Telos Companion Animal Services, LLC

07/10/2025

“…one family noted that my role mirrors that of a project commissioner—and that’s very true.”

The role of a Certified Animal Hospice Practitioners/Certified Hospice Palliative Care Advocates, & how I carved out my unique space was featured in the July 2025 issue of Voyage Michigan.

https://voyagemichigan.com/interview/community-highlights-meet-lorrie-shaw-of-telos-companion-animal-services-llc

07/06/2025

New resource for pet guardians! No dog should go without fun & mental stimulation.🩵

https://hellotelosanimalenrichment.my.canva.site/

07/04/2025

🆘URGENT - PLEASE HELP US LOCATE THIS PUP'S OWNER(S)🆘

***Trigger warning, injured dog with wounds in picture***

An adult male intact pit bull was brought in last night by a good samaritan. This dog was in Whitmore Lake last night when he was attacked by multiple other dogs. This dog is a brindle/merle color with white blaze on his chest, white paws, and white markings on his muzzle. He also came in with a silver choke chain collar with no tags and no microchip was found. This dog is extremely critical and we are administering supportive care, but his injuries are life threatening and we need to find his owners urgently to discuss treatment options.

If you know this dog, or his owners, please contact us immediately at 734-369-6446.

07/04/2025

It’s 8:10AM on the Friday of a holiday weekend & all of your families with pets on hospice are stable & have the appropriate supportive care, nausea & pain meds on board & emergency crisis kits waiting in the wings if needed. 😅

(That’s [ideally] how ER visits or ER crisis euthanasia care appts are avoided anytime, & especially on holiday weekends, BTW. You seriously don’t want to be at a vet ER right now.)

07/04/2025

Georgia residents 👇🏻

Yes, this is stupid.

🚨Attention Georgia Pet Parents and Veterinary Professionals:

Due to a recently passed Senate Bill 105 in the state of Georgia regarding veterinary teletriage and telemedicine, Pet Poison Helpline will no longer be able to provide risk assessments or treatment guidance to pet parents directly regarding their pet as of July 1st, 2025.

If you are a pet parent, you may choose to start a case by providing basic information regarding your pet and the assessment or concern can be discussed with your veterinarian or you may choose to have your veterinarian contact us directly to start a case. Pet Poison Helpline is still able to provide guidance and support to your veterinarian regarding your pet’s needs.

07/03/2025

This came to mind today, as I was thinking about this first half of 2025.

It’s been an amazing year in many ways, with being able to support several families in person & remotely through their pet’s end-of-life, more hospice & palliative care cases that have been managed beautifully & in a holding pattern for far longer than would have been possible in the past because palliative care was introduced earlier than later.

In every case, it’s taken the leap of faith by families to trust in the process & the guidance of the vet interdisciplinary teams (IDTs) across the country: primary vets & vet teams, vet behaviorists & their teams, veterinary specialists including rehab & their teams, VTSs, veterinarians credentialed in hospice & their teams, credentialed trainers, groomers, canine massage therapists, pet sitters, animal nutritionists, & more.

As a Certified Fear Free Professional, Certified Animal Hospice Practitioner, & Certified Hospice & Palliative Care Advocate, I’m also a part of these IDTs, & I couldn’t do my part without these professionals, & the hard work of the families.

I remind families that we do the big things, the things that seem impossible by how we do the small things.

My work, the well-being of the animals takes a village. A village doing the little things so that the big things can be accomplished. This village made so many memories possible for families & I’m looking forward to so much more of this second half of 2025.

07/02/2025

Having fulfilled my continuing education credits earlier this year, I was able to renew my status as a Fear Free Certified Professional, which was due this week. I’m committed to interacting with & tending to each of my charges, using the principles that encompass Fear Free. This is vital for their well being—no matter their age or health status—as well as my own & the public at large.

06/30/2025

It’s getting late. As you start or continue winding down your weekend & begin another week, I’m going to share a couple of things that might make your week easier to move through. These have been proven to be true time & time again in my work in animal hospice…

🩵 Everyone is dealing with something that’s hard or scary—usually multiple things—that you’re not aware of

🩵 You share more in common with people than you might think

🩵 EVERYONE says the F word (especially when their pet is experiencing decline, is dying, or has died)

06/24/2025

Writing prompts are useful tools when experiencing grief surrounding a pet’s death. One that I offer to those I’m tending to as a pet loss & grief companioning certified professional is:

“Explore the different emotions you’ve experienced since the death of your pet. How have they changed over time?”

(To be clear, emotions—including joy, sadness, acceptance, anger, surprise, fear, anticipation—begin as sensations in the body, while feelings are our interpretation of said emotions, or how we ‘feel’ them.)

06/22/2025

Any pet can benefit from this during heat waves, but those who have terminal illness, airway or heart issues, or are senior/geriatric or brachycephalic.

And yes: even if you’ve A/C.

After many years of hands-on work in animal hospice and palliative care, keeping pets comfortable who are in their final years-to-days is my...

06/18/2025

This is so, so needed. 👏

🏠 Introducing a Game-Changing Solution to Our Community's Biggest Animal Welfare Challenge

The Challenge: Shelters and rescues are overwhelmed. Dogs cycle through the system. Fosters burn out. Adoptions fail. Not because people don't care or because the dogs are damaged in any way - but because they lack access to professional-level guidance when they need it most.

Our Solution: A comprehensive professional education initiative that provides expert-level training resources directly to foster families, new adopters, and the organizations that support them - creating a complete support system from shelter to forever home.

Introducing The K9 Turbo Training & Second Chances Animal Resources Community Education Initiative - a 6-month shelter and adopter education pilot program, running July-December 2025.

How We're Addressing This:

🎯 For Foster Families: Monthly 2-hour professional sessions covering decompression, body language, and behavior management - giving fosters the confidence and tools they need to help more dogs succeed.

🎯 For New Adopters: Monthly 90-minute sessions targeting the exact challenges that cause returns - equipping adopters with essential knowledge on the topics that matter most based on what we see in our community. Because knowledge prevents heartbreak for both families and dogs.

🎯 For Organizations: Complete support systems and resources - because when rescues have professional backing, more lives get saved.

🎯 The Goal: Address the community's most critical animal welfare need by bridging the resource gap between professional expertise and the people working directly with and adopting shelter dogs. Because when organizations, fosters, and adopters have access to expert-level training resources, outcomes improve across the board - fewer returns, more confident caregivers, and ultimately, more lives saved.

💡 Why This Pilot Matters: This initiative directly addresses the resource gaps we see every day. Our partner organizations will track the impact through:

Reduction in return rates
Increased foster confidence and retention
Increased adopter confidence and access to resources
Enhanced community engagement
Most importantly: more dogs finding and keeping their forever homes

🤝 Our Pilot Partners: Detroit Animal Care and Control, Rejoyceful Animal Rescue, I Heart Dogs, and Michigan Anti-Cruelty Society are joining us in this 6 month pilot initiative.

This program is proudly sponsored by Second Chances Animal Resources, Inc., a wonderful nonprofit that provides valuable resources for animals in our community. We've included a link to support their mission in the comments.

🐾

06/17/2025

One of the best duct tape-responses that I arm pet guardians with as they’re moving through anticipatory grief & decision-making about hospice care, end-of-life, euthanasia & aftercare & they’re hearing unhelpful opinions from colleagues & loved ones is this:

“I imagine you’re relieved that you don’t need to make these decisions.”

It works well! Feel free to use it for this or any similar life situation where those around you are behaving in a way that is less than supportive or kind.