# 'Saving Gracie' book shows puppy love



## testmg80 (Jul 28, 2008)

'Saving Gracie' book shows puppy love
By JOHN LATIMER Lebanon Daily News
Updated: 04/10/2010 12:01:01 AM EDT

LEBANON, Pa.When Linda Jackson decided to adopt a dog rescued from a puppy mill four years ago, she was simply doing it to make her kids happy. 
What Jackson couldn't possibly have imagined is that the pitiful pooch would change her life and both would end up being the subject of a critically acclaimed book.

Jackson's relationship with her Cavalier King Charles spaniel, Gracie, drives the story told by author Carol Bradley in "Saving Gracie: How one dog escaped the shadowy world of American puppy mills."

Released in March, the book was recently hailed by People magazine, and best-selling author Dean Koontz praised it as "wonderfully stirring and empowering."

Bradley said she used Gracie's heartbreaking and ultimately heartwarming storyfrom the spaniel's torture-filled days as a breeding dog in a Chester County puppy mill, to her rescue by animal inspectors and subsequent adoption by Jackson"to weave a thread of hope" through an otherwise disturbing tale about the unscrupulous side of the dog-breeding industry.

How Jackson became part of the book is a story in itself. The divorced mother of three teenagers lives in Lebanon and currently works as director of gift planning for Luthercare, an assisted-living provider. As a former president of the Community of Lebanon Association, she is known to many in the local business community. She had never heard of Bradley when the author contacted her out of the blue.

An attractive blonde with an easygoing style, Jackson recalled the phone call while discussing the book in her living room recently. In her customary position, on the couch by Jackson's side, sat Gracie. Her swollen, sightless eye and raspy bark, from a barbaric technique called debarking, serve as permanent reminders of her earlier life. 
"I remember distinctly when (Bradley) called," said Jackson. "It was in the summer about 7 o'clock and I was getting dinner ready when the phone rang. The only people who ever call me on the land line are telemarketers. I wasn't going to get it. I answered the phone, and she said, 'Is this Linda Jackson?' I was so ready to hang up."

Bradley quickly explained the purpose of her call, and Jackson didn't hesitate to agree to be interviewed the following day. Many more interviews ensued over the next two years as Bradley painstakingly researched and wrote the book published by Wiley Publishing Co.

An award-winning reporter from Montana, Bradley had been inspired to write about puppy mills after covering the investigation of an area kennel. She had targeted Pennsylvania's Mike-Mar Kennel and its eccentric owner, Mike Wolf, as the focus of the book after it was raided in February 2006 by inspectors from the Chester County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Bradley reached out to Jackson after reading a letter to the editor Jackson had written to the Lebanon Daily News in June 2007. Her letter was in response to the death of 18 dogs in a suspicious fire at a Fredericksburg-area kennel just hours after it had been cited for violations by local animal and zoning officials. In the letter, Jackson called for the kennel owner "to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."

An investigation was conducted but the fire was ultimately ruled accidental.

The letter caught Bradley's attention because Jackson mentioned she was the owner of one of the "infamous Chester 300," a reference to the scores of abused dogs rescued from Mike-Mar Kennel.

The animals were confiscated from Wolfa former prize-winning dog handlerafter they were found living without fresh food and water in tiny, feces-filled cages stacked four high. The raid set off a legal battle and eventually was an important case in helping Pennsylvania to toughen its puppy mill laws, which Bradley's book details.

Among Wolf's dogs was one labeled number 132 for evidence purposes when the inspectors took it into custody. Riddled with ailments, including many rotting teeth that had to be removed, the purebred Cavalier had spent the first six years of its life as an imprisoned breeding machine, forced to deliver a brood of puppies every six months.

After being rescued, the dog was sheltered for several months at the Animal Rescue League of Berks County before Jackson adopted it. Despite its sorrowful condition, Jackson couldn't bear to turn her back on the dog.

"The kids were less than impressed," she said. "I had said to them, mostly to appease them, I said if you don't like the dog, I would take it back. But I thought to myself, how could I return this dog? She sat on my lap the whole ride home. She just connected; there was no way I could ever have gotten rid of her."

Bradley had been looking for someone like Jackson for her book. Not only was she an enthusiastic participant, but she had no prior experience raising a puppy-mill dog.

"I had found some dyed-in-the-wool dog lovers who had rescued dogs before and knew what it was like to have a puppy-mill dog in the house," Bradley said. "One of the agents I spoke to said the best kind of story would be one where the person that adopts the dog changes, so not just the dog gets transformed but the person changes, too."

Jackson fit the bill. Before adopting Gracie, she was more of a cat person than a dog lover. But because of the dog's ailments and distrust for people, Gracie and Jackson formed a rapid and remarkably intense bond. It's a relationship Bradley explores in her book as she describes how the dog's personality gradually blossomed.

In the process of working with Bradley, Jackson said she learned gruesome details about Gracie's past.

"When I went down to the (Berks) animal rescue league they were telling me all about her physical problems as a result of where she had been, so I knew it was pretty bad, but I didn't have the details until Carol came to visit," Jackson recalled. "I had no idea that these animal crates were stacked like they were, and that there were no floors in the crates. I didn't know anything like that when I got Gracie. I just knew that she was not treated very well, and that she was just forced to produce litter after litter."

Although Bradley kept Jackson informed about the progress she was making with her book, she didn't let her read it until it was printed earlier this year. Jackson admits to being nervous about how she would be portrayed.

"I really put a lot of trust in her, not knowing what was going to be said or how my family was going to be portrayed," said Jackson. "There were some points along the way where I thought, do I really want people reading about so much personal stuff about my life? But at that point it was too far along to go back. I trusted her."

Jackson was pleased with the final result.

"I really liked it," she said. "I thought (Bradley) did a wonderful job with the book. ... That kind of immortalizes Gracie, which is pretty cool."

Jackson's love for Graciewhom she calls her "canine soul mate"and Cavalier spaniels has continued to grow. She has purchased two other Cavaliers that make better playmates for her kidsRyan, Erika and Julia. She's also become an advocate for tougher puppy laws and has advice for anyone considering purchasing a dog from a kennel or pet shop.

"You really need to be careful when you are buying a dog from a pet store because you have no idea where it came from," she said.

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Information from: Lebanon Daily News, Home - Lebanon Daily News


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