Hu-dad here to interupt pictures of The Herd for a plug for a great book (and announce a contest at the end of this post). Every week, I receive offers to send us products for review on the website. Unfortunately, most of those products are things that I am not really interested in, so I have routinely declined those requests and rarely endorse products, except for those that I actually purchase and truly use.
When I heard that my friend Penny Blankenship was illustrating a new book, I knew that this was a book that I needed to read. In case you don’t know Penny, here are some blogs or websites you should check out:
Meeshka’s World
Everyday Tales of Woe
Squishybags.com (which really shows off Penny’s wit and talent)
The Husky Review
So with the desire to see some of Penny’s great cartoons, I downloaded the book, “Let the Dogs Speak! Puppies in Training Tell the Story of Canine Companions for Independence,” authored by Marianne McKiernan.
So here is the really cool part. I loved the book. You see, with a Herd of rescued dogs, I have tremendous respect for all of the people involved in the chain of guiding a lost dog to its new forever home. I admire the people who scour the shelters for the dog’s that can be saved (and, somehow, can walk away from the ones that they know can not be saved). I respect the people who volunteer their time to transport dogs to parts of the country where homes are more readily available. I salute the people who staff adoption days, clean kennels, offer vet services, etc. But, I am most impressed with the people who foster a dog knowing that at some point, they will have to allow their hearts to break so that that dog can move to its forever home. How can anyone do that? But I am so thankful that they are that strong.
But what about the people that are puppy raisers – the people that take in assistance puppies and groom them for months, only so that they can be later be trained to assist a human with some challenge? How can you raise a puppy to adulthood – and then give it up? Over and over and over.
This book, based on a great blog, follows the stories of several puppies as they grow up in their puppy raiser home for Canine Companions for Independence. And the stories are all told from the point of view of the dogs. Many of the stories will make you laugh, a few will make you cry, and all will give you tons of respect for those people who volunteer their time to be puppy raisers.
Oh – And did I mention contest? We have been given a copy of the book to give away. Yep – Free! The contest is really, really simple. Simply post a comment here at the end of this blog (or in the comments section on our Facebook Page of this blog post) saying you would like a free copy of Let the Dog’s Speak. We will put everyone’s name into a drawing and select one name. Viola – free book winner!
In the meantime, you can buy your own copy from Amazon (including a Kindle version like we read) by going here. I highly recommend it and thoroughly enjoyed reading the book.
P.S. – Full disclosure. I paid full retail price for the Kindle version of this book. Subsequent to reading the book and deciding to do a review, I requested and received a free hard copy of the book for use in the giveaway. I receive absolutely no compensation of any sort for the sale of any copies of this book. And, as I mention above, I do know the illustrator of the book. Oh, and the cartoons above are all copyrighted by Penny Blankenship and the book and I have used them with her written permission.
