MARYSVILLE – A woman’s best friends are her dogs.

Kimberly Gauthier of Marysville can attest to that as the love of her four pooches has led to a lucrative second career, writing a blog with 14,000 followers called KeepTheTailWagging.com.

Along with being an accountant in Seattle, Gauthier spends about 30 hours a week on her blog, which she posts almost daily. Much of it is written on her train ride from Everett.

Gauthier had dogs as a kid but didn’t get into them as an adult until Memorial Day 2010.

She and her boyfriend went to a dog rescue event in Smokey Point, “just to ask questions,” and ended up taking a puppy home. Thinking it was lonely, they soon added another one. Rodrigo and Sidney are “herdy dogs, smart and compact,” their mom said.

Gauthier, 45, never had kids, so she started talking about her dogs at work as if they were her children.

“We get it. You like dogs,” she said they told her.

“I was always talking about whatever crazy thing they did,” she said. “People were tired of me always talking about my puppies.”

So, on Christmas Eve, 2011, she started writing about them on a blog.

Her early blogs were cute stories, things she learned, training tips, etc. She lives on a wooded five acres east of Marysville-Pilchuck High School, so her dogs would run into skunks. One blog explained how to get the smell out.

But the blog that really helped her take off was about Rodrigo getting bit by a coyote.

Gauthier let him out one morning while still in her pajamas, he got the coyote’s scent and took off. She quickly dressed, grabbed a flashlight and took off after him. She heard a noise, and Rodrigo soon returned covered in blood. He had been bitten on the nose. She called a veterinarian and was able to take care of him on her own.

“He learned not to go by a coyote again,” she said.

Gauthier said there are 3,000 pet bloggers nationwide, but as hers started to get followers advertisers followed. Businesses would contact her to review their pet product, and she would charge them a fee.

But what really took her to the next level was when she started focusing on dog nutrition after one of her dogs developed severe allergies. “We couldn’t figure it out,” she said.

So she researched online and found out the benefits of feeding them raw food. “Within two weeks their health issues vanished,” she said.

So, she spends a couple hours each week grinding venison, emu, turkey, lamb and other meat, and mixing it with fresh vegetables, such as celery, broccoli, kale, carrots and parsley. She has two freezers full of food, including 50 pounds of sardines.

Gauthier has a t-shirt that says, “My dogs eat better than I do.”

“They have a very good life,” she added.

The dogs’ health has improved tremendously. Fleas, worms and joints are no longer an issue. Sheep milk helps with Scout’s and Zoey’s anxiety. They don’t have to go to the vet, except for annual checkups.

She said once their digestive systems improve, so do their immune systems.

When she started out on that topic, Gauthier said she was a little judgmental.

“Like when someone finds Christ, they want to save everyone,” she said.

But when she heard presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump belittling each other, she changed her tact.

“How many people change their minds” when they are being called names? she asked.

Gauthier said people do their best.

“I believe people do the best they can with the knowledge they have and with what is within their budget,” she said.

Right on her website she tells readers she is not a vet or a nutritionist.

“I don’t want to be the end. I want to be the beginning” of where people go for help, Gauthier said.

She said in her blogs she almost always links to research so readers can get more information. “I follow vets I respect,” she said.

Gauthier said she worries that a reader might not follow-up on needed care.

“I constantly question myself,” she said. “Each dog is different. I’d hate to give advice that is completely wrong.”

She said too many people distrust vets. “I don’t want to feed that fever,” she said, adding the more dogs are humanized she worries about malpractice.

As Gauthier has become more well-known, she’s been asked to speak at various conferences, and she puts out a Youtube video every Saturday. She is even featured in the Oct. 31 edition of “First for Women” magazine. The story is about women who have turned their love of dogs into lucrative side jobs.

While there is good money blogging for fashion and parenting, many pet bloggers do it for free. But when Gauthier started blogging, she knew she eventually wanted to do it full-time. She points out the value not only of her following, but also that the blog will be online forever. A google search on many dog-health topics will list one of her blogs at the top.

Gauthier said her dogs have helped her so much, especially when she had depression.

“My dogs helped bring me out of that. Pets are everything to me,” she said, adding that one recently “ran to me as if they hadn’t seen me in a week.”

Dogs also can teach people.

“Live in the moment,” Gauthier said, remembering when her beloved dog Blue was hit by a car and died. “It’s a reminder that this is fleeting.”