Meet the Creator

House of Zeus began as an Instagram account I created to share moments of my cat’s life with friends and family. Zeus (originally named Boots for his white paws) was adopted on June 6th, 2018. I found him through Kijiji, where his previous family was giving him up for free – all they asked was that he went to a good home. I had scheduled with his previous owners to meet him and ended up bringing him home with me that day. The veterinarian estimated him to be about 3 months old at the time, so his “birthday” was set as March 5th, 2018. Since then, we’ve celebrated many of his firsts – Christmas, birthday, and gotcha day.

My name is Jacqueline. This is my story.

I grew up in Burnaby, British Columbia and moved to Edmonton, Alberta when I started my education at the University of Alberta to study Animal Health. It had been my dream since kindergarten to one day become a companion animal veterinarian. However, as the years went by, I realized that while my passion to help animals remained, my direction took a different route. It took me a long time to narrow down my differing interests into one common career – I wanted to produce prosthetic and orthotic devices for animals. It wasn’t until my final year of my undergraduate that I came to this conclusion and began hashing out a plan. “Prosthetic and orthotic devices for companion animals” was a laughable phrase to most that I brought it up to. The feeling of having someone laugh at your dream sucks, but I already knew it wouldn’t be easy and that I couldn’t give up because of it.

So I persisted.

I had six weeks wherein I sketched drafts of prostheses and taught myself basic anatomy, as well as how to 3D model on Solidworks (computer-aided design and computer-aided engineering program), and learned about different materials and the 3D printing process. By the end of it, I had a rough first iteration of my design that I presented to professors, hoping they would be interested in working with me to provide me guidance on a bigger project… and they did. Two professors, in fact. With the insight of an animal science professor/ veterinarian as well as a mechanical engineering professor, we set up a personalized course where my goals were to produce an updated version of my initial design backed up by a research article on prosthetic devices in companion animals. I was then to present my findings to the professors and invited guests. In the meantime, I stepped out of my comfort zone and searched for opportunities that would allow me to practice the skills that I needed. I took a couple of opportunities where I job shadowed professionals in the field and began volunteering at an orthotic clinic.

Following my heart’s desires just felt right. Though it was technically considered work, doing these things gave me purpose and made me happy. And so, I began my journey of figuring out how I could create a lifestyle that I loved. It has always been important to me to not settle for a career that I loathed, where I counted down the hours until my shift was over. I felt as though I had already wasted so many years being unhappy, and letting those feelings destroy my motivation to do better. Especially upon graduation, I have been doubling down on taking steps that would bring me closer to a career and life that I feel absolutely passionate about.

Welcome to my journey.