A Dog Named Christmas by Greg Kincaid

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The local animal shelter has come up with a new program called "Adopt a Dog for Christmas." Todd McCray decides his family should take a dog from the program for the week before Christmas. However, there is one big problem with Todd's plan. He is a 20 year-old, mentally handicapped, adult-child still living at home on the farm in Kansas with his parents and his Dad doesn't want a dog. Todd can be very persuasive so it doesn't take him long to convince his father that this is a good plan. George, his father, tells Todd that he will agree to the plan, but that Todd must realize Christmas ends on December 26 and the dog goes back to the shelter on that day. Todd understands and promises that the dog will be returned to the shelter.

While they are at the shelter picking out their dog, Todd asks the shelter director what will happen to the other dogs. He is very concerned when he learns that those dogs will spend Christmas in their kennels at the shelter.

It has been a McCray Christmas custom to hold an open house on the Sunday before Christmas and nearly all the families in their small town stop by. At that open house, Todd begins telling everyone about the shelter and the "Adopt a Dog for Christmas" program. Gradually he enlists enough families so that every dog is adopted for Christmas week.

Well, as you can imagine, in the week that "Christmas" stays with the McCrays, he worms his way into each heart, especially George's. George, however, is determined to teach Todd that when you make a promise who must keep it. George has also had some heart-wrenching experiences with dogs in the past and he isn't sure that he can survive giving his love to another dog.

There is no doubt that this is a Christmas story first, but it is also the story of a man struggling to be a good parent and a family that is fully supportive of each member. There are so many stories about dysfunctional families, it is wonderful to read about a real family working together to really help each other. If you are a read-aloud together family, a Dog Named Christmas was written for you! If you just want a Christmas story to enjoy, you will not find a better selection. If you get as caught up with George McCray as I did, you can read his story in the prequel, Christmas with Tucker. Be sure to add these to your bookshelf. Put them right beside Miracle on 34th Street.

Lucile Nelson. Librarian
BS in ED - KU
MLS - ESU
As a librarian, I have read and reviewed hundreds of books. I now have time to share those reviews with the public at large. My love affair with a great dog story started years ago when my first dog "followed me home" from school as I fed him my left over lunch sandwich. Stop by my blog and check out other great stories and authors that are my favorites! Thanks, Lucile

http://ladiesloaduponbooks.blogspot.com/

Tale of the Puppy Mill-Cavalier King Charles Dog-Book Review

Saving Gracie by Carol Bradley is the true story of how a Cavalier King Charles dog is rescued after spending the first six years of her life in a puppy mill. Bradley relies on her journalistic background to peel back the layers of the many lives that intersect in this absorbing story.

If you are a dog lover with no understanding of puppy mills, you'll like the story and the factual information woven in about one of the more detestable elements of how dogs are sold is valuable information.

If you are researching the ugly business of puppy mills and need current statistical information and up-dated resources, this book will be an excellent source for you.

Bradley begins by: imagining the birth of a litter of Cavalier King Charles ' puppies born into puppy mill squalor. She describes the large-scale, shoddily run commercial kennel where the newly born puppies share the crate with their mother.

Too dark to see, the odor of dog feces and the vinegary smell of dog urine; this is the world that this puppy is born into. Her markings are so striking that the "breeder" decides to keep her so that she can churn out even more puppies.

It's a fact that this puppy will spend the next 5-10 years in a cage before she's finally put to death. "The last thing many worn out, vacant-eyed puppy mill dogs experience is a bullet to the head." (pg 5)

As the story continues, Bradley describes how a tip to the Chester County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) opens the door to what will be an investigation into one of our nation's most despicable industries: the commercialized buying and selling of puppies.

The caller describes a kennel that needs to be o magazine. She explained that the breeder had shown her a puppy covered in dried feces and stale urine, and that the breeder didn't seem upset by the puppy's appearance. Horrified, the woman refused to buy the puppy, left quickly and made that phone call.

Investigators will find a total of 337 dogs, 3 cats and two parrots as they go into this kennel to remove animals. The seizure of animals was described as the dismantling of one of the largest puppy mills ever discovered in this country.

Gracie is dog number 132 and the first time we see her is on page 42. She's being held in the arms of one of the investigators as she is photographed. This photo will be entered as evidence against the breeder. She is six years old and she has lived every day of her life in a cage.

Bradley follows behind Gracie every step of the way as she is moved into the shelter system, held there while the legal battle plays out, and then finally placed into the home.

There are plenty of statistics, the wide-ranging cast of human characters to tell their individual stories, and, there are the dogs themselves.

They are in varying stages of physical distress and are emotionally distant-especially the older dogs. Especially dog number 132, who the shelter staff has named Wilma, the dog that Bradley will adopt and rename Gracie.

Two months after being removed from the puppy mill, this dog "... still Sheriff smudged soiled spotted her kennel and stepped in her own feces. Emotionally, she remained maddeningly out of reach ...She was so tiny, so devoid of personality. " (p. 67).

The story of how dog number 132 finds a loving home and learns to trust-the best she can-the human family she will live with for the rest of her life-is woven into the cool, adeptly social and economic issues surrounding puppy mills.

Despite the sorrow and ugliness of this story, Bradley shows us how both humans and dogs really can transcend traumatic experiences. Gracie, scarred by six years of cruelty, does find peace and a measure of happiness with a woman who will love her unconditionally for as long as Gracie lives.

Finally, Bradley shows us that the tentacles of puppy mills snake into every state in this country; that until we completely wipe out this seamy industry, it does affect us all. For those of you who think you know all about this subject and think that puppy mills don't touch you as an individual, you need to read this book more than the rest of us.

Kathy H Porter blogs about rescue dogs and how they transform our lives. Visit: http://www.healingrescuedogs.com/to claim your free report of tips on how to change your behavior by what your dog can teach you.