Melissa McCue-McGrath, CPDT-KA is a Boston dog trainer with 15 years experience in sports, manners & behavior. She wrote Considerations for the City Dog and contributes to NPR's Car Talk FIDO blog and Maine Dog Magazine. She's the co-Training Director of NEDTC, the oldest AKC obedience club in the US.
A few weeks ago, I was reading Julie Hecht's twitter feed. (Pst: If you're not following Julie, stop reading this and find her! She had me at: "finds bliss in your dog's urine.")
She mentioned on Twitter that she had a little something to do with this new comic book that came out late last year. Turns out, she and Mia Cobb were consulted on the science of all things dog for this particular piece, illustrated by artist Andy Hirsch (Garfield comics, Adventure Time and Peanuts).
I knew if Julie was involved it was going to be great. But then I realized First Second, the publisher of my daughter's favorite books (Zita the Spacegirl, The Little Robot and Julia's House for Lost Creatures), published this, too.
I.
Had.
To.
Get.
This.
Book. Here's the thing. I didn't get this book for my 5-year-old. I got this book for me. Once opened it and saw images like this, I realized this wasn't for little kids anyway. She might like the art style, but this DNA stuff, genetics, Mendel's peas, natural selection, and let's face it - with dogs there was quite the element of unnatural selection (which is addressed BEAUTIFULLY, I would like to add!) would go way over her head.
Seriously, Mrs. Biology Teacher in 9th grade. This would have made my whole life
SO MUCH EASIER in 1996. MacMillan Publishing https://us.macmillan.com/sciencecomicsdogs/andyhirsch/9781626727687/
"This is not a book for small children," I thought. Too much science. It'll be hard. It won't be fun. Sure, the pictures are great and she loves comic books but this? No way. So, naturally, 35 seconds after opening the book she picked it up and had me read it to her every night for a solid week instead of Dr. Seuss, Ivy & Bean, or Elephant and Piggy. Her reading log for school proves it.
I got this book 2 weeks ago for me because, #dognerd.
Instead, my 5 y/o stole it and reads it every night. This is her reading log.
I think she is going to understand Mendel, Balyaev, and genetics better than I could because she is learning #Science as a second language. pic.twitter.com/8oezdvFN04
Even Captain got in on the reading action. (This is not posed. Acey put the book down by his bed because Captain needed to learn about where he came from.)
"So where is the 'Resting Hound Face' gene?"
Did she retain ANYTHING? I wasn't sure. She talked about how huskies eat snow when they are hot and don't stop running first, which she wanted to immediately try in real life. (Please don't eat the urban snow, Kiddo. It's five different shades of brown and has cigarette butts in it.)
Fast forward 2 weeks from finishing the book. I took her to the Boston Museum of Science which is her favorite place to explore. She was extra good so I took her to the butterfly exhibit (her favorite place within her favorite place...aside from the gift shop.)
This guy lands on the door. I took a picture because I thought, "Irony."
File under #CamoFail.
While I was lining up the shot of a giant, iridescent blue butterfly, literally larger than my hand landing next to a sign explaining how butterflies "blend in" for survival, Aislyn turns to me and instead of declaring, "Mommy? Look - a beautiful blue butterfly! Look how big he is..." and all the normal kid stuff I would have expected, she loudly informed the whole room:
Mom? His camouflage is broken. He'd just get eaten by a bird. Too bad. He's pretty, too.
So: Yes. She learned, processed and figured out in real life how natural selection works.
#ScienceWIN!
I'm not sure if the three women next to me, who were up until that moment enjoying the sereneness of the tropical butterfly gardens, appreciated this in the same way I did. They just stopped and stared at me like I had three heads.
Sorry Mrs. Jones. If she says anything about how animals eat each other, how some animals just can't live to pass on their genes, or anything to that effect....my bad. Don't stop her, though. Please. I had a science teacher call me out in an embarassing way in the 8th grade, and I don't want that to happen to her. She's right. This is what happens. She should understand it, own it, and appreciate it. Maybe she'll be the next big dog scientist, something that exists today (something I WISH I knew about when I was a little girl) and she'll go on to do awesome things.
If you have curious kids, the Science Comics books are funny, informative and beautifully illustrated for kids and adults alike. Get kids into science and comics in one easy step! Or, pick one up for yourself. You will learn something, too. You might even have something click from your 9th grade biology class that has been waiting to make sense for the last 25 years.
While this blog is not used as often as it was BK (Before Kid) and I usually reserve this space for dog related stuff, I felt that this is a memory worth saving. This seems like as good a place to put it as any. -M3
*********************
This week, there have been several calls, emails and Facebook messages all with the same general theme.
Black Earth Wisconsin's one stop shop for mailing packages and self-defense.
I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I knew there would be cheese. I knew there would be sheep herding. I suspected there would be lots of corn. But how would it go? Trisha and I hadn't talked a lot aside from a group meeting with our trainers and board at New England Dog Training Club the night before she gave a really moving, incredible presentation involving the effects of trauma on people, on dogs, and what it takes to move through the space of a traumatic event. Since there were so many people there, I thought this was it - I'm going to say hi, give her a little dental related gift for humor, laugh for a few minutes and that would be that. We'd grin and each go our merry way through life thinking about how this hilarious thing ended up with a nice clean finale.
After her talk, Trisha kindly offered for me to come out to visit Wisconsin. I thought she was being polite. It's just so American to say "Hey, yeah! We should do coffee sometime!" and just never get around to it. I'm totally guilty of this. I think to some degree, we all are.
Later that week, I sent an email thanking her for coming to talk to our little club and for being so honest about her own history - a history of traumas detailed honestly, brutally, poetically and powerfully in The Education of Will - a book I can't recommend more highly. She replied by suggesting she doesn't often invite near-strangers to come to the farm and that she meant it. I should come to Wisconsin.
I kissed a goat and I liked it.
Gleefully, I called my husband and booked my flight that day.
Maybe not even in that order.
The rest of the spring and summer was dedicated to getting through the end of our first year of preschool, helping urban dogs cope, and taking on my first pig client (!). Occasionally, people would ask when Wisconsin was coming up and I'd involuntarily bounce in place like a 5-year-old hopped up on pixie sticks. Sometimes I'd fret about how this could possibly go askew (like accidentally falling face first into sheep poo), but mostly just thought about how damn excited I was. As the summer waned and Google pushed flight announcements to my phone (you have 5 days before your trip to Wisconsin) excitement was partnered with nervousness.
My baby said goodbye with tears in her eyes as she flashed the "I Love You" sign language signal from the car seat. I disappeared into the train station and I could still hear her bawling as the Mini shrank in size. It dawned on me that this was the first time in 5 years I'd have a vacation without her.
There was the inevitable flight delay (because, Laguardia).
There was a near wardrobe malfunction in which I had to lace a woman back into her shirt (again - because, Laguardia).
We were told the delay was due to rain, but I grew suspicious as we taxied onto the runway.
Rain delay my ass.
With each passing hour of travel and flight delays, I started to get a bit worried. Would we have stuff to talk about? I mean, our entire relationship at this point was solidly rooted in the fact we were both involved in a rather funny story about kink-dungeon dental tools being shipped from one person to another by accident and emails that were 95% about food. While that can carry some distance, what happens if I get there and that's ALL we have to talk about?
That was decidedly not the case. Her patient, wonderful, amazing (did I mention patient?) husband listened to the two of us go on and on...and on and on and on... for nearly three days straight about sheep, dogs, the woods, politics, gin, food, more gin, more food, cheese, sports, food and all the things that two new friends cover in a short period of time. We cleaned out a barn, swallowed some sheep poo (well, one of us did on accident. There might have been a serious misjudgment on the physics of a bungee cord under a pile of sheep poo), and walked in a real live prairie.
There is also a thing called Custard Pancakes. I'll never be able to eat a traditional pancake again.
Seriously. Do it.
Perhaps the thing that struck me the most, aside from how big Billy Goat testicles are ...
These things are like church bells! Also, this might be a ram. #CityGirlFail.
...was how beautiful this landscape is. On more than one occasion it was all I could do to keep breathing. It's a stunning land. In my head, Wisconsin had to be flat. That's where the corn and the sheep live - in the flat lands. This was not the case. There is a wonderfully picturesque region called the Driftless Area. As it turns out, glaciers don't give a flying leap about state boundaries. During the last glacial period, the glaciers came through nearby regions and completely flattened them, including much of the midwest. However, the Driftless region remained unscathed. Instead of the boring flat fields I envisioned, there are beautiful rolling hills, interesting landscapes, rivers that carve into the deep valleys and slink around numerous mountains.
It looked like Ireland from the sky as the plane was landing in Madison.
There is a rumor that deer and buffalo used to play here.
This picture is a restored prairie that we were able to visit. Luckily there are many of these around the region. This entire week back in Boston, I keep thinking back to this landscape already with a bittersweet feeling.
I'm a fan of jobs but destroying this and places like this for older technology that is not necessary (demand is decreasing) is like saying we should mass produce typewriters again because it will create jobs.
Or, use coal.
And while we're at it, since my overbooked flight to Wisconsin proved we need more options for air travel, let's bring back the Hindenberg.
We should be picky about the jobs that are created, not just create folly towers for the sake of doing so. There are much better ways of creating jobs than tearing this beautiful place up and relying on outdated technologies. It really broke my heart to think this area could look very different upon my next visit.
In addition to the prairies, there were acres upon acres of sunflower fields, towns decorated with giant trolls and quirky people with hearts as big as belted Galloways.
I was given an angry beaver by a very polite lady at Duluth Trading Post.
Time stamp: 8:54am. Beer sightings.
#NotAllHerosWearCapes
There was also a lot of bright green and yellow sports paraphernalia, suggesting I made the right decision in leaving my beloved throwback Patriots hat on my dresser.
Sidenote, the Madison airport is the NICEST airport I've been in. Ever. Hands down. Flights were delayed and there were apologies and long descriptions as to why people were stuck.It was almost comical how much detail went into the one delay in the gate next to my departure, and the gate attended seemed genuinely upset for those who were put out.
It's ok, the bar was open. They figured it out.
*****
It was lovely to be invited into a home with three dogs, a sheep named Cupcake who I'll forever think of as my kind of girl, and I was given an amazing opportunity to "work sheep" (which for a n00b in farm parlance roughly translates to, "Stand here and don't get run over").
In all my years living in the city, I've lost touch with a lot of my roots living in rural America. Yet, for the most part, I'm still comfortable mucking stalls, rigging things, tying knots, and if there were horses in that field, I'd know what to do. I'm more uneasy with cobwebs and dark corners, but poop is totally fine.
Sheep. Let's talk about sheep They seem docile, fluffy, delicate - until you are standing in a corner with one that is less-than-happy with your presence because unfamiliar people are generally considered a threat. In that moment, it becomes quite clear that sheep get their power in numbers. If you are the guy between them and their way out and you flinch a muscle, it might be a very bad day. But these sheep were totally polite and gave me plenty of time to make a good decision (move out of the way).
It also became crystal clear in a way that isn't palpable in sheep herding demonstrations, how hard these dogs are really working. Getting first-hand feedback as to what the sheep are responding to was the key to figuring this whole thing out, insomuch as an observer can figure it out. In one case, a mom and baby were separated so the dog had to work much, much harder to keep the flock together, ignoring the calls from the bleating baby ewe.
Cupcake - I love ewe!
In another situation, a sheep stepped forward to challenge the dog, yet the dog held her ground. To the casual observer, it looked like a dog not taking any guff. Getting a little background as this was playing out, it turns out this is one thing that this particular dog has been struggling with. Her history indicated the sheep would get her goat (as it were) and the dog would charge in - but she wisely held her ground. Knowing this particular dog's history and how hard this was for her, I was fully prepared to appreciate this really incredible moment between animals, and an equally incredible moment between handler and dog.
You don't get that same intimate appreciation in a sheep dog demo at the local Scottish Festival (or on Youtube).
While those are incredible and fun, being 4' from Trisha as she explained what she was seeing, and more importantly when she would shut me up so she could focus, taught me much more about the different relationships on the field.
Happy Flowers.
All in all, Trisha and Jim's kindness is what I'll remember the most. They were so kind, welcoming, and lovely. It was also the first time I had left my family behind for anything since becoming a mom. This felt like a rite of passage in some bizarre way. Aislyn, who celebrated her fifth birthday three days before this adventure was about to have her first long weekend with my husband and I knew this was great for all of us.
It was the best laugh therapy, refreshing and rejuvenating thing I could have done. I'm so thankful to have been able to be invited to their home, play with their dogs, joke about the two fireflies who appeared to miss the memo on when their season ended, and share this time away from home with them.
I took this amazing trip to spend some time with someone I very publically declared a hero of mine.
I left with a real friendship, which honestly is much better.
Someday, I hope to take Aislyn here and show her this view.
Hopefully without a line of high voltage electrical lines cutting through.
While you're at it, read her book, The Other End of the Leash . I go back to this year after year and it's perfect for dog owners as well as training folk. It's a relatable, often humorous, reminder that while dogs and people see things very differently, the bond between these two species is quite unusual. When I feel a bit lost in the balance of my job, I pull this out, laugh, refocus, and find my way back to center.
Lastly, her memoir, The Education of Will is a gripping memoir about overcoming trauma, not just for dogs but for people, too. Again, I can not recommend this book more highly. I think many people expect this to be a dog story, and while the anxiety for this dog was real and intense, Trisha knits a powerful account that is all too close to home for many women, many of whom can not tell their stories. We're all fighting demons of some sort. It's critical we remember that.
Last October, I wrote a piece for CCPDT (Council for Certified Professional Dog Trainers). The piece started out as a rebuke of media reports calling Cesar Milan a "behaviorist," which is murky territory. With each share of the sensational story, the headline, "Dog Behaviorist Investigated in Pig Attack," and variations on that theme were shared to millions of readers.
Click bait, for realz.
My issue went beyond the dog attacking a pig in a terribly set up "rehabilitation" exercise that resulted in injury to the pig - though make no mistake. I had a huge problem with this aspect, too.
My issue was with the term behaviorist being used to describe a television personality who, as far as I can tell by checking his website and other social platforms, has never taken a class in animal behavior. This seemed ethically wrong on so many levels.
Not one reporter, media outlet or blog share seemed to dive down on who an animal behaviorist actually is or what they do.
With that backdrop, I wrote a piece targeted to dog trainers commenting from a dog trainer's perspective on how it's unethical for us to use the term "behaviorist" unless we actually are, and since the lingo is really murky even within related fields of animal behavior, we should just stop. I then went on to define terminology we come across in our field as a guideline for dog trainers and called it a day.
The post, targeted to dog trainers, was shared among dog trainers with much more support and enthusiasm than I expected. I really was prepared for a lot of blowback from dog trainers. That never came.
What did come was something I didn't expect.
The animal behavior community was pissed.
At first, I didn't see it.
I was on their side!
I'm helping!
Dr. Suzanne Hetts, a highly respected actual applied animal behaviorist and co-owner of Animal Behavior Associates, wrote a response piece and sent it out to the behavior community. She then alerted me in a very short email telling me about it. I immediately felt a crushing wave of anxiety. I read it. I was so mad. "I'm helping! I'm on your side!" kept going through my head as I read the piece that at the time I read as a personal attack. As time went on, I just felt crappy.
It turns out there is a big lesson to learn here. "Helping" isn't helpful when there is a failure to first seek out how (or if!) a party wants or needs help. I was doing my best to define something that I understood in my world, but not on a bigger scale. While animal behaviorists were not my target audience - the piece was written for a dog training newsletter, this population saw it.
And they were justifiably displeased.
I immediately emailed Suzanne after she sent out her very public response.
I was embarrassed, hurt, but still quite defensive of my original piece. She was hurt, and stood by what she wrote, too. We sent emails back and forth for a few days but it was clear as the water was settling we could find common ground. I'm not going to speak for her, that's her story to tell if she wants to, but we were able to start an actual dialogue and it was incredible.
This was a great lesson in how good intentions do not trump actual communication. Had I just taken an extra few minutes or days to reach out to animal behaviorists, I would have written something different.
But I didn't.
Suzanne then volunteered to do something that caught me off guard, almost as much as her response piece, particularly given the political climate of the last 7 months. Something she didn't have to do. She went above and beyond.
"Let's do this together."
And we did.
It took us, no joke, 5 months to write the piece we ended up co-penning. We were invited to publish it in the same newsletter my original post was printed. I learned a ton, and I think she did, too. Plus, I feel that by doing this together, we were able to do something that hasn't really been done yet. We found common ground without being "resource guardy."
I learned that veterinarians can not call themselves specialists unless they are board-certified in the specialty - and that includes behavior. Yet, dog trainers and any ol' Tom, Dick or Harry can say "I'm a behavior specialist" without any credentials to back it up.
Seems a bit unfair.
Additionally, the broad brush of "all animal behaviorists work with pet animals" is wildly inaccurate. Many observe wild behavior, some work in zoos, and some work with pet animals. The field is huge. While some animal behaviorists do work with pets, including veterinary behaviorists (veterinarians who are board-certified in animal behavior), it's a fallacy that all do.
I now see why applied animal behaviorists are so upset!
Perhaps an indication this is not the animal behaviorist you are looking for: He gives you this photo and says: "Here's my resume. I'm here to teach your dog to stop humping your slippers."
Suzanne gave me an opportunity to explain what we dog trainers are up against, too, and I felt like she heard every word. First, there is a media and entertainment industry that promotes "behaviorists" who have no background, so in order to compete in that market, we have a population who have adopted the word in a way to be heard above the noise. We have people who email, call and text us, pleading for help - they need a behaviorist to help them with a jumping dog. A trainer for a biting dog. A behavioralist (not a word in dog training) for an 8-week-old puppy. The public is confused on these terms. We are also dealing with individuals hanging out their shingles without an ounce of dog training experience and have to compete with them, too. We are trying to meet clients and students where they are, but we have no Merriam-Webster definitions to give them. (Which is why some of us, myself included, tried to clarify these terms, but are met with blow-back. Justifiably.)
What Suzanne and I discovered, through communication and really taking a moment to see things from a different perspective, is that we really need animal behaviorists to take the lead on defining those terms so we can all lead with more clarity.
It's not on people like me to define terms at an industry, even if there is a vacuum and a great need. It's just not my place. And I get that now. I can't turn this boat around.
Cop: Turn around
Me: Every now and then I get a little bit lonely and you're never coming round.
Cop: Turn around!
Me: Every..
*gets tased*
— Jeff (@usermcuserface) May 5, 2017
It would have been so easy to just write a response to her response on this blog, put it out there for the Internet to see, dig my heels, "defend myself" (whatever that means!) and defend what I wrote. I actually started something to that effect in a moment of anger 9 months ago. In writing this piece, I discovered it, and deleted it a few minutes ago. I was mad. I was angry. I didn't even open the draft because I just knew it would be bad.
Been there.
So instead of yelling via the Internet, I read what she wrote in her piece, in her emails back and forth, and I realized the irony of my original piece. "Guys, language matters and we aren't doing anyone any favors by not fully understanding the language we are using." I was using wrong language left and right and that was perfectly clear once Suzanne and I started to talk.
Oh, Irony, you saucy minx.
#Irony
It was important to listen. Critical.
Not listen to counter-attack.
Just...listen.
It's not easy to say "I'm sorry." Especially when intentions are good.
I had no intention of defining Dr. Hett's profession AT her, but that's exactly what I did. It doesn't matter what my intention was - it's how it was received.
In the same way someone "intending" to say hi to a shy dog is not permission to come into that dog's space.
We have both been working incredibly hard in our industries to combat inaccurate language and terminology while trying to help the animals we love. As our industries continue to evolve and overlap in some ways, it's important to remember that these industries will continue evolving and there will be conflict.
It's how we deal with it as individuals.
Thanks to the power of the Internet we were able to take a breather, listen to each other and really write something that could be a game-changer.
While Suzanne took the lead on a lot of it, given that she is an applied animal behaviorist and our writing styles are totally different, we created something meaningful. There is a lot of give and take in here. I even got in a Car Talk joke which honestly, was more important to me than I realized at the time. This really is our piece. Together. Collaboration in the face of something that could have devolved into something messy, angry, and regrettable on my end.
It might not be an earth-shattering read for those not in this industry, but the journey was more meaningful. In all honestly, there is no single piece of work that I'm more proud of to have my name attached to in any way.
A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of meeting Jaclyn Smith from "Closer To Dog," a podcast about people who work with dogs, coyotes, wolves and other canids. She takes a look at everything from a day in the life of an Animal Control Officer, to Slobbr - an app for dog owners that assists in finding dog-friendly outings, eateries and veterinarians. She has a great tone, out-going personality and is naturally very curious.
Jaclyn came to a disc dogs class at Everydog, and then we interviewed in the family MINI Countryman because the boxing gym next door was...well, let's just say it was in full swing. And by swing, it sounded like sitting ringside for UFC Fight Night.
The MINI is a fantastic place to record, as long as you don't mind the occasional passersby peering into the car (that is fogging up due to two grown adults talking to into microphones for 45 minutes). I really hope that someone passing by had a great story to tell.
"Heya, Mike? Out there, that fogged up car...what do you think they are doing? Yeah, they were each holding a small ferret and talking into it. What do you think that's about?"
So without further adieu, here is the link to this week's "Closer to Dog", all about disc dogs (but really, so much more). If you like it, go back and listen to some of the other episodes. They are fun and informative. You might even recognize some of your favorite Boston-area dog-folk like Michelle from Slobbr, and Zee from Wolf Hollow sanctuary in Ipswich, MA.
We started talking, and ended up taking a deep-dive on the rescue industry. As a result, we ended up recording enough material for two full episodes, the first of which airs tomorrow night on The Voice of Maine radio stations (WVOM-103.9FM-Bangor, WVOM-1450AM-Rockland & WVQM 101.3FM-Augusta)
The podcast version will be available Sunday night at 9pm on your favorite Podcasting App or Magical Podcastery Technological Appy Thing (tm). Part 2 will air on Christmas weekend! Perfect for all your travel plans! Thank you so much to Don and Kate for the invitation and for the conversation - we'll have to do it again because I'm quite sure we could have talked for days! If you're in Maine, these are great people who love, care about, and know dogs. Support them and listen to their show - they are really great!
When most people get up the gumption to contact their heroes, a feeling of nervousness and excitement washes over them.
There is a certain population where the universe bends all rules of probability and says this: "Oh, that's really cute. Let's make this weird and awkward for all parties involved." I am a part of that population.
Pretty good advice. It's served me well.
After attending a conference where Jessica Dolce of DINOS (Dogs In Need of Space) was presenting, I let her know that I loved her work and included her in the references of my book. We did a book swap. After she read mine, she suggested that I write to Dr. McConnell to let her know how much she affected my work and influenced the book. I was nervous, but whatever the gal who created DINOS says, I do.
So I ponied up the courage (drank shots of whiskey), contacted "her people" and in 3 minutes got a letter back from one of her assistants. "We'd love to get the book! Send it along!" She included an address.
Excitedly, I prepped the book. I thought about how to inscribe it. I sent it off.
A few weeks went by.
I received a certified letter that I had to pick up in person at the post office. I thought about all the times on Maury Povich that "the kid is yours" starts off with a certified letter...but then I remembered I'm a woman and would have remembered something like that. Then I thought I was being sued for something and totally panicked.
Turns out, a post office in Wisconsin sent me a letter. It stated that my book didn't qualify as "media mail" - which was strange because the post master at the post office told me to send it by "media mail." This includes "books" which my book actually is. They told me to cease and desist sending books as part of their book mailing program.
I was confused. I was also concerned that they didn't send my book along to Dr. McConnell.
When I called the post office and explained I sent a book, the post master on the other end of the line in Wisconsin went silent.
Then, she sighed and said the words I was a little worried to hear.
"Oh. Um...I think I know what happened."
Apparently, my book came out of the packaging between Wherever, USA and Wisconsin.
In the same shipment, a box of dentistry supplies ALSO came out of its packaging.
My envelope said "Dr. Patricia McConnell" - so naturally, the dentist supplies had to go to Dr. McConnell.
The book...is missing (later found out, because of a podcast my beloved listens to, that it is in Atlanta where all missing mail goes to stay lost.)
Meanwhile, in Wisconsin, my hero Patricia McConnell picks up a package of dentist supplies from M. McCue-McGrath with no other note. She, as anyone would, returned the package to the post office.
Some dentist, somewhere, is missing his...or her...supplies. They are in Wisconsin.
Once I found out what happened, I emailed Her People (tm). I was crestfallen, embarrassed (what on earth is she going to think?). Also, where is the book? Also, this poor dentist is missing important things!
Lisa, the Assistant Of The Year, (I'm giving her this award) laughed it off and said something about Dr. McConnell showing up with a box of dentist supplies and a quizzical look.
Two days later, I receive a letter.
Not by certified mail. Regular, won't make you crap-your-pants-in-fear mail.
In this envelope was a hand written note.
A hand written note from my hero, Dr. Patricia McConnell.
"Dear M.McCue-McGrath -
I received a box of dentist supplies from you. I'm guessing that's not what you sent - unless you're giving me a not-so-subtle hint about my oral hygene.
If you sent a manuscript for me to read, please kindly send it again. - Patricia McConnell"
Yes, It's framed. This is totally normal.
I sent a new book. On the envelope I wrote:
"Includes ONE BOOK. No dentistry supplies."
The note will be framed because it's from my hero. I hope she likes the book, but right now, the universe is laughing, as am I. Well played, universe.
Well.
Played.
*Update: Dr. McConnell ended up getting her copy of the book and we had a lovely email back-and-forth about urban dogs after she read it. She ended up writing a piece on her blog about city dogs and rural dogs. Check it out HERE.*
Thank you, thank you, thank you to The BarkMagazine.
They consistently put out a great product but this month warrants special accolades.
I'm an unknown author who worked incredibly hard to advocate for my students and urban dogs all over the country. The problem with being an unknown author is...being unknown.
For The Bark to select Considerations for the City Dog for a review in their coveted winter issue (they only produce 4 issues a year!), I'm beyond speechless. The Bark not only speaks for dogs, but they speak for the unknown author, indie author or authors of small publishing houses that might get overlooked by the Bigger Publishing Houses (tm).
Interestingly enough, I'm not the only Boston area author in this review section. Fellow New England Dog Training Club member (and longtime author), Susan Conant, is also reviewed in this particular issue. It's like I had a buddy along for this ride, and I'm so happy to see NEDTC represented in a few genres in such a great magazine.
Thanks for looking out for us, Bark, in the same way you look after dogs.
If you're looking for something special to read for your holiday travels, feel free to pick up this issue of The Bark - I hear they have some pretty great books in their reviews section!
One of the cooler things to come out of writing Considerations, is that I met Melissa Mullen.
She's a photographer who donates her time at the animal shelter in Kennebunk, Maine. She takes photos of these dogs in the hopes that it helps them find their forever home.
She also knows a girl I went to high school with because it's Maine, and it's a small, small world!
Melissa has graciously donated some of her professional shots, including one of my former student, Bruce the Vizsla (owned by Maureen O'Connor) as well as pro shots of dogs waiting for their forever homes.
Pyr at the Kennebunk Maine Animal Shelter
Photo by Melissa Mullen Photography
Bruce with tie.
Bruce is owned by the O'Connor family in Charlestown, MA.
Photo credit to Melissa Mullen Photography
I'm over Kickstarter for so many reasons but every now and again a project catches my eye. However, this one slipped through the cracks and I do love this particular little app-to-be. Yes, I'm biased - my friend Michelle is the brainchild, but I promise, it's not why I love it.
I love it because this will help all dog owners find dog friendly EVERYTHING! Hiking, dog friendly hotels, restaurants, good trainers, good vets, and encourages people to get active with their dogs. I love everything about it, including the owner. Even if you can't contribute, think of every time you have left home with your dog and needed to find a dog run, or a vet. Think of that time you moved across the country and needed an "in" for a dog walker or find the quietest hiking trails. If this is you, then all I'm asking is that you share this. Contribute if you like, because that's the best way to help, but at the very least share this so more people know about this app for local dogs and traveling mutts alike. Even Boston Magazine agrees, which is really pretty sweet. Either way, get outside and love life with your dog!
-M3
My dear friend Richard has been a long-time supporter of Muttstuff.
Perhaps the longest.
He also happens to be a lawyer.
He really rallied with me last year during the Rocco case, and has always had a place in his very large heart for people who want to help animals and their humans.
The people who work with animals need a place to work with animals (like a rental unit). They need insurance. They need bonding. They need, for all intents and purposes, a lawyer who doesn't suck. I will say that I'm very lucky to know several awesome lawyers, but none are doing quite what Richard is seeking to do.
When Richard said he was going to start exploring using his trade for good (including LGBT issues, non-profit and animal related industries) I couldn't have been happier or more proud.
This is directly from Richard:
"I'm able to provide nonprofits and small business with what I'm calling an organizational counsel package. Basically, I can provide many of the services of an in-house, on-staff attorney, without the overhead costs of having a full-time attorney on payroll.
The Organizational Counsel Service can be found here:
A routine package could, for example, include all of the following: Legal compliance review and oversight of putting fixes in place; Review and application for relevant business licenses if needed; Contract review and drafting; Review of insurance coverage (no sane business person wants to read a 200 page insurance coverage contract!); Review of compliance with employment laws; Provision of anti-discrimination and anti-harassment training to staff and management; Providing internal investigations, as needed.
As you know, I have a special love of animals and animal-related groups and businesses and so I am happy to discuss a wide range of options that fit small organizations' budgets."
If you are a business owner who works in the animal industry, happen to be in the Boston area and would like to see what options are available to you, go to the website, call him directly 617-861-1401 or email rmjuang@juanglaw.com. Alternatively, you can touch base with me and I'll get you in touch directly.
