It wasn’t just humans who were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Dogs and other animals also felt its effects. The difference, however, was that the pandemic was a good thing for those in need of a new home.

But with all those new pet owners, came many questions about how to be the best fur parent possible. Enter Kim Condon and Kelly McPherson. 

The duo, both of whom live in Natick, decided to use their breadth of animal knowledge to start a podcast. During each podcast, the women will interview the dog expert. Read more about it in the following Q&A:  Why start a podcast now?

Kelly & Kim decided to create a podcast about dogs (we also talk about cats) because we felt it was important to discuss pet related issues with owners due to the large number of folks who got pets for the very first time, during the pandemic.*

And after spending 7 years helping build the Natick Dog Park called Eddie’s Park and forming the nonprofit FIDO of Natick, we felt the podcast was a great companion & good next step. 

Why would folks be interested in this type of podcast?

We feel dog and cat owners would find our podcast to be helpful because sometimes pet ownership is messy or RUFF….We talk about ourselves and our own dogs. We discuss Rabies, puppies, missing dogs, being a foster Mom, the dog park, training, behaviors, the Veterinary field, Coyotes, etc….

How did you get involved in working with animals?

Kim works at Boston West Emergency Hospital in Natick, is the Municipal Animal Inspector for Natick and has been a Foster Mom for Yorkies Inc. Kim, her husband & stepson have fostered over 40 small dogs since 2011. Kim currently has 3 dogs.

Kelly worked in the Veterinary field growing up and currently volunteers for Missing Dogs Massachusetts. She has always had a passion for animals both domestic and wild. Kelly serves as President of FIDO of Natick. Kelly has 2 standard poodles, a wonderful husband and 2 daughters, a son and son in law.  She works at a local church and is a real estate agent for a boutique firm Team Impressa representing buyers and sellers. 

How will your experiences shape the podcasts?

All of the stories we tell, revolve around dogs and sometimes cats. On the episodes we interview experts in the pet ownership field. In this day and age, our pets have really become beloved family members. We hope our podcast is something folks will enjoy listening to & maybe our listeners will learn something about their pet & their environment at the same time. We hope to serve as advocates for the domestic animal population here in MetroWest. And we are super excited to learn that some of our listeners go beyond MetroWest, beyond New England & even beyond the US to places like United Kingdom, Bahamas, Puerto Rico, Brazil, New Zealand & Germany! 

As of July we have had over 500 downloads of our podcast episodes. We have released 10 episodes. 

Folks can listen to “It Is RUFF Out There” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeart Radio. We are on Facebook & Instagram