Welcome to The Chronicles of a Spare Human!
I am Tanya and the “spare human” in our home. A little about me is that I am a born and raised North Carolina girl and have been here a majority of my life besides moving away to Indiana for a year of college and spending 2 years in Mississippi to spread my wings. I have an amazing man, Michael/primary human, that means the world to me and is so supportive in everything that I want to do, including starting this blog. I am an aunt to some amazing kids and fur momma/spare human to 3 spoiled rotten babies, Java an almost 14 year old Pit Bull and retired service dog, Frankie (aka Francine) a 2 year old Golden Lab and current service dog, and Mocha a wild stray cat we took in thinking she was pregnant, yeah, she fooled us. Also, in my spare time I’m a photographer, licensed insurance agent, and introvert.
A little more about the rest of the household.
Michael, the primary human for the dogs, is prior military and spent sixteen and a half years serving our nation. Michael and I have known one another since high-school, yes, I crushed on him but he was a senior and I was a freshman so we never dated. After the military, Michael decided to move back to our hometown. We had checked in on each other over the years as friends and decided to give a relationship a try and we’ve been going strong for three and a half years. The girls, Java and Frankie, are Michael’s service dogs, hence the reason I’m the spare human in the house. Michael and I do photography together, although he focuses on concert and band but will jump into anything. I joined him in photography a year ago and portrait photography about seven months ago.
Java, our adorable, spoiled, old girl is a retired service dog. Yes, Pits can be service dogs too. We got Java after her previous owners, who we knew, were no longer able to take care of her at almost 10 years old. Java was said to be aggressive to anyone and everything but she was massively misunderstood and unsocialized. Once we started working on socialization, trust and love, her true colors started to show and we got her trained to be a service dog. After about a year, Java tore her CCL, it would be called an ACL if she were human, and with her advanced age it was considered dangerous to do surgery. It took a few months to get her rehabbed and then she tore the other right after she was healed. As we were finally getting her well again, we noticed she was having sight issues and cataracts so we decided it was time to retire her. She has now retired to the couch and is a couch hippo and is spoiled rotten. Some people think that when a service animal is no longer “useful” that they are rehomed, not in our home! She is a cuddle bug, bed and blanket hog, and has turned into a momma dog for our Frankie.
Frankie came to us about a year after Java officially retired. We were at a bar that we consider our second home when we ran into a representative from an organization called Pawsitive Action Service Dogs from Rockhill, South Carolina. This organization is amazing! They breed, train, and provide these service animals to qualified Veterans free of charge. We’ve currently had Frankie for 9 months and couldn’t imagine a better addition to our home. Frankie has brought so much joy and energy back into our lives. Frankie has turned Java into an energetic momma dog. They have taught each other how to play, love and set boundaries and their relationship is so beautiful.
Mocha is, well, she’s a mess. Mocha was found as a stray outside of my grandmother’s house on Halloween night of 2022. I had gone in to drop off a bag of candy to my sick niece and when I came out Michael’s truck door was wide open and I couldn’t find him. Turns out a stray cat had come up, meowing at him and letting him love on her. With the way she was acting and her belly we thought she was pregnant. Turns out, she was not. She has turned into a chunky, lazy baby that won Java over by feeding Java some of her food. She’s a wonderful cat and super independent but occasionally gives you the honor of petting her. Mocha is super quiet unless it’s time for her to be fed, just like any other cat, she will not let you forget to feed her. We were told Java would kill any cat she came across, so we were super careful and did super slow introductions. The girls now love one another and Mocha now sneaks Java and Frankie both treats to keep the relationship working.
So while yes, I’m here to share my experience as a “spare human” to our service babies, I am also here to hear other spare human stories. So if you would like me to share your story, please send it over to my email, let me know if you would like to remain anonymous and I can do that as well!