August is a big month for Spot. Five years ago this month Spot published its first issue. I wasn’t around back then. Five years ago this month I was still in Wenatchee, still working part time at the general hospital and juvenile center there. Also still trying to get my foot in the door of the police department while volunteering as a reserve officer. That was August of 2005. By the end of October of 2005 my wife and I were living in SW Portland. Life moves fast sometimes.

The Spot crew was gathered for Truck Day last month (it’s our monthly meeting/lunch/gabfest) and, looking at the month of our magazine’s anniversary, I started trying to figure out how long I’d been writing for Spot. Three years. It’s gone by so fast and yet it seems like a lifetime.

In many ways it has been a lifetime. Jennifer took me on as a very green writer - for some reason a degree in writing teaches students very little about professional writing - after I had applied for an assistant editor position. Ha! Assistant editor. So naive was I.

For the last year I’ve worn two hats at Spot: staff writer and webmaster.

As a writer with three years of NW pet coverage, and as Spot’s online handyman, I’ve long planned on writing the occasional blog so people can get some behind-the-scenes glances at what is going on, what web stuff is around the corner, and maybe a few musing about my own experiences as a pack member (four dogs, two humans and one more human on the way) and feline roommate.