Pepper & the August Give Away

First Post of the Day

The August give away is.... Pepper!

Well, a book ABOUT Pepper, to be more accurate. Other guide dogs, too, along with the cats in the LaRose household.

The woman Pepper guided, Sarah Blake LaRose, has written a book about her thirty years with her guide dogs. Pepper was her sixth and had to be retired early when it was discovered that she has Addison's Disease.

Sarah knew that something was very, very wrong with Pepper and quickly got her the care that ended up saving her life. Sometimes I get the shivers when I think about how deathly ill Pepper was and just how close a call it was. I will always be grateful to Sarah not only for the gift of being Pepper's retirement home, but for her heroic efforts in saving her life. That experience is detailed in the book.

My favorite parts of the book are (naturally) those about Pepper. I learned a lot about her history as a Seeing Eye Dog, things that I had been unaware of. Here's a brief excerpt:

 I love Sarah's description of Pepper in that excerpt.

Pepper's sudden retirement was difficult for Sarah. I could only imagine losing a dog I had loved so much, let alone partnered with through life. And so I started a blog for Sarah, My PenPal, Pepper, where letters to Sarah were written from Pepper. 

I had hoped the blog would be helpful and meaningful to Sarah, and in chapter 20 I learned that it had.

As Sarah writes, I did give permission for her to include some of those blog entries in her book and I found it interesting to see which ones she'd selected. The blog is public; click here if you'd like to read it. 

One of the very first photos of Miss P in our home.

If you'd like to win a copy of Walk with Me, comment on any blog post beginning with this one and published through Friday, August 7, 11:59 PM Eastern.  I'll spin to win and have the book sent to the winner!

Stay 'tooned!