Her eyesight is practically non-existent and she’s down to three teeth.

But Gracie, the star of Saving Gracie, is hanging in there. For a 10-year-old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel who spent six years in a puppy mill, she’s more than just fine.

As readers of the book will recall, Gracie’s sole purpose in life was to bear puppies — until she was rescued, along with some 330 other dogs from the Mike-Mar Kennel in Lower Oxford, Penn., four and a half years ago. After five months at a shelter she was adopted by Linda Jackson, and Linda and Gracie have been a pack of two ever since.

Gracie has had a few scares in the last nine months, however.

Last October, the black and white dog had two of her five teeth pulled and a couple of lumps removed from her breasts. One of the tumors was benign and the other was malignant. The vet was fairly confident she removed all the cancer.

Two months later, another lump was discovered, and in February, a fourth lump was found, this time near Gracie’s throat. This time the vet decided not to operate.

July brought another close call. Erika, Linda’s 16-year-old daughter, found Gracie hanging off her dog bed, face down and choking on an enormous ball of fur that had lodged in her throat. Erika jumped into action: she reached inside Gracie’s mouth and pulled out the mass of fur. Linda was beyond relieved. “Had no one been home or had all the kids been sleeping, I would have found her dead,” she wrote.

I caught up with Linda this afternoon to see how Gracie was doing. The lump near her throat has grown a little and she’s starting to slow down. Her bad eye is swollen and red and still requires drops. But among the three Cavaliers who now reside at the Jackson home, Gracie still rules. Linda has learned to appreciates evey day she has with her beloved pet.

If you’re anywhere near Lebanon, Penn., from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 14, drop by the Lebanon Valley Mall. Linda and Gracie will be signing copies of books as part of a book fair featuring several dozen authors. If I didn’t live 2,000 miles away, I’d join them.

• Outside of Portland, Ore.,authorities found 22 dogs, including 13 Basset Hounds and one Lhasa Apso, languishing at a substandard kennel.
• In Richburg, S.C., 87 Yorkies, Maltese, Chihuahuas covered with old urine and feces were removed from a home and from overheated storage units in the breeder’s backyard. The units were so full of stench that law enforcers have to ventilate them for several hours before going in.
• In Central Okla., officials discovered 65 Chihuahuas, Schnauzers and terriers with severely matted coats, eye problems and bloody feet.
• In Robert, La., more than 100 dogs, many of the Miniature Pinschers, were found stacked in filthy cages. The dogs had never stepped on solid ground and hopped about “like someone walking on hot coals” when they were set on the ground for the first time.

• In Bottineau County, N.D., rescuers saved 18 Poodles, Collies, Pekingese and other dogs from a squalid kennel.
• In Cortland, N.Y., 27 Boxers and Cockapoos were removed from filthy cages.
• Authorities near Tuscumbia, Mo., found 108 Cocker Spaniels, Poodles, Pekingese, Beagles, Cavalier King Charles Spaniels and Shih Tzus crowded into 2 by 2-foot cages. The dogs were suffering from eye infections, overgrown toenails and malnourishment.
• In Lee County, Fla., officials confiscated 26 puppies from a Missouri breeder who was selling them without a license or proof that they had been examined by a veterinarian.
• A breeder in New Tripoli, Penn., was charged with 22 counts of animal cruelty after the discovery of 18 Bichon Frise and Neapolitan Mastiffs in deplorable conditions.
• In Omaha, Neb., 35 dogs, mostly American Eskimos, with eye, teeth and coat problems were removed from a kennel.

• A breeder in Knox County, Tenn., was arrested after officials found 27 Chihuahuas and two parakeets in bad shape on his property.
• In Wilson County, Tenn., two dozen Shar Peis covered in fleas and ticks and lacking food or water were discovered at a kennel. When investigators returned to the property several days later to remove the dogs, they could find only 17.
• Near Charlotte, N.C., authorities found 40 English Bulldogs, Chihuahuas, Boston Terriers and Maltipoos living with moldy water and food and suffering from worms at a kennel.
• In Nashua, Iowa, 12 St Bernards, Dachshunds, Lhasa Apsos and other dogs were removed from an unsanitary kennel. Five dead dogs were also found.
• At filthy kennels in Norman and Oklahoma City, Okla., rescuers seized more than 70 Maltese, Chihuahuas and Yorkies.
• In Aurora, Neb., two dozen breeding Pugs in ill health were removed from a squalid kennel. The last dog to give birth ate her puppies “and usually that’s a matter of severe stress,” a Hearts United for Animals representative said.
• In Harrah, Oka., officials charged a breeder with animal cruelty after finding ”countless” dogs living in weeds several feet high and covered with ticks and fleas.
• Several rescue groups helped save more than 100 mostly small breed dogs from a kennel in Carriere, Miss. Take a look at a video the Humane Society of the U.S. posted after the raid. Incredible as it may seem, thousands of dogs endure this kind of life. http://www.humanesociety.org/news/press_releases/2010/07/ms_puppy_mill_rescue_072110.html

Boy, does this bring back the memories! Vince Staten, the highly popular columnist for my hometown paper, the Kingsport (Tenn.) Times-News, wrote this column about myself and Saving Gracie. Thanks, Vince!

July 28, 2010

Jo Zimmerman remembers Carol Bradley. “Oh, you couldn’t forget Carol.”

Carol was a student in Jo’s sophomore English class at Central High in the early 1970s. And Carol remembers Jo. “She was definitely my favorite teacher. She was by far the coolest teacher I ever had — the only one ever to drive a turquoise Porsche.

“She also had a way of injecting a contemporary edge into our studies. One of the things she had our sophomore English class do was debate whether Roller Woods ought to be leveled to make way for the Fort Henry Mall.”

Jo says she remembers most all of her students, but Carol stuck out. “You knew she was going places.” Carol, who is in town this week for a book signing, hopes one of those places is the New York Times best-seller list. 

Carol got her start on the way to the best-seller list back at Central in the 1970s. 

It may have been the 1970s, but for student journalists working on the Paw Print, the student newspaper for the recently opened Central High School, it might as well have been the 1870s. 

Carol remembers, “Under our archaic system, students would write stories in longhand, turn them in, and six weeks later either see them in the newspaper or not — it was strictly up to the English teacher who served as our sponsor.” 

So Carol decided to challenge the system. 

“I wanted to prove to our sponsor that students could handle the whole kit and caboodle and that we should be given freer hand in the paper’s contents.” 

It was the era of alternative newspapers, so Carol published her own student newspaper, “The CHS Free Press: An Alternative to Censorship.” 

“I came out with four issues of my paper over an eight-week period.” 

The administration didn’t see it as a demonstration of student prowess. 

“The principal tried to have me expelled but failed. Bowing to pressure, our sponsor reluctantly made me co-editor of the Paw Print my senior year. All of this was way too much fun. I’ve been bitten by the journalism bug ever since.” 

Jump ahead 35 years, and Carol, who has been working in newspapers all those years, is back in town with her first book. 

“Saving Gracie: How One Dog Escaped the Shadowy World of American Puppy Mills,” published earlier this year by Howell Book House, is an outgrowth of her year as a Nieman Fellow at Harvard, where she studied animal law. 

She will be signing copies on Friday at Books-A-Million on Stone Drive at 7 p.m. 

Carol defines a “puppy mill” as a commercial kennel “where dogs are treated like livestock, forced to produce puppies in often squalid conditions.” 

“Saving Gracie” follows a Cavalier King Charles spaniel, a little dog with big eyes, who was rescued from a Pennsylvania puppy mill. 

And yes, Tennessee has puppy mills, lots of them. 

“The state has 10 dog breeders licensed by the federal government, but that’s a fraction of the real number, and some of these kennels are horrific. Since last fall alone, 90 dogs were taken from dark sheds and makeshift pens in Roane County; 50 inbred and emaciated dogs were seized from a breeder in Lawrence County; 50 dogs suffering parasites and infections were removed from a kennel in Dickson County; more than two dozen dogs caked with urine and feces were taken from a Maury County kennel; and this spring 230 dogs suffering heart problems, eye infection and birth defects were hauled out of a kennel in Sparta. One of the largest puppy mill busts in the country occurred in 2008, when nearly 700 dogs crowded two and three to a hutch in unrelenting summer heat were rescued from a kennel in Lyles, Tennessee, southwest of Nashville.” 

Gracie, who was one of more than 300 dogs seized from the Mike-Mar Kennel in Oxford, Pa., was nearly blind and balked at human contact. But she has flourished under the patient, loving care of her adoptive owner, Linda Jackson. For Gracie, at least, there is a happy ending. 

Contact Vince Staten at vincestaten@timesnews.net or via mail in care of this newspaper. Voicemail may be left at 723-1483. His blog can be found at vincestaten.blogspot.com.