This Just In:

Village Profile

home » Orato Village » Shanon Zurita

I was born in the United States, in an Indiana town where the local dogs ran freely around the neighborhood and almost every family had one. My first dog, Shorty, was a mutt from the pound who only survived for a few weeks, but then we had beagles, including one who had four litters of puppies that I loved. One year we had to take the mother beagle and one last puppy on the train with us on out annual trip to visit my grandparents in New Mexico. I went away to New York City to go to Barnard College when I was eighteen, and so for a few years lived without dogs. Then I came to the west coast of Canada for what was supposed to be a vacation. I liked it so much that I've stayed here ever since. I had a New York teacher's certificate, but it wasn't valid in Canada, so I worked for a few years at odd jobs and lived with my first husband in a hand built cabin in the forest. He already had a dog when I met him, a sweet collie/retriever cross who lived under the cabin. Eventually, I was involved in starting a community arts center, where I worked as an administrator for several years until my first daughter was born. A few years later, after the end of that marriage, I moved to the city of Vancouver. I soon ended up with an Airedale terrier whose owner had gone to Toronto and left him with me "temporarily." I began to establish myself as a tutor and freelance editor and I remarried. Now I have another daughter, and besides tutoring and editing, I have a house full of other people's dogs.