Tara Lipinski Opens Up About Her 'Anxious Dog Mom' Journey and How She Found Peace (Exclusive)
Tara Lipinski admits to PEOPLE she used to be anxious about her dog's health following the death of a past pet
The Olympic gold medalist has found relief by working with a pet care service called Dutch
Lipinski is a mom to her 19-month-old daughter, Georgie, and her flat-coated retriever, SullivanTara Lipinski grew up surrounded by dogs. At one point, her family had five running around the house.
"It was a hoot," the Olympic gold medalist, 42, tells PEOPLE exclusively. "Just us with all these dogs, sometimes traveling to different training centers around the country and bringing them along."
But for Lipinski, her first real dog was Dublin, a brown flat-coated retriever gifted to her by her parents several years ago. So when she revealed in February 2020 that Dublin was battling two aggressive forms of cancer, she was devastated.
As Dublin underwent treatment, Lipinski and her husband, Todd Kapostasy, welcomed Sullivan — "Sully" — another brown flat-coated retriever, into their home. Though the two dogs overlapped for a time, Dublin eventually died. The loss marked the beginning of a deeply emotional journey for Lipinski, which further cemented her identity as a devoted dog mom.
"That was my son," Lipinski says.
"Obviously, we went through a huge medical journey with Dublin, and I've just been very, very conscious of Sullivan's health," she continues. "You can't always prevent something, but I really want to take every precaution and stay on top of everything to make sure he has a long and healthy life."
To do that, Lipinski — also a mom to 19-month-old daughter Georgie — began taking extra precautions, including working with Dutch, an online pet care service. While she still values her longtime vet in Los Angeles, Dutch has offered a different kind of support when she says "life gets busy" and she becomes a "little bit of an anxious dog mom."
That anxiety flared when she recently noticed a bump on Sullivan's tongue.
"Because of everything I went through with Dublin, I immediately thought, 'Oh my goodness, what is this?'" she recalls. "I called the vet but couldn't get in for two weeks because it wasn't an emergency. I was like, 'I don't know how I'm going to sit with this and worry that it's maybe something like Dublin had.'"
"I have spent many nights worrying about something, or the dog's whimpering, or he might've jumped off the bed wrong — and I'm sitting at the vet for six hours while I wait to get my name called," the dog mom adds. "And then I go in and, of course, everything's fine. But still, the process of it all can be difficult."
"I'm sure vets are so in demand with so many emergencies and things that happen, but that's why I really love Dutch. It's given me a lot more control and peace of mind, and I'm also able to tackle things that I probably wouldn't have before."
Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
With Sullivan's health under control, Lipinski says she can now focus more time and energy on being present with her growing family. Lately, it's been especially rewarding to watch the bond between Sullivan and her daughter Georgie blossom.
"He loves to be part of the bedtime routine," Lipinski says. "He'll cry and scratch at the door if he isn't. He has to be in there — every part of her day. It's like we have a second baby. He needs to sit right at her table when she has breakfast."
"She loves him so much, and he is so gentle. He's so great with her," she adds. "When we do a bath and he's a big 95-pound dog in her little bathroom, he has to be lying right by the tub while we do it. If we're playing with the toys, he's looking — he's in on everything."
"The dropping of the food, too — I think he's in heaven," she continues. "He is like, 'This is what life is meant to be.' Those moments are really cute. He is so big and cuddly, and she's still so small. So to see her curled up next to him and how she says his name with her little baby talk — it warms my heart."
Read the original article on People
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CBS News
19 minutes ago
- CBS News
RFK Jr. taps allies and COVID vaccine critics among picks for CDC advisory panel. Here's who's on the list.
Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced Wednesday he's naming eight new advisers to serve on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's vaccine recommendations committee, after firing the committee's entire previous roster of 17 advisers. "All of these individuals are committed to evidence-based medicine, gold-standard science, and common sense. They have each committed to demanding definitive safety and efficacy data before making any new vaccine recommendations," Kennedy said Wednesday in a post on X. Kennedy's picks circumvented the usual CDC process for selecting members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. In previous administrations, career agency officials — not political leaders — vetted potential experts before forwarding them to the department for the secretary's approval. The panel's influential recommendations are closely watched because they are directly tied to federal policies, like which vaccines insurers are required to cover. The picks announced by Kennedy include some close allies of the secretary and his inner circle. One of them, Dr. Robert Malone, worked on early research related to mRNA vaccine technology but was accused during the COVID-19 pandemic of spreading misinformation about the mRNA vaccines. He was with Kennedy and President Trump at the Trump election night celebration in Florida. "On the basis of data from all over the world, approximately three years ago it was my impression that the risk/benefit ratio of these products did not merit continued use in any cohort," Malone posted last month on his Substack about the mRNA COVID vaccines. Like Kennedy, Malone has questioned the benefits of measles vaccines during the recent record outbreak in Texas, which killed two children, and he has promoted unproven treatments for the virus. Another member picked by Kennedy is Dr. Martin Kulldorff, an epidemiologist who co-authored the pandemic-era Great Barrington Declaration criticizing COVID-19 restrictions, along with now-NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya. Bhattacharya has described Kulldorff as a close friend. Kulldorff previously worked with the CDC's outside vaccine advisers, before authoring an opinion piece in 2021 criticizing the agency's decision to pause use of Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine over safety concerns. He claimed he was fired from working with the committee over the opinion piece. Kulldorff later claimed he was fired from Harvard University for criticizing COVID-19 vaccine requirements. Dr. Cody Meissner, a pediatrics professor who previously served as a member of the Food and Drug Administration's own vaccines panel — the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee – was also named to the committee. Meissner opposed COVID-19 vaccine requirements for children. He also co-authored an opinion piece with now-FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary speaking out against masking of children during the pandemic. Another former member of the FDA vaccines panel who was picked by Kennedy is Vicky Pebsworth, a regional director of the National Association of Catholic Nurses. Pebsworth spoke at a 2020 meeting of the FDA vaccines committee, where she identified herself as the research director for the National Vaccine Information Center and "mother of a child injured by his 15-month well-baby shots in 1998." She said the center's position was that any "coercion and sanctions to persuade adults to take an experimental vaccine, or give it to their children, is unethical and unlawful." Kennedy also praised another pick, MIT professor Retsef Levi, saying: "Dr. Levi has collaborated with public health agencies to evaluate vaccine safety, including co-authoring studies on mRNA COVID-19 vaccines and their association with cardiovascular risks." Levi previously called for more detailed data from the COVID-19 vaccine trials, suggesting that changes to how Pfizer's shot was produced may have caused side effects. But Levi faced criticism for a paper co-authored with Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo, which was cited in the state's move to recommend that young men not get mRNA COVID-19 vaccines. Experts condemned the paper for misleading methods that could inflate the risk. The views on vaccines of several of Kennedy's other picks are less clear. Kennedy said Dr. Michael A. Ross "contributed to national strategies for cancer prevention and early detection, including those involving HPV immunization," working with the CDC's breast and cervical cancer committee. Ross is described by Kennedy as an obstetrics and gynecology professor at George Washington University and Virginia Commonwealth University, though his name does not appear on directories for either university. Spokespeople for the two institutions did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Dr. James Pagano, described by Kennedy as a "strong advocate for evidence-based medicine," appears to have published little about vaccines or medicine. Records from the Medical Board of California list Pagano as being retired. Another Kennedy pick, Dr. Joseph Hibbeln, retired from the National Institutes of Health in 2020. His research portfolio previously covered nutritional intake of fatty acids like omega-3. Kennedy described him as bringing "expertise in immune-related outcomes, psychiatric conditions, and evidence-based public health strategies."
CBS News
an hour ago
- CBS News
Cook County jury awards $20.5 million to family of girl who died from toxic levels of morphine
A Cook County jury awarded more than $20 million in damages to the family of an 11-year-old girl who died from toxic levels of morphine. In October 2020, Ava Wilson was recovering from leukemia when she went for a follow-up appointment at Advocate Children's Hospital. During her appointment, she was crying from pain, and had difficulty walking, according to her family's attorneys. Lab tests revealed she had low platelet counts, low blood cell counts, high liver enzymes, and low blood pressure. She was discharged from Advocate Children's Hospital with instructions to take 15 milligrams of morphine every four hours, triple the amount of her previous prescriptions. A nurse practitioner also increased her gabapentin prescription. Approximately 36 hours after getting home, she died in her sleep from acute drug toxicity of several substances, including lethal levels of morphine in her system at the time of her death. Her family's attorneys said the hospital should have admitted Ava to the hospital to get her blood pressure under control and treat the cause of her pain, but simply sent her home with excessive pain medications. "Ava's body was yelling out to these clinicians, 'help me!', and they just ignored it," attorney Matthew Williams said. After a civil trial, a jury awarded her family $20.5 million in damages. "While nothing will ease the depth of Ava's loved ones' pain, the family appreciates that the jury recognized that Ava's death was preventable and that she should still be with them today," attorney Aaron Boeder said.
Medscape
an hour ago
- Medscape
Fast Five Quiz: Late-Onset Pompe Disease
Multiple genetic variants have been associated with LOPD. However, the c.-32-13T>G splice site variant is found in up to 90% of adults and 50% of pediatric patients. Patients with LOPD often have compound heterozygous genotypes, with one allele carrying the common c.-32-13T>G splice-site variant and the other harboring a more deleterious GAA mutation (eg, nonsense, frameshift, or large deletion). Other variants— such as and c.1935C>A — are more commonly seen in infantile forms of Pompe disease. Learn more about the pathophysiology of LOPD. Diagnosis of LOPD typically follows a two-step approach: first, measuring GAA enzyme activity (often via dried blood spot assay) followed by confirmatory molecular genetic testing to identify pathogenic GAA variants. Although once considered a first-line diagnostic tool for LOPD, muscle biopsy is no longer preferred due to its invasive nature and the non-specificity of histologic findings. Muscle biopsy may still be considered in rare, ambiguous cases when enzyme and genetic testing are inconclusive or conflicting. CK levels might be elevated in some patients but are nonspecific and primarily serve to raise clinical suspicion. Learn more about the workup for LOPD. Enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) has significantly changed the natural history of the disease by improving survival and stabilizing motor and respiratory function. However, key limitations in skeletal muscle uptake and variability in clinical response remain. This is due to low expression of the mannose-6-phosphate receptor in muscle tissue, which hampers enzyme internalization. As a result, patients might experience a limited or plateaued response. Newer approaches, including modified ERT and gene therapy, are being developed to address this issue. High toxicity to cardiac muscle, uniform patient response, and development of cardiac hypertrophy have not been reported as key limitations. Learn more about treatment options for LOPD. NBS programs have reshaped the understanding of Pompe disease, particularly LOPD. A significant proportion of screen-positive newborns harbor genetic variants associated with LOPD, including pseudo deficiency alleles and variants of uncertain significance. These individuals are often asymptomatic at birth and might not develop symptoms for years, if at all. This has raised important clinical questions around monitoring, counseling, and when (or whether) to initiate therapy; expanded screening has also revealed that the true prevalence of LOPD might be higher than historical estimates suggested. Learn more about the management of LOPD. Editor's Note: This article was created using several editorial tools, including generative AI models, as part of the process. Human review and editing of this content were performed prior to publication. Lead image: UCSF/Science Source
