DOG EARED with Lisa Davis EP #11: BOOK: "Pawverbs for a Dog Lover’s Heart: Inspiring Stories of Friendship, Fun, and Faithfulness." AUTHOR: Jennifer Marshall Bleakley

Lisa is joined by Jennifer Marshall Bleakley who talks about her book, Pawverbs for a Dog Lover’s Heart: Inspiring Stories of Friendship, Fun, and Faithfulness.  Pawverbs for a Dog Lover’s Heart brings together stories with beautiful photographs, each covering a real-life animal and sharing a principle from the book of Proverbs.

Lisa and Jennifer talk a handful of stories that include a pitmix named Happy who is the best friend to a three year old girl with temporary hearing loss, a German Shepherd named Donnie and a little girl who faces her fear of dogs,  a terrier mix named Cesar who was not at all what the family had in mind but who turned out to be the perfect fit, a black lab named Samson who helped a grieving family, a flat coated retriever named Raven who faced her fear of swimming with a little help from a friend, and many more!

At the end of each story you get Paws and Ponder which has questions for you to think about after you read the story as well as  Paws and Pray which has some prayers. It is a beautiful interview and a wonderful book!

Transcript

SUMMARY KEYWORDS 

dog , story , book , pet ,  fear , love , dolphin , hedgehog , pause , ponder , beautiful , grieve , animal , dogs,, grandmother 

Lisa 

0:09
Does your dog I'm gonna have our guest Jennifer Marshall Lakely. Today we're talking about her book proverbs for a dog lovers heart inspiring stories of friendship fun and faithfulness. There anything Gracie does that you'd love to know about other people's dogs do.

Jennifer 
0:25
Yeah, Gracie. So we have the bells on the back door so she can like ring the little bell to go potty. She will ring the bell now for us to give her treats. And so she's she's associated like she goes potty. She gets a treat. So now she just rings the bell and she'll just stand there like treat place. So I feel like we're at a hotel like someone's ringing the bell like, come bring me my treat.

Lisa 
0:50
Oh my gosh, I love that. All right, though. Yeah, so that is really cool. All right, so Jennifer is here today to talk about her fantastic book. Proverbs for a dog lovers heart inspiring stories of friendship, fun and faithfulness. Jennifer Marshall Blakely is the author of several animal themed books, including Joey how a blind horse helped others to see I might have to make dog eared one time about horses because that sounds amazing. And proverbs inspiring stories for the animal lovers heart, she firmly believes that animals have much to teach us about ourselves, each other and about God. But in order to learn from that, we first must pause, pay AWS, and pay attention. I love this. She also loves a really good fun, so do i Oh, Jennifer, welcome.

Jennifer: 
Thank you. Thanks so much for having me.

Lisa 
1:35
It's so great to have you on and when did your love of dogs begin?

Jennifer 
1:40
Okay, so ironically, as a very young child, I was petrified of dogs, which is why I really, you know, I feel like God does have a sense of humor, utterly terrified. I even remember a nightmare as a very young child where dogs were standing around my bed, my Holly Hobbie sheets, and they were so mean and scary looking and growling, and I just left such an impression. I was terrified of them. But my cousins had a German shepherd named Donnie. And Donnie is actually the first story and Pavlov's dog lovers. And I loved my cousins. They love Donnie and I just got to the point I wanted to play with them. I was tired of living in fear. And so my little five year old self had one minute of bravery and went to face my fear, which was the sweetest German Shepherd on the face of the world. But to me look like the scary monster. And Donnie, you know, I think sensing how scared I was became so calm, and so quiet and just lay down and I got to pet Donnie. And so Donnie started my love affair with dogs, I realized that they were not the scary beast of my nightmares. And they, they were just friends waiting for me to meet them. So it's probably around like age five, six, I started to really liked dogs. My mom was allergic so we could never have one in the house. But I, I loved them. And as soon as we got, I got married, and we had our own house, a dog was like my first priority.

Lisa 
3:12
Oh, yeah, exactly. And my mom was afraid of dogs. And I've mentioned this on the show before, so I won't go on and on. But it breaks my heart. So my mom was chronically ill, when I was growing up, and she died young in her 50s. And she does such joy and solace and comfort in a dog. You know, in all those hours laying in bed and feeling miserable. I thought she had had a dog by her side. What a difference. So I am so glad that you faced your fear. I'm so proud of five year old you. Because what a difference it's made right. And I write books about him. I mean, yeah,

Jennifer 
3:47
absolutely.

Lisa 
3:49
Yeah, I really wish that she had had that revelation. But yeah, at any rate, I just I'm so glad that you did. So in this book, you have 50 short stories in the book. And at the end of each one, and you have pause and ponder, which is great, because you have this again, P AWS where you ask some questions, like Oh, could this you know, what did this bring up for you? Or how did them be in this way affect this? And then you also have pause and pray. Tell us about a little bit about each of these and what made you want to put them in the book?

Jennifer 
4:18
Yeah, so for me, I love I love like Chicken Soup for the Soul Chicken Soup for the pet lovers. So I also love devotionals and so it just seems like a really after writing Joey and, you know, my background is in mental health counseling. I was a grief counselor. And so I was not thinking I was gonna become a writer but after meeting a blind horse and just it was my own moment of pausing and paying attention and I was so captivated by his story. And just set about and that's a whole nother story for another time but just like wanting to share that and how to do that. And then just learning so many lessons from this Horse in from listening to other people who had learned lessons from the horse. And so when that book was was all done and just kind of talking to my publisher about what might be next, and I had mentioned the word Proverbs, because that was what I called a bunch of stories I would make up for my kids when they were little. And so we kind of birthed this idea to gather about just Well, let's look at that more, let's look more at what we can learn from animals. And so the first proverbs book was just all different kinds of animals. There's even like a story about a gecko in that book and adulthood. But then for dog lovers, it was really just about their dogs and then wanting to create something. So if someone just wanted to read a really inspiring animal story, they could just read the story. And if they wanted to go a little bit deeper and kind of dig and pay a little more attention than the pause and ponder and if they wanted to, you know, bring a truly a spiritual aspect into it and, and put it a little bit more in their heart than to offer them the ability to just say a prayer about something they had learned. So kind of like how you want to engage with a book. And if you want to do it daily, or read a bunch at once, just to give a lot of options.

Lisa 
6:10
My thing is beautiful, and it's really nice to you that the stories are really short, but yet they're so full. And of course, no one's going to be surprised at the one that struck me the most happened to have a pitbull, but listen, this one did. Anyway, this one made me cry. So this is happy girl, story 14 And Olivia was a three year old she had temporary hearing loss was hard for her to make friends. They got happy the pit next and they're doing tea parties. And she's you know, he she pushes him a certain way he'll lay down, he'll sit up, she's doing full exams with the Dr. Fisher Fisher Price, Dr. Kit. It was so beautiful. And the thing is, and I know I'm gonna get off my soapbox in a minute, people don't understand that pits. They score as high or higher as labs and Goldens on temperament test. My pity is pure sunshine and love. And that's why I thought this was so beautiful.

Jennifer 
7:02
It was and that was actually one of the editors that Tyndale at the publisher. That was her daughter's story of her that was her dog happy. And Olivia so getting to talk to that mom and the picture of happy that's in the book. So many of the photos had to be stopped photography just because of the requirements for high definition and not everyone I interviewed had a high resolution photo of their animal but that is the real happy in that picture. So yes, that's a sweet sweet dog. Yeah,

Lisa 
7:33
yeah, I loved I also loved you right? often judged solely on his size and the reputation or the breed he most resembled happy continually surprised people who took the time. And I really love this pause and ponder in what ways is understanding produce patience? That is huge. Yeah,

Jennifer 
7:53
very much so just to try to understand where someone else is coming from. And it's it's interesting in grief counseling by you know, other world eons ago, the fundamental rule that we the grief counselors kind of operated by is in times of grief, you have an increased need to be understood, and a decreased ability to be understanding. And you know, that really highlighted I think, in the story that so often we're all grieving we're all dealing with our own things, it's our capacity to be understanding is often quite limited. But then when we do take that time, and we're able to see from another's point of view, it really can produce patience with each other.

Lisa 
8:33
Well, I'm hoping attitudes are changing around pets. I know that social media I mentioned this to has been a big help with all the pities in pajamas and little ribbons, and they're so cute. But yesterday I was walking blue, and I was walking crossing through a parking lot and I hear this excuse me, excuse me, and I look around there's this cute little girl she's in the car with her dad. She looks about five and she's like can I come out and pet your dog and that made me so happy because blue is a blue nose pit he looks like a pit Yeah, and and I said rub him here. He loves that and he's licking her and the dad smiling I thought oh my gosh, that made me so happy like I could see if I was walking my love Benji that happening? But with blue. It just oh just filled my soul with such joy.
Yes, very much. So

Lisa 
9:17
she was now I love all these stories. And you mentioned Jen and Donnie, I love in the pause and ponder Are you struggling with the fear today? Because so many of us are what Mike I know you talked about wanting to play and wanting to be included but I want to ask you did something negative happen with the dog that put that fear in your head? Or was it just something about the way they looked or what was it you

Jennifer 
9:45
know? Honestly, I've thought about that and I was so young The only thing I remember for sure is that nightmare of having like literally laying in my bed and like in the dream that just dogs were surrounding me but to my I've even asked my parents like to my knowledge, no it I never had a negative encounter my dad did when he was a little boy he was bitten on his face by by a dog he had fallen on it and it was you know, not the dog's fault but he had to have stitches and rabies shots and so maybe like little me heard that as a little girl and then had that nightmare impression.

Lisa 
10:26
Now in story four Did you hear something? You we meet a gentle five year old rescue Beagle mix named delta and a year old energetic why Marana named wily, and I just love this story. The couples watching TV and the website can hear something outside and I was like, no, no, there's nothing and then she you know, her dogs are sitting on, like, get the stuff at the door and they're like, wait more than dogs in the yard. So tell us a little bit about this story.

Jennifer 
10:52
So yeah, that was actually my good friend Mark and Heather. Their dogs and Wiley was just he was energy and for loved that dog. But he was an escape artist. And he was just convinced that the world was meant to be explored and no fence could contain him. And Delta was was surely just this week. Like why Seoul It seems she would always just kind of lead wildly back home. But yeah, they would incessantly get out of the fence no matter what they tried to do and that they always came back home. And so just delta would scratch on the door. And that was before the days of security cameras. We've always wondered like, what were they doing? I feel like why we like delta let him have a little bit of an adventure before bringing him back home.

Lisa 
11:39
What are those dogs up to? Right in the paws? And yeah, in the pause and ponder what makes a good friend. Why is it important to choose carefully? And how can you be a good friend to someone today? Yeah, it's so nice to have those things to think about. You know, it's not only do we get a great story, but we get to really look inside ourselves and go huh, yeah, just make a great friend. What's my friend keep leading me astray?
12:04
Right? Exactly.


Lisa 
12:06
Why am I getting problems I keep fighting. How do I resist falling my friend under the fence right now story eight Little Caesar I love this because we have these preconceived notions right about what we want. And you write in the book quote, Emily knew exactly the kind of dog her family needed a medium to large breed with a temperament calm enough to be a good companion for their aging dog Sadie, but energetic enough to make a good playmate for her two young boys. Cesar was the opposite of what she wanted. But guess who she took home tell us a little bit about

Jennifer 
12:45
Cesar. So I think she she said it best. He was wild. And she was Emily said like she was hard to set like I knew exactly what I want and Cesar was the complete opposite. And so to her credit, you know when they bring this ball of energy and wildness of after they looked at several other medium and large dogs and just none of them was going to be a fit for different reasons. And so, to her credit, she said okay, you know, we'll spend time with with Caesar when her said asked to and Caesar did not make a great first impression. I think she said he even lifted his leg on her son's pants. You know, the fact that she was even willing to take Caesar home at a child basis. But they love that dog so much. And it Caesar was exactly what their family needed, especially since they lost their older dog just a few months after having Caesar and Caesar calmed down a little bit and knew exactly what each person in the family needed from him. And she credit Caesar was seeing them through that heartbreaking loss of their older dog Sadie.

Lisa 
13:53
And he's just this cute little terrier mix, I
think right? Yes. Yeah.

Jennifer 
13:59
Yeah. I think she was like terrier terror, you know?

Lisa 
14:02
Something without trust me. pause and ponder. Have you ever been convinced of something only to discover? God has something totally different in mind for you? Oh my gosh, how many times Right,

Jennifer 
14:13
right. Yes, yeah. Yeah, I was utterly convinced that like I was going to marry someone that could sing. I just I love music. I love singing and I was like, Oh, God surely gonna bring me some will just sit around and sing because that's what couples do. My husband cannot carry a tune in a bucket. I love him so much, but he's utterly toned up. Doesn't always work out the way we're thinking.

Lisa 
14:37
Yes, that is for sure. All right now story 13 Permission degree. Oh, this was so beautiful. Jennifer, tell us about Judy and tell us about her lab Samsung.

Jennifer 
14:48
Okay, so in full disclosure, this was my Aunt Judy and my grandmother grace the um, so this story was very, very personal to my heart. And I witnessed this and say Samson was just the definition of loyalty of beautiful black lab. He was in love with our golden at the time Sunny. And so he was there just every every day actually wrote two stories about Samson What about how he was there for my grandmother and aunt when my granddad died. And then in this story, he was just my grandmother Grace's devoted companion. And he did he laid beside her every single day. And as she slowly was wasting away, and so as when she died, you know, Samson was was right there with with my Aunt Judy. And all the family came in, and we're all saying goodbye and grieving. And it was just a really, Judy was trying now she's kind of the matriarch of the family. She's trying to hold it all together, get all the things done. Shanell her grandma, you know, her mom, and what would she have me do? And this very perceptive hospice nurse notice that Sampson was pacing, they were about to take my grandmother's body out. And she said, Why don't you let Samsung go in and say goodbye. He he needs a chance to grieve as well. And so I was there I watched in the hall when Samsung went in and smelled her and tried to nudge her hands and there was no reaction and he laid his head on, on her arm. And then he just laid down and with a big sigh. And it was like he he knew. And so then they took my grandmother away. And he finally just laid down and, and rested. And it was such a beautiful picture for all of us. Like we're all trying to be busy. And what do you do now? And sometimes you do just need to be still and just give yourself a moment to just grieve to feel to be present with it with each other. So it truly was a gift and permission to grieve.

Lisa 
16:50
I know you brought tears to my eyes. It's beautiful. No, it's no don't be it's yeah, it's so beautiful. I'm just picturing him nudging her hand and then just putting his head down and

Jennifer 
17:03
yeah, yeah, it was it was truly like a sacred moment. Just be in there to see all of that. 

Lisa 
17:10
and I love what you write the nurses words brought healing to Judy's heart. What are some healing words that someone has said to you? Who needs your wise words of healing today? So beautiful. So it's like, what do you need and how can you give to others?

Jennifer 
17:24
Right, right. Absolutely.

Lisa 
17:28
Now in story 17 Convincing Raven, I this one, I laugh because I have a lab, Benji, okay. He does not like to swim, and just ask his Aquatic Therapist. So he has really bad arthritis. Now he's nine, and we started a few weeks ago. And there's a big dog and it's hard to get him in the pool. But we get him in and he flops around and then he does fine. So this whole idea that labs just naturally swim now dogs are more inclined, right? Certain breeds to do things, but he was never we got him at 19 months. He was never exposed to water. Okay, yeah. Right. Yeah. Well, the funny thing and I will get to the story is if I throw a stick in this pond, we have near us my pit bull and he's heavy throwing he'll swim. He struggles to keep his head up and gets it and then he just sits on the shore, waits for blue and tries to take it from him when he gets up there anyway. So Raven, quote, Raven had no idea she could swim. The black flat coated retriever had no idea she had come from a long line of swimmers and champion duck divers and her pet parent. And I love this you write quote and knew firsthand how much fear could cost someone how many places had her intense fear of flying kept her from visiting. And she really felt like she wanted for her dog to not have that fear not to miss out. Right. So tell us about what happened.

Jennifer 
18:48
Yeah, so have a neighbor shared this story with me. And so yes, they took Raven to the lake and you know, a lot of pet parents probably would have been like, Oh, it's fine. My dog doesn't want to swim. But I think and knowing like you said just what fear can cost and what her dog was missing out on and just sensing that her dog was gonna love the water. They just kept giving opportunities but lo and behold, it was another dog that modeled for Raven so Raven was so caught up playing with this new friend at the lake that she almost didn't even realize that she was in the water until it was kind of too late. And then that moment of like, oh my goodness, but thankfully, I think just seeing another canine friend having so much fun and helped Raven dogs can get out of their own head and auto the psychology of a dog but it's almost like Raven needed to get out of her own head and just have fun with a friend. But yeah, the my neighbor described ravens swim was so funny her legs would go out straight and she would like doggy paddle with like straight like March or something just this terrified like I'm doing Yeah.

Lisa 
20:02
Gosh, that is so funny. I'd love to pause and ponder because you asked us to write something down. I love that you write what fear has you shaking on the shore? What is it you're afraid will happen if you step into the water, take a moment to write down your fear. Next to that fear, write down everything you know to be true of God, God is bigger than any fear you will ever have. Now, I feel like even if you're not a religious person, I feel like this book is for everyone. I just want to put it out there.

Jennifer 
20:30
Oh, thank you for saying that. Thank you. I completely agree, which is why, you know, I tried to write it so that you could engage however you wanted to with it. But fear is universal to all of us. Like regardless of where, you know, we all know what it what it means to be afraid of something. We all know what fear can cause how it feels, hopefully to face that fear and that victory you feel on the other side. And I love that dogs can so often point the way for us that unconditional love that trust that companionship, all of that that we see in them that they model so beautifully. Yeah,

Lisa 
21:09
they really do.

DR. JUDY MORGAN SPOT 
21:10
Does your family include a dog or a cat? Would you like to be better educated on how to advocate for their health naturally, then why not check out all of the amazing resources on naturally healthy pets.com Dr. Judy Morgan is a trusted advisor and a regular guest here on the dog eared podcast. She has over 38 years experience as an integrative veterinarian, acupuncturist chiropractor, food therapist, author, speaker, podcast host and owner of Dr. Judy Morgan's, naturally healthy pets. Dr. Judy's goal is to change the lives of pets by educating and empowering pet parents just like you in the use of natural healing therapies, and minimizing the use of chemicals, vaccinations, and poor quality processed foods. Head on over to naturally healthy pets.com where you'll discover healthy product recommendations, comprehensive courses, the naturally healthy pets podcast, informative blogs, upcoming events and so much more. Again, that's naturally healthy pets.com The place to learn how to give your pet the vibrant life that they deserve.

Lisa 
22:35
Now story 21 Sonny's hedgehog when you bring a baby into the mix, that can be a lot on the dog and you write in that story. It's written so well because, you know, there's a lot of change and your dog's not gonna get the same amount of attention. And you do the best you can but it's really rough in the beginning. So tell us about this story.

Jennifer 
22:56
Okay, so that gave that was my story of Sonny was our Yes. Your first baby the one that as soon as I got married, I was like, okay, dog. We We rescued she was kind of mixed like Irish setter golden retriever. But she was our baby and I was desperate. I wanted I was ready to start trying to have kids the moment I said I do my husband was a lot slower to that decision. So Sunday was my baby and we would go for walks. I will tell this story on myself. It's so ridiculous. But we were there was a bunch of birds. I was really wanting a baby and I was like Sunday look bird can you bark that tells you where my heart and emotion I was trying to get my dog to bark bird. So she was our baby. I would put her to bed at night I would stay home from work when she was sick like she ruled the roost and and then we finally brought our our son home and she really did struggle in that I just I recognized her life was different and my attention was different and things that had always been weren't. But lo and behold she starts bringing this hedgehog with her everywhere she had had the hedgehog it was her head G but she never really paid too much attention and it was the funniest thing to start to notice that like I would feed Andrew and she would have her hedgehog it she was spayed like how she knew to put it where she put it was just mind boggling. But like her hedgehog would be at her belly. Her hedgehog would be in her mouth her hedgehog she dropped it in the bathtub so many times that Hedgehog was waterlogged because every time we gave the baby a bath, and it was almost like, Okay, fine. I'll just join you and we'll share this we'll take care of our babies together. That became like harp our thing. When I would nurse on the bed, she would jump up on the bed. I mean it was so so she kind of figured out how to make it work and then As Darryl and I started sleeping again and you know, like, have made our way through this haze of parenthood, and got back in the routine of walking, and then her life kind of came back to where it was, she was always the Queen, we always called her Queen Sonny and my son adored her at us. So it was it turned into this sweetest little friendship, but it took a season of adjustment.

Lisa 
25:23
Now, how long was Sonny a part of your son's life? Like, enjoy her time when

Jennifer 
25:28
he was six? So yeah, she, she lived to be 11. And so it was, it was very possible and really hard. It was yeah, it was I ended up writing. I've written proverbs for kids, which comes out in the fall. And I wrote about that story from my son's perspective, because it's important for kids to have a picture of what that looks like to grieve and and we wrote about that story.

Lisa 
25:56
You're being a grief counselor in the past, if you wouldn't mind sharing a little bit about how it was talking with your son about Sonny's passing.

Jennifer 
26:05
Yeah, it's it's so hard I, you know, kind of letting the child lead a little bit like with Andrew, I was convinced that he needed to talk about it right away. And we needed to do all the feelings and all the things and he just wanted to play with his Legos. And so giving space for him to just like, absorb what he heard and then have something normal and play. We planted a tree in Sonny's memory, so that he had somewhere to go if he wanted somewhere to go and talk to her remember her. You know, I just occurred to me a couple of months ago, I'm like, if I could have done it again, I might have put something of Sonny's in the hole where the tree was just kind of that it was growing like from her, you know. And then just allow, like continuing to talk about or we made a photo book, like a Shutterfly book and ask him what pictures he'd like to have in it. We have it on display. So at any point, anybody can go back and look through it. And so you know, trying to have conversations, but also respect that sometimes he just wants to be a normal kid and not have all the fees, right. And then my daughter, we lost our second, we love golden. So we've had three, we lost our second golden mean, when my kids were older, my daughter was older. So she wanted to talk about Bailey all the time, she drew pictures about Bailey, we like talked about Bailey, and Andrew didn't he didn't want to talk about it as much. And so trying to let your child lead the, you know, the process, which is sometimes hard, because then you're grieving too. So, you know, that goes back to that understanding thing, and sometimes having grace for yourself. And so sometimes it's asking someone else to talk to your child or you know, inviting them to talk to another. I'm a big proponent. I think there should be like grief groups for pet lovers and pet parents. And, you know, it's sometimes I know that sounds horrible. You'll understand that I'm sure your audience will understand. Sometimes I feel like we grieve more intensely for an animal even than a person because sometimes our relationships with people are so complicated. Exactly. Oh, you're so right. Yeah, but the grief with an animal it's that love is so pure, and so it can hit harder. Oh, no. Dogs don't understand or not. You know, people don't understand they don't get

Lisa 
28:35
it. Oh, oh, just get another one. Oh my gosh. Yeah. No, Your son was sick. So was this his first exposure to death? Because that can be really hard to it? Well,

Jennifer 
28:45
yes. And no, my my grandmother so the story from permission, agreed. She died a month before Sunday. Oh, so he was I wasn't sure if that was before. Oh, yeah. So we got hit like, you know, back to back. So yeah, it was a very, it was a very hard season. So but it you know, it was almost it gave him a frame of reference. So we were able to grieve both together talk about both together. And for him, it was very comforting to think of Sonny and grandmother together. Yeah. You know, so it was helpful.

Lisa 
29:20
Oh, that's beautiful. Yeah. Now story 24. I love this one too. A Tale of Two dogs you write about solely now he was a service dog too late President George HW Bush. And you tell us about a dog named Samson. And this isn't one we've talked about. Right. Judy? Tell us a little bit more about Attila two dogs.

Jennifer 
29:39
Yeah, the the I guess the story was solely was obviously happened while I was writing this book, and I was so moved by that that image of Sully laying in front of the coffin. I don't know if you remember that the flag. So moving. And so as I was right, I knew I wanted to include that and I just loved the contrast between the dog who like everyone seemed to know his name. that week, and then talking with my aunt, and just Samson and how much he was just as important to Judy, but nobody would ever know his name. And, you know, just thinking about how that is in life that there's those that are so well known, and they do such good and rightfully so. And then there's those that will nobody will ever know who they are except the person that they touched. And it doesn't make it any less important to the, to the one whose life was touched. Even though the world might not know their names. I just, I liked exploring that concept with that story.

Lisa 
30:35
I think that's a great thing to explore. They might not be household names, but to us, they're superstars like, My dogs are more superstars in celebrities.Give me more dogs. True. Yes,

Jennifer 
30:50
so true.

Lisa 
30:51
Now in the pause and ponder of this, you have wire love and faithfulness, so important in this world? Who would you consider a loyal and faithful person in your life? What do you want people to think about you when they hear your name? Those are really beautiful. Again, I love this. I love to sit and think about these things. Now, I love this. I love all the stories. So I'm gonna say I love this story. I love the story. So story 26 Understanding Lola, this happened to me recently, where blue is standing in the kitchen, okay, and he's he just cries. He has a really cute cry. Like, I'm firsthand like eight. He's got water. I tried to let him out everything. And he's just standing there and die. I looked down and under. There's like a ball stuck under that you can't see unless you go down. And that's the exact same thing that happened with us, right? Yeah. What are you doing? Well, you're driving me crazy.

Jennifer 
31:44
Yeah, poor Bruce. I mean, he's just like, I just wanted to lay on this TV. Um, so if I watch TV, the family's gone, the house is quiet and the dog is losing her mind. And so again, it's that under that concept of like, understanding, you know, so many people would have just gotten so annoyed or gone another room or put the dog outside and so to his credit, he got on his belly and you know, okay, let's Oh, there's

Lisa 
32:11
it's really important and some of what you ask in the pause and ponder or ask us to ask is Why is it important to listen to pay attention to those around you? Because he could have just thought well, whatever the dogs just whining or barking but what's the big deal? But yeah, you know, this this story I haven't shared yet. Which shocks my husband. He's like, I can't wait to share this story yet. So our first the first dog I ever had was Bailey. He was a pit mix. He looked like the dog from Something About Mary mixed with a pit so he was like a was a Border Terrier pit mix. So insanely cute. Oh, and somehow Bailey got outside. Okay, I don't even remember how and I'm looking for him. And I keep hearing this is dark. And we don't have great street lights on our street. And I keep hearing this whistle sound and it sounds very spooky. Oh, wow. So I go when I'm like hunting, I don't know where he is. You got to look for him. But this there's a sound and it's freaking me out. My husband goes and looks. Turns out Bailey's across the street. Our neighbor has this like little brick wall. And he jumped over it and his lease got caught. So he was doing this weird sound. That sounded like some kind of spooky ghost.

Jennifer 
33:21
Yeah. Oh my god.

Lisa 
33:25
So, you know, I mean can like, like, well, I just went to the sound hunt. But I'm like, but it sounds oops. I don't believe in those things. But like, it sounds so scary. Anyway, so literally stuck. Yeah, I thought that was crazy.

Jennifer 
33:38
Wow. Right. How happy he must have ended. See you.

Lisa 
33:43
Yes. You know, another story that really moved me so deeply was story 27. What a friend. This I think is so poignant because we can when something bad happens, it's so easy to just recoil and be like, I'm never doing that again. And there's this dog Tesla. It's a two year old golden retriever. And he's doing this volunteer work in a nursing home or a home for people with Alzheimer's. A woman but one second is like, Oh, you're such a good dog. And she's smiling and giggling and petting him and then out of the blue. Without any warning you like, quote, The woman smacked Tesla on the nose and started screaming. You're being so mean to me. You're a bad dog. I just broke my heart. Yeah. And it broke my heart for the woman of course, because she doesn't know what. Right. Right. And the thing is that I loved is that Tesla went right back to work and really made a big impact on another patient in a positive way. Tell us about that.

Jennifer 
34:42
Yeah. No, it was such a beautiful story. Sandy is such a kind hearted woman and she did therapy work with with Tesla. And she said like she had a hard time continuing because she just wanted to take her dog and run is all of us who love our dogs. You know if that had happened and I But Tesla was just determined to keep to keep going. And so you know, that one lesson of just shaking it off and not letting it a bad experience cost you from from still, you know, shining light and positivity and love and but then several days later when she interacted with, you know, another resident at that facility who was just very far along in the, in the Alzheimer's disease, and Tesla was able to break through in a beautiful way for this woman as she was just sitting at her feet. And, and gave her a kind of a moment of a little bit of clarity that resulted in the whole place singing and old him and it just meant made such an impact on sandy and just that power of forgiveness. And, you know, I think I am very good at putting the wall up, like I get hurt, you know, arms distance while up and just such a good reminder from the sweet, beautiful dog that, you know, we can still show kindness, even after being hurt. So,

Lisa 
36:09
yeah, it's really huge. I absolutely love it. I love to pause and ponder on this to what blessings might have been missed had Tesla allowed one negative experience to affect her treatment of the nursing care residents. Have you ever allowed one bad experience to keep you from possible blessings? So again, you give us these great things to think about now. I've shared 10 stories, people have to get the book because there's 50. Is there one that you want to share that I didn't touch on?

Jennifer 
36:35
Oh, no. When you sent me the list, I'm like, Oh, those are all I love. Those are my favorites. I'm trying to think I there was one story actually, that we didn't get to include in this book. That was in the original proverbs that I wished we had. And it is about a friendship between a dog and a dolphin. And it's in the original book is called The salty kids of friendship. And it's the story of a dog gunner, a golden mix who his his his human mom. Marie is the dolphin trainer at the dolphin Research Center and marathon in the Florida Keys. And so everyone, when gunner was little, she would just bring him to work with her. And he befriended a dolphin named delta. And delta would, Marie would throw toys, delta would bring the toys and ended up bringing the toy back to gunner, who would take it from her, and then take it to Murray. So like the three of them are playing catch together. And it's the Delta, the dolphin would would seek out gunner. Like there's done a bunch of dolphins there. But Delta just was enamored with Gunner. And so gunner is 10 years old now moves a lot slower than he used to. But he still knows the path, he still when Murray brings them to work, he's still like follows the path and goes right and lays on his belly on the platform. And delta will come up and give them a nose, I got to meet the two of them. I've never been more excited to meet. It was like meeting a celebrity when I got and see delta and gunner interact and get pictures and it was so sweet. But such a beautiful picture to me of a friendship across all kinds of boundaries that they could not be more different. And yet they're such good friends. And it was just such a beautiful picture. You know, especially just given the state of the world and all the things that like Good gracious if a dog and a dolphin can find a way to connect and be friends like we we should be able to do. So. I am sad. You know in hindsight, I'm like, why did we put that story in this book, but it was just one of my favorite stories. Oh, I love

Lisa 
38:58
that. Well, Jennifer, you are wonderful. This has been so much fun. I love the stories. I love the book again, Proverbs for a dog lovers heart inspiring stories of friendship, fun and faithfulness. How do we learn more about you and all your other great books?

Jennifer 
39:12
Oh, you're so sweet. Um, yeah, website, Jennifer blakely.com and social media. I have actually a dog book coming out in October. It's about a therapy dog ministry. The title of the book is finding grace. And it'll be out in October and I wrote it for a guy Larry Randolph, who started the therapy dog ministry. So it's kind of his story of how that started. And now it's a world my worldwide ministry, which is just doing a lot of a lot of good, so Oh, you'll have to come back did Oh, thank you. I'm so excited to get to work on that with him. Oh,

Lisa 
39:51
that's wonderful. And I should point out to people, when you go to Jennifer Blakely, it's actually spelled b l e a Kle why, yeah, so as they talked about at the beginning like steak, right?

Jennifer 
40:07
And yet it is the word bleak. So it's so cute. Like I said Marshall was so much easier my maiden name.

Lisa 
40:12
Yeah. Well, Jennifer, this has been such a joy. Everybody go get this book is absolutely beautiful and the pictures are great. And it's really moving and gets you thinking, which I love. Also keep coming back to dog eared rate, review, subscribe. And while you're listening to dog eared, I have over 1000 episodes a half hour on the same platform. So you make yourself healthy at the same time and it's some great ideas of how to be the best you can so thanks for listening and keep coming back.