“I’ve always had a passion for animals,” says Pamela Porosky, a fully certified canine massage practitioner and owner of Ashbury Cottage.
When explaining how she first started to practice massage on her pets, Pamela recalls: “I had an opportunity to study Reiki and saw the benefits that it had on my own pets and on the animals at the Calgary Humane Society where I was volunteering at that time.”
She decided to pursue animal massage full-time and went to school in Colorado in 2005 to study canine therapeutic massage. “I adopted Ashbury shortly after that. He is the namesake of the company and the biggest inspiration,” Pamela points out. “He was a rescue who was very shy and fearful and I saw how the therapies benefitted him.” Pamela’s massage services are excellent for shy pets or those who have touch concerns, as they work to build confidence in the animal.
Pamela set up Ashbury Cottage to supply holistic and alternative animal touch therapies for companion animals. Nonetheless, her services are mobile: “I go to where the animal is because that is where they are most comfortable," she explains. "Touch therapy can be overwhelming if they’ve never had it before. Our goal is to make the pets feel as comfortable as possible.”