Overview
Just retired, Skip, his wife Mary, and their three dogs, move into their newly constructed dream home in the mountains. Soon, they meet their neighbor, Claire, and learn that she's in the midst of intense divorce proceedings. She's unemployed and looking for work wherever she can find it.
Offering what was initially to be a brief pet-sitting favor, Skip quickly discovers her animals are suffering from neglect. Claire is gone for days—even weeks—at a time looking for employment, and reluctantly gives consent to Skip to provide them with food and water, as well as veterinary care. He's even going to the trouble of finding new homes for some of the luckier ones. Tensions between Claire and Skip mount, as she realizes that she can't provide adequate care for her pets, but doesn't want anyone else interfering with her life.
Through a nerve-wracking year of frustrations, Skip finds himself drawn into an unusually strong bond with Blackie—a quiet mixed breed of middle-age—to whom the other animals cling for emotional stability. In a dramatic confrontation, Claire agrees to allow Skip to care for Blackie indefinitely in his home. The pack awaiting Blackie is wary of this "intruder," but with Skip's coaxing and Blackie's patient demeanor, the newcomer is soon welcomed with open paws.
Blackie finally learns what it is like to be worry-free and happy. Games are invented, adventures are taken, and lessons are learned—not only by the furries, but by Skip and Mary as well. Blackie's odyssey reveals surprising respect, mutual devotion, and enduring love, as dogs and humans learn more about life and each other than any of them could have ever imagined.
When rescuer ultimately becomes the rescued, the story comes full circle, confirming the existence of magic and wonder in everyday life. Skip paints for the world a picture of true love between humans and dogs as they live in intimate partnership. Memorable characters in this emotionally rich story will stay with the reader long past the final page.
Offering what was initially to be a brief pet-sitting favor, Skip quickly discovers her animals are suffering from neglect. Claire is gone for days—even weeks—at a time looking for employment, and reluctantly gives consent to Skip to provide them with food and water, as well as veterinary care. He's even going to the trouble of finding new homes for some of the luckier ones. Tensions between Claire and Skip mount, as she realizes that she can't provide adequate care for her pets, but doesn't want anyone else interfering with her life.
Through a nerve-wracking year of frustrations, Skip finds himself drawn into an unusually strong bond with Blackie—a quiet mixed breed of middle-age—to whom the other animals cling for emotional stability. In a dramatic confrontation, Claire agrees to allow Skip to care for Blackie indefinitely in his home. The pack awaiting Blackie is wary of this "intruder," but with Skip's coaxing and Blackie's patient demeanor, the newcomer is soon welcomed with open paws.
Blackie finally learns what it is like to be worry-free and happy. Games are invented, adventures are taken, and lessons are learned—not only by the furries, but by Skip and Mary as well. Blackie's odyssey reveals surprising respect, mutual devotion, and enduring love, as dogs and humans learn more about life and each other than any of them could have ever imagined.
When rescuer ultimately becomes the rescued, the story comes full circle, confirming the existence of magic and wonder in everyday life. Skip paints for the world a picture of true love between humans and dogs as they live in intimate partnership. Memorable characters in this emotionally rich story will stay with the reader long past the final page.
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Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940148359166 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Brighton Publishing LLC |
| Publication date: | 02/09/2014 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 275 |
| File size: | 2 MB |
About the Author
William Schwenn is a North Carolina transplant from Wisconsin, following schooling in Georgia and Virginia. He and Mary Bledsoe met in a church pew the day before classes began in their opening year at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1967. While Mary—a member of the first class of women admitted there as freshmen—pursued something useful (a degree in chemistry), the author played with liberal arts, ultimately escaping with a JD degree from the UNC School of Law in 1973. Having had only six dates with each other in the interim six years, the pair reunited when the author took a short break from bar exam studies that summer. For them, as they say, “the rest was history.” What they could not have envisioned was a future full of dogs that opened their eyes to the incredible talent, character, and spirit of those furry beings.
Beginning their lives together in an apartment in Northern Virginia, they quickly bought a tiny house for the dual purpose of greater privacy and the ability to have a dog. Four years later, they moved to North Carolina, once again selecting a house with a fenced yard suitable for their beloved four-legged companion. Soon feeling cramped in the city, they purchased forty acres in a rural, adjoining county, both happily accepting long work commutes as the cost of living in idyllic beauty and seclusion. Naming their newly constructed home place “Meadowbrook”, they discovered a world of sharing lives in intimate partnership with a pack of dogs.
Retiring in 2005 after a thirty-year career in the Federal Judiciary, primarily as Clerk of a federal bankruptcy court, the author relocated to the mountains, where he and his lifetime mate now reside on twenty-five acres in the company of three dogs. Avid whitewater kayaking enthusiasts, they admittedly maintain a lifestyle that solidly revolves around mutually rewarding activities with their furry partners. With this background, it is hardly surprising that the author’s stories are told with abundant humor and keen insight into the minds and hearts of dogs, whose capacity for living fully “in the moment” is the unquestioned envy of humans.
Beginning their lives together in an apartment in Northern Virginia, they quickly bought a tiny house for the dual purpose of greater privacy and the ability to have a dog. Four years later, they moved to North Carolina, once again selecting a house with a fenced yard suitable for their beloved four-legged companion. Soon feeling cramped in the city, they purchased forty acres in a rural, adjoining county, both happily accepting long work commutes as the cost of living in idyllic beauty and seclusion. Naming their newly constructed home place “Meadowbrook”, they discovered a world of sharing lives in intimate partnership with a pack of dogs.
Retiring in 2005 after a thirty-year career in the Federal Judiciary, primarily as Clerk of a federal bankruptcy court, the author relocated to the mountains, where he and his lifetime mate now reside on twenty-five acres in the company of three dogs. Avid whitewater kayaking enthusiasts, they admittedly maintain a lifestyle that solidly revolves around mutually rewarding activities with their furry partners. With this background, it is hardly surprising that the author’s stories are told with abundant humor and keen insight into the minds and hearts of dogs, whose capacity for living fully “in the moment” is the unquestioned envy of humans.