May10
The Knoxville Examiner gives Saving Gracie a big thumbs up. Thanks to Brian Douglas for this generous review!
Author of this year’s must-read book, Saving Gracie, visits Knoxville this Saturday
Knoxville Dog Health Examiner rates this:
Five stars
By shining the bright light of truth on the harsh and cruel practices of an industry that has operated largely in the shadows of many communities for years, Saving Gracie provides hope to reformers across the country by showing the profound difference a dedicated group of people can make. It also follows the heartwarming story of the title’s eponymous survivor, a six-year-old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, that was relegated to a miserable life as a breeder female inone of Pennsylvania’s most infamous puppy mills before finding a permanent home with a loving family dedicated to her rehabilitation.
Make no mistake…this book pulls no punches and sugarcoats nothing. It acts both as a call to action and a road map on how to galvanize and motivate your community and state toward meaningful change. It also provides a sobering lesson on the challenges unsocialized dogs face after liberation, a lesson that is especially informative for Knoxville given the outcome of a recent dog hoarding case.
In spite of the often serious subject matter, Saving Gracie ultimately becomes the dog story everyone wants to read…the one with the happy ending. Carol Bradley does what very few authors are able: she combines a hard-hitting investigative expose with a tender and inspirational love story that leaves the reader in a better place than where they began.
She then closes with an excellent primer on how to find the right dog, including adopting from a shelter or rescue, selecting a responsible breeder, do’s and don’ts of the internet, and what to do if you think a breeder is abusing or neglecting his or her dogs.
Be sure to check back to this site later this week for more about Carol Bradley.
May5
Mother’s Day is looming. What better way to honor the mothers in your lives than with a good book?
Three Wishes: A True Story of Good Friends, Crushing Heartbreak, and Astonishing Luck on Our Way to Love and Motherhood by Carey Goldberg, Beth Jones, and Pamela Ferdinand (Little, Brown; hardcover, $24.99) chronicles how, one by one, three professionally successful women set out to achieve motherhood — using donor sperm, if necessary. As luck would have it, none of the women wind up using the vials. Instead, they find love the old-fashioned way, and the journey is riveting.
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout (Random House, paperback, $14) is a penetrating portrait of an acerbic junior high teacher in small-town Maine who, despite her crusty outer layer, longs for a sense of connection. The story of her visit to her semi-estranged son in New York will offer a different perspective to anyone who has ever wrestled with a difficult mother.
Which brings us to a shameless plug for my very own Saving Gracie: How one dog escaped the shadowy world of American puppy mills (Wiley; hardcover, $21.99) Single mother of three Linda Jackson finds her maternal skills tested in an entirely new way when she adopts Gracie, a sickly, emotionally deprived Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. Your animal loving friends will cheer her on as she learns to bond with this needy but deserving dog.
May4
When we adopted him six years ago, Bosco the Sheltie was a bit on the wild side: he stole toast off our plates, riffled through coat pockets to pilfer treats and once even snatched part of a sandwich from a young woman who was sitting cross-legged in the grass.
The bowlegged, tricolored fellow with big ears had been taken in by Sheltie Rescue of Georgia after he was found wandering a street in Atlanta one snowy day. He was strongwilled and passionate: about trucks and buses (he circled with excitement when they passed) and even moreso food. But he was also loving, protective of his family and heartbreakingly sweet. He never stopped being grateful for his forever home. Long after the cheap brown fleecy bed I bought for him wore out, he refused to surrender it for a nice one. It was parked right next to our own bed, and at night he burrowed down into it with the same determination he brought to everything else.
Bosco was the name his foster family gave him, and it stuck. He was two years old when we got him, we think; with rescued dogs you never know for sure. In the five years we had him, he suffered a series of health problems. There were gallbladder issues. An absence of cartilage in one of his hind legs, which gave him a perpetual limp. A series of benign tumors forced the amputation of one of his toes. We fought the pain with everything from surgery to morphine drips to acupuncture. Bosco persevered as long as he could.
Finally, his body had had enough and when he lost his appetite, we knew it was time for that final visit to the vet. We kissed him goodbye a year ago today. Bosco was the neediest of our dogs, and maybe that’s why losing him hurt the worst. His forlorn-looking bed is still tucked in my closet, taking up way too much space. I’ll be ready to toss it someday, but not just yet.
