Lucky For Me - Second Edition Available Now!

 A few months ago, I received an incredibly powerful piece of feed back from someone after they finished reading my book. They wrote: "Your book is kinda like the boulder that gets dropped in the lake - exponentially magnifying Lucky's impact and a testament to you and your growth. I'm very grateful for your story, for you sharing it with the world and that I got to read it." My heart was deeply touched by the comment and it inspired me to move forward more quickly with the revisions of my book.

This week was the 15 year anniversary of Lucky's transition, so it seemed as if the timing was perfect for the Second Edition of Lucky For Me to come out. In case you were wondering what has changed from the first edition to the second edition, the changes were mostly addressing those pesky typos and punctuation errors that snuck through into the first edition. 

Truth be told, I also became aware that I have a tendency to reuse certain words - over and over again - LOL - so in the revised version, I was able to use my thesaurus to add some more variety to a few specific word choices.  :-)

For those of you who were afraid to share my book with friends and family who are teachers, those who work in editing jobs or those who just have a knack for those kinds of details - for fear of giving them a headache - I am happy to say with a higher degree of confidence that you should be able to share my book with them now. :-) 

I also added a few pages to honor my sweet boy Kino who passed away this summer. It didn't feel right to leave him out since he was such a big support to me while I was getting the book edited and published a few years ago. 

Here is a link to purchase the paperback version of the Second Edition: CLICK HERE TO BUY PRINT BOOK

In addition to that, I have decided to make an Ebook available via Amazon. I was previously resistant because I personally prefer a hand held copy of a book :-) but I have come to learn that a lot of people prefer to read books on their kindles so I decided it was time to broaden my scope. It should be up and available next week on Amazon. UPDATE: The Ebook is now available and can be purchased here: Buy e-book edition

Circling back to it being the 15 year anniversary of Lucky's transition on the 15th of October, she was definitely letting me know she was around. I'm not sure if I have ever had so many "visitors" in the yard in one day. 

From the squirrels (and especially the bold little squirrel who came up to the back door a few times and bopped the glass with his nose to let me know he would like some nuts), to the crows that walked around the yard and then sat on the fence to watch over me while I was outside, to a feral cat who come by to see what all the excitement was about and hung out for a while. 

It felt really nice to be surrounded by all of them and I could feel in my heart that they were all messengers from Lucky (and Kino too) letting me know that they knew the importance this particular date held for me and they were sharing it with me. 

I felt even more sure of that the next day, when not a single visitor came by. Definite confirmation that something lovely and magical was happening here on October 15th. 

I hope those of you who haven't read my book yet will enjoy the new and improved version. And that those of you who have read it will feel even more comfortable sharing it with others or buying copies as gifts. And finally, I hope that those of you who prefer Ebooks will be even more inspired to check out my book.

Happy reading everyone!! 

ps: For anyone who would like to see a description of the book and don't want to deal with extra clicks to look at the publisher's website, here is a picture of the book summary on the back cover: 

You can also find this book summary at: https://riversanctuarypublishing.com/shop/lucky-for-me/

Kino's First Nickname

 When Kino came to live with me as my "foster dog" - the first nickname he got was "Mr. Puppy." He earned his nickname when I realized that while he may have LOOKED like an adult dog at 90 pounds, everything else about him was pure puppy. 

My guess was that he was never allowed inside his previous home because he didn't know the first thing about being inside a house. Consequently, we had to start with the basics . . . potty training, simple commands (sit, down, stay), etc.  I also had to help him get comfortable with all the things he would encounter while living indoors.

He had obviously never encountered a mirror before because he would routinely go into the half-bath where the mirror came down to sink level. Standing with his chin resting on the sink counter, he would whimper (or bark) at the sight of another German shepherd in the house.  LOL  He didn't know how to go up and down stairs and he hadn't yet learned that counter-surfing was a no-no. He didn't get on the furniture, even when invited up. It was as if every single thing inside a house was a "first" for him.

I also described him as a 90 pound feral cat because he reacted much the same as a feral might when you attempted to touch him (which made grooming impossible, as well as cleaning his ears which were a necessity because he came out of the shelter with a horrendous ear infection). His reaction to everything was to try to bite you. Since he was pretty much an "adult dog" with "adult teeth" it wasn't quite like dealing with a puppy. He could do some serious damage with those big strong teeth of his. He didn't know how to take a treat from your hand without somehow biting your fingers/hand. 

Then there was the odd mixture of him not wanting to be touched yet also not wanting to let me out of his sight. He was literally on my heels and/or standing on top of my feet every time I moved. I can still remember how much my feet hurt that first month from constantly having him step on the tops of my feet. I had to stop wearing flip-flops inside the house because he put his foot inside my shoe each time I took a step. Since my foot wasn't moving with the rest of my body, I was lurched forward giving me a constant neck ache and throwing my back out of alignment. 

If I needed to go to the bathroom, he would follow me in there and then attempt to play tug of war with my underwear, WHILE they were still on my body. When I changed the sheets, he also thought it was an invitation to play tug of war with each sheet / blanket as I attempted to put them on the bed. 

It was all "puppy" but so much more challenging with his size and his high level of strength. In an attempted to be humored by these behaviors rather than irritated by them, I used his nickname more often than his real name. He was and will always be my "Mr. Puppy."