There are many things we enter into without fully knowing what’s involved: schools, jobs,  relationships. But things usually work out when you do your due diligence, bring your heart, and are committed to giving your best efforts. Adopting a dog is no different.  This book, The Chosen Puppy will help.

Thinking about adoping a shelter dog?  “Ideally” the best time is when you and your family are ready and able to welcome, train, love, and support it. But life is rarely ideal.

Rescuers and fosterers do the work of angels, but for shelter dogs, the bestest time was last week, even yesterday; but today, right now works too. 

Adopting a dog is often one of those things you have on your mind, “someday”. But then one day, sometimes unexpectedly, the stars align.  Your heart feels especially big, your arms feel particularly empty, or the house is very, very quiet.  And you come home with a dog.

• 13 years ago my neighbor was with friends, waiting in a long line at a pancake house in Atlanta. They wandered next door to the Pet Shop that was having an adoption day. Fast-forward, sweet, gentle Scarlett became one of our Mona’s besties when they moved to NY.
• Below is the day we brought Bella home in 2002.  We were 3 years without a dog, but being there for my mother-in-law as she battled cancer came first. We lost Jean in early November, and a few weeks later, just before Thanksgiving, we decided to bring love and joy into the holiday season. I was quite sure that never, ever had a dog been more wanted and needed.

So if adopting a shelter dog is anywhere on your or a friend/loved one’s radar, get a copy of  The Chosen Puppy now.  Read it for you, or give it as a gift. Your local bookstore may need to order it, but if going online,  I recommend Googling and buying directly from one of the many independent booksellers and re-sellers out there.

At 90 pages, it’s a slim, concise, simple paperback. There are as many common sense ideas as cute drawings. Your 10-year-old will get it, and adults will not be bored. And no matter the age or prior experiences of the reader, they will learn things about interviewing, choosing, and training a shelter dog.

Mona, her first 5 minutes with us, on the way home from the shelter, June 2016.

Here in Westchester County shelters abound, most full of animals looking for a hero.  Here are links to some local shelters in Armonk,  Briarcliff, Elmsford, Harrison, New Rochelle, Ossining and Yonkers. There are many other rescue organizations. If you’re ready, you’re a few clicks away from finding your new best friend. Good luck! (And thank you!)