From an active yellow lab named Ruby to a gentle horse known as Total Shock, the pets throughout Castaic are considered more than simply animals – but important members of the family that bring joy through unconditional love.



“Shock and I have a very special bond and know each other well – he is like one of my children and definitely part of our family,” said Debbie Kelly, a resident of Castaic for 25 years. Total Shock – called “Shock” for short – became a member of her family about 11 years ago.



“We had two ponies along with my mare, Femm...we sold them. Femm, being a horse – which are herd animals – became really depressed and could not stand alone,” Kelly recalled.



With that, she told her husband, Rob, “We have to get another horse for her because she is sad and lonely and should not stand alone.” At the time, Kelly had a friend with a horse named C.J. that she no longer wanted. “So we rescued C.J.,” she said. At first, “C.J. was ouchy on her feet...I thought she might be stone bruised because she was barefoot and had come off a 40-acre pasture.”



Time passed, and she was rolling a lot. “So we watched her carefully and grazed her on grass in hope she would feel better. More time passed – then I noticed that she looked fat.”



One morning in 1999, “I was in my kitchen to put the coffee on, and was looking out on my arena. There was Femm, C.J., and I thought to myself…there’s a deer in the arena!” Kelly soon realized “that’s not a deer, it’s a baby horse...I started screaming, ‘C.J. had a baby, C.J. had a baby!’ That was the day Shock was born. We had no idea the mare was in foal when we got her – she gave me a beautiful Dunn Colt.”



At that time in her busy life, Kelly couldn’t imagine having a baby horse to train. Nevertheless, “I ended up training him from the ground up.” As a result, the reward lies in their unspoken bond. “He has taught me patience. He has brought great joy to me and I incorporated him into my business – I am a real estate broker and specialize in ranch and horse properties. He is on my business cards, website, signs, and most important: my heart.”



Enter Ruby, a Yellow Lab, who – despite having epilepsy – is a very active dog.



“Ruby along with most pets give you such unconditional love – it really makes you want to give them the best of everything,” said Castaic resident Heidi Voll.



A dog trainer with Aunt Heidi’s Canine School, Voll met Ruby when the dog became her client.



“Then her family’s busy life did not mix well with her needs, so they asked if I would like to keep her – I jumped at the opportunity,” recalled Voll, who adopted Ruby about three-and-a-half years ago.

“She has epilepsy and requires special medication, but that does not stop her from being a very active dog,” Voll continued. “She loves to do many tricks and makes us laugh. She greets you every time, like she has not seen you in months, and you may have only walked to the mailbox. She never met a tennis ball she didn’t like, or a body of water.”



Because of some of her quirks, Ruby has helped Voll improve her training techniques. “As a dog trainer, she has helped me train other dogs who may have some fear issues or need work walking around other dogs,” Voll said.

“She is a constant work in progress. I still believe that someday I’ll be able to do animal assisted activities with her.”



For Castaic resident Vanessa Brookman, owning three dogs – Copper, Ginger and Jack – has reaped far more than companionship, especially when her husband passed away.



“My pets all do tricks, they are hand command trained,” said Brookman of her three various lineages of pit bulls. “But what I love the most is the love they have to give and do give, every minute of everyday. They are funny and they make me laugh, they also want to kiss away my tears when I cry.”



There were times when she thought of running away. “My husband had died, I’d lost my job, nothing seemed to be going right – but then, who would take care of my dogs?” Brookman continued. “So home I stayed, and re-grounded I became, because of them.”



Now flashback about seven years ago, when Brookman met Copper.



“My late husband was dead set on us getting a pit bull, but I, like many other people, was scared to death of them – out of ignorance,” she said. “I trusted my husband and his ability to handle any situation, so a pit bull we got – Copper. I was very quickly impressed...he was fast to train and won over the hearts and calmed the fears of all that met him.”



When Copper turned three, “we decided to get him a friend...we found Ginger and brought her home.” Once she birthed Jack, “she was the perfect mother and found a very special part of my heart.”



When her husband passed away a year and a half ago, “these three dogs were what kept me going most days; I had such special memories of him with each of them,” Brookman said.



Today, “I know when I come home, whatever time of day or night, there will be three tails wagging and three pups so happy to see me, it doesn’t matter if I’ve been gone five minutes or five hours, they are beside themselves with excitement. Where else can someone get that?”