Laurel Hunt Books

I work with our local therapy dog organization, Paws with a Purpose, who visit hospital and nursing home patients as well as many community agencies and schools. Recently, Paws fulfilled an unusual request, to visit inmates at the Craggy Correctional Center. The dogs were a huge hit with the inmates and staff, bringing a bit of normalcy as well as comfort and unconditional love. The following heartwarming note, signed by 150 inmates, was received after the visit. (more…)

I’ve been following the heroic work of the Search Dog Foundation (SDF) teams as they work around the clock to locate Haiti earthquake survivors. Dog lovers Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward Newman have issued a challenge grant of up to $100,000 to support this work!

Help meet the $100,000 challenge—Join the 30-day countdown! (more…)

After the tragedy of the Haiti earthquake we are all looking for ways to help the disaster response. Please consider making a donation to the nonprofit Search Dog Foundation in Ojai, California, who deployed teams immediately at the request of the US government. You can follow their work in Haiti on the Foundation web site. Did you know that these highly trained disaster response dogs were rescued from abuse and abandonment situations? (more…)

Since I love spaniels and love books written in the dog’s voice, I was delighted to discover this new book, Save a Spaniel; a tale of loss and survival featuring a dog, by Cathy Mitchell, a Pulitzer Prize winner and journalism professor. Although fiction, the story is loosely based on the adventures of one of the author’s dogs, a rescued Boykin spaniel. “Star,” the canine narrator of the book, is a purebred Boykin spaniel with a white mark on her chest, an undesirable marking for the breed standard. Star is purchased by a couple as a pet and hunting companion for the husband. Her troubles begin when she proves to be gun-shy. (more…)