that are listening right now, if you have a pet that has been ill or you lost a pet in the comment section, I want you to tell us about it. Tell us about the feelings that you've had. Tell us about the feelings that you are having because this is very, very serious. I mean, this is a serious thing. People are very connected to their animals and I think Krista, we can help some people today. Tell me about Kratos. Do you feel that he can tell there's something wrong with him? I don't think so. I don't think so. Pets are so in the moment, which I think we can learn from but his main goal is just, I'm gonna hang out with mom and let's go for a walk or what I call now is stroller adventure because he doesn't like to go far. Yeah. I don't think he, and that's another thing I had asked the vet. I was like, do you think he's in pain? She said, no, he doesn't seem at pain at all because of the tests they did. And so I don't think he even realizes that there's something wrong. Can you tell me about some of the limitations you're seeing with him as far as maybe he's sleeping more or sleeping less or his movements are not as strong? What do you see? Yeah, I feel like we've been having more good days than bad days. The bad days are the days where you see him kind of wobbly. There's moments where I'll look at him and he'll just like be staring as if like there's no thought. Yeah. So definitely the movement of the wobbliness and he's been getting slower and slower with his walking. Yeah. You know, it's interesting, Chris, that there's actually a term, listen to this, anticipatory grief, which means that you are in that in between of knowing that they're going to pass. OK. And what do you do in the midst of that? And one of the things that the psychologists say is create comforting routines. Yeah. And maintaining many of the same routines that you guys had before, but what realizing that your pet may have new limitations. So is that something that you're doing, as you said, you're taking him outside, he's breathing, he's out there. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I keep keeping the same, you know, structure in the morning. Although I'll take him out first thing, no, like hanging out because his bladder is definitely not as strong. Yeah. But I keep the same schedule and that's helped him. And it's interesting that you said anticipatory grief because there was a moment where I was like, something is wrong with me, like, am I depressed? Like, what's happening? And I was looking it up and that's exactly what popped up. It and it's interesting how knowledge is power, where if you can put a name to it, you're like, oh, OK. I'm I'm just human. And I'm definitely feeling very heavy feelings. I was like, so, yeah. So, Chris, what I'd like to do is in the next session that I have with you in life coaching you is that I want to get into how you're able to show up strong, even when you don't feel that strong when you're dealing with a pet that is challenged by a health crisis or even for those that have had a pet that has passed on how you're able to show up strong in the midst of going to this challenge, because I think it's so, so difficult for people. I know a major celebrity, probably one of the biggest five in the world that is a friend of mine, that when their dog died, they literally canceled a whole tour. The dog died and they canceled the tour. And so that's how serious it could be. So I just want to tell all of you, thank you for listening, watching to to the miracle mentality. This session is is unique. I'm going to start doing this from time to time, bringing you into my coaching sessions. Today, I'm talking to Krista about her amazing dog, Kratos, and the connection to her dog. But also the challenge of the Kratos being ill and how to handle it. I think this is touching a lot of you. So do me a favor in the chats. Tell me what you're thinking about this conversation. Continue to watch, listen and subscribe to the miracle mentality and keep telling a friend, because this podcast is how so many people's lives we still believe in miracles. And we believe in miracles even for your pet. And we believe that God will manifest miracles even for your pets. And so I will see you guys real soon. Thank you for sharing space with me on this episode of Miracle Mentality with Tim Story. If today sparked your courage or helped you understand why you're created for success, I invite you to carry that miracle mentality forward. Visit me at Tim Story dot com. That story with an EY on the end. Until next time, walk by faith, embrace possibility and create your own comeback story.
