Little Boy Blue, an eye-opening book about the shelter and rescue world.

We just finished reading an advanced copy of the new book about to hit the shelves - Little Boy Blue: A Puppy's Rescue from Death Row and His Owner's Journey for Truth.

The nice folks at Barron's Educational Series were kind enough to send us an advanced copy for free to read and review if we wanted to. After reading it, we can't stop talking about it, and thinking about it...because it relates a lot to my life.


For those of you who know me, you know I'm a rescue; adopted by my Mum from the Southside Animal Shelter in Indianapolis back in 2004. The SSASI, a no-kill rescue, regularly plucks dogs from Indianapolis Animal Care and Control shelter, the designated animal control unit of the city of Indianapolis.

Indianapolis Animal Control is not the place you want to end up, because your chances for survival are slim. According to IndyChannel, the Indianapolis Animal Control has just about a 50% euthanasia rate, meaning about one half, or just about 4,000 animals were euthanized last year because of space or other reasons, including sickness or age.

Thank goodness there are no-kill organizations throughout the Indianapolis area that regularly visit the Indianapolis shelter to help dogs and cats get a better chance at being seen, visited and adopted.

When Mum visited the Southside Animal Shelter back in 2004 after she saw me on Petfinder, she didn't think to ask about my past and how I came to be at the shelter. Now she wishes she had. Our best guess is that my birth Mom, me and my brothers and sisters were either found  or dropped off at the SSASI, or at the Indianapolis Animal Control, where the great folks at SSASI found me and brought me back to the rescue to help me find my furever home and saved my life.

Life is different for homeless dogs all over the country, the plights in the major cities like Indianapolis are different from the plights in remote areas like where we live in the mountains of NE Georgia. But plights they are nonetheless.


We see a lot now that we wish we didn't see. Dogs regularly running loose, people who talk about dogs as livestock, and folks who talk about how they would kill a stray dog in a heart beat. And we hear folks speak of dogs as just a means to help them hunt, and even stories about dogs being stolen for fighting rings.

Throughout the US there is an amazing network of people who help dogs in kill shelters find their way into the no-kill network and Freedom Trail, rescues similar to where I was put up for adoption. This network is one network that, to tell you the truth, I have never put a lot of thought to, even though all of my kittie bros and my sis Gracie were rescued in a wide variety of ways.


So when we received the book Little Boy Blue, we were very intrigued about this little guys story.

Little Boy Blue: A Puppy's Rescue from Death Row and His Owner's Journey for Truth, written by Kim Kavin, chronicles Kim's journey to find out the past of her newly adopted pup, Blue.

What she didn't know when she logged on to Petfinder, just like my Mum did back in 2004 and thousands of others do every day, was that Blue, even though available for adoption through a local no-kill rescue near her in Pennsylvania, was actually a last-minute survivor of the gas chamber at a shelter in North Carolina. He was  pulled just in time and transported along with a dozen other dogs to states north.

The book is about her story in getting to the bottom of exactly what happened every day of Blue's life until he came to live with her, love her, and become a voice for rescues dogs everywhere.

It's a eye-opening story about the shelter/rescue world in the southern part of the US, the very one we have come to learn about living here in Georgia. It's a powerful story of those that care and work miracles, those that follow their directives from small city run municipalities and believe they are doing the right thing for their community, and those that believe they are helping pets, but may actually be hurting.

If you've ever thought about, or have adopted a dog or cat from a shelter or rescue, this book is a must read in understanding how the shelter/rescue system works in the new Internet age, how your pet's behavior and demeanor may be influenced by their past shelter/rescue experience(s), and how you may be able to help solve some of the problems plaguing our world's homeless pets.

Now that Kim has experienced the world of shelters/rescues, she has become a foster dog parent. She talks about her first two fosters, Izzy and Summer in her book. That's Izzy, to the left. He looks a little like me only bigger, don't you think? Sooooo, cute. Izzy quickly found a loving home not too long after Kim fostered him.

I am one of the lucky ones, so is my sis, Gracie and so are my kittie bros, Wolfie and Wiggy. Just like Blue, we are loved and have an amazing home, life and family.

Kim has a knack for investigation and telling real stories of hope, betrayal, sadness, success and true love for those in need. We want to thank Barron’s Educational Series, the publisher of Little Boy Blue, as they will be donating a portion of proceeds of the book to the Petfinder Foundation to help further their efforts in helping dogs like me and Blue find their furever homes. 

Little Boy Blue: A Puppy's Rescue from Death Row and His Owner's Journey for Truth. is available at Amazon, as of today.

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With this post we join in the Bloggers Unite for Dog Rescue event.

Next time you are looking for your new best friend, please consider adoption through a rescue or shelter, you never know, you may just be adopting an agility champion, just like me.

Rescue pups are pawsome, pawsome pups, just ask my Mum!!!

And while you're hear visit other blog post about dog rescue, lined below.