Kim Kavin's Blog, page 7

“Little Boy Blue” and “Wallace” Authors Schedule Joint Appearance

Kim Kavin, the author of Little Boy Blue, and Jim Gorant, the author of Wallace and The Lost Dogs, have scheduled a joint book-signing appearance for 5 p.m. Saturday, November 16, at Words Bookstore in Maplewood, N.J.

Kavin and Gorant are both New Jersey residents, and Gorant wrote the foreword for Kavin’s book. The event will give dog lovers a chance to discuss all three books and to purchase autographed copies.

Little Boy Blue is the story of a puppy’s rescue from death row and a look at the army of volunteers working nationwide to save as many dogs like him as possible. ForeWord Reviews named Little Boy Blue the best pet book in America for 2012.

Wallace is the story of a pit bull who many people considered unadoptable, and who went on to become a champion at the sport of flying discs. It is a heartwarming tale that was among the bestselling dog books of 2012.

The Lost Dogs is the story of how authorities found and dismantled the dogfighting ring operated by NFL quarterback Michael Vick. It was a New York Times bestseller based on an article that Gorant originally wrote for Sports Illustrated magazine in 2008.

Come on out to the Words Bookstore on November 16 to meet both authors and discuss these timely, informative, and inspirational works about how dogs are treated in America today.

Filed under: Appearances

Little Boy Blue to Appear at Pottstown Pet Fair in Pennsylvania

Little Boy Blue author Kim Kavin and Blue himself will be on hand to sign books at the Third Annual Pottstown Pet Fair in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.

The Pottstown Pet Fair is being held at Memorial Park this year, from 9 a.m. till 3 p.m. on Saturday, September 21. Kim and Blue will be at the fair from noon till 2 p.m., courtesy of Towne Book Center.

If you can’t make it to the fair but would like an autographed copy of Little Boy Blue, contact Towne Book Center. They can arrange for Kim to sign copies that can then be shipped anywhere in the world.

We hope to see you at the Pottstown Pet Fair!

Filed under: Appearances

“Little Boy Blue” Published in Korea

We will admit that we have no idea whether they got the translation right, but a Korean publishing company has just put out “Little Boy Blue” for readers on that side of the world. The title has been changed to “72 Hours,” presumably for the amount of time that Blue (and all dogs) had in the North Carolina shelter before being killed for lack of a home.

Blue, as his Facebook fans know all too well, made it out in time and is living a happy life today in New Jersey. We sure hope the rest of the cover copy says something about that!

Here’s a look at the cover of the Korean edition:

Filed under: Little Boy Blue: The Book

New Review: “Little Boy Blue a Must-Read for Dog Lovers”

Animal-loving blogger Susan Miers Smith just posted a new review of Little Boy Blue at her site, Thoughts on Paws. Here are some of our favorite excerpts:

“If you call yourself a dog lover, you must read Little Boy Blue: A Puppy’s Rescue From Death Row and His Owner’s Journey for Truth by Kim Kavin. … While the book is unsettling, it also shows just how far rescuing homeless animals has come. It was after Kavin’s book was published, but Pennsylvania finally banned the use of gas chambers to euthanize animals in animal shelters and animal control facilities. Blue’s adoptionfrom a Pennsylvania rescue group that worked in concert with a North Carolina rescue group, foster home and underground-railroad-like transport to the North, show the lengths people will go to get unwanted dogs homes. Kavin also devotes ample pages to the importance of low-cost spaying and neutering services in the South to stem the influx of unwanted pets in the first place. Please, do yourself a favor and enlighten yourself by reading Kavin’s book.”

Filed under: Little Boy Blue: The Book

ForeWord Reviews Names “Little Boy Blue” Best Pet Book of 2012

ForeWord Reviews, which features books by independent and smaller publishing houses, has just announced the winners of its 2012 Book of the Year Contest. I am thrilled to announce that Little Boy Blue took first prize, earning the gold medal in the pet-book category.

This is the second national award that Little Boy Blue has earned, and the fourth for which the book has been a finalist. The Dog Writers Association of America gave Little Boy Blue its 2012 Merial Human-Animal Bond Award and named it one of the four best general-interest books of the year. The American Society of Journalists and Authors named Little Boy Blue one of the five best general-interest nonfiction books of the year.

I feel so blessed to receive such recognition for this book, which continues to raise money with each copy sold for The Petfinder Foundation to help more dogs like Blue. My congratulations go out to all of the other finalists and winners in the competitions, with deepest thanks to all of the judges.

Special thanks also to the book’s editor, Angela Tartaro, and marketing manager, Eric Lowenhar, who remain strong pillars of support at the book’s publishing house, Barron’s. Without them, none of this would be happening. What a fantastic team.

Filed under: Little Boy Blue: The Book

“A Must-Read for Any Animal Lover”

That headline is from the most recent reader review of Little Boy Blue on Amazon.com, posted this past weekend and bringing us to 75 reader reviews in total. Fifty-nine readers gave us five stars (thank you!) and 10 more readers gave us four stars (thank you too!). That makes our official stats better than nine-out-of-ten readers saying that Little Boy Blue is a great book.

We sincerely do appreciate all of these positive comments, because they hold a great deal of weight with new readers deciding whether to give the book a chance. As we all know, change begins with education, and the more readers who learn about the plight of dogs like Blue, the better a world we can try to make for them.

Please keep those comments coming, and thank you again to all of the book’s fans!

 

Filed under: Little Boy Blue: The Book

Little Boy Blue to be Keynote at Monmouth County Library’s Animal Rescue Day

Little Boy Blue author Kim Kavin and Blue himself will be the keynote presenters at an animal-rescue day on Sunday, September 22, at Monmouth County Library in Manalapan, N.J.

“I grew up in Monmouth County, and I am thrilled to be a part of this event at the library,” Kim says. “What the library staff is doing is terrific. They’re going to have the local SPCA on hand along with other authors of books about animal rescue. There will be something for dog lovers of all ages. Blue and I are honored to be asked to give the keynote talk, but really, we’re just happy to be doing our part to contribute to this outstanding theme day at the library.”

Filed under: Appearances

An Op-Ed Generating Predictable, and Unfortunate, Response

I wrote an op-ed piece titled “The Good, the Bad, and the Biters” that ran in yesterday’s Boston Globe Magazine. It’s about new rules that the state of Massachusetts is about to announce in public hearings, rules that would require rescue groups to assess a dog’s behavior and disclose all findings to fosters or adopters before the dog is transferred to a home.

My piece comes out strongly in favor of what the state is trying to do, based on my research into nationwide rescue for my award-winning book Little Boy Blue and my personal experience of having had 20 foster dogs come through my New Jersey home in the span of two years. As I wrote in yesterday’s piece, most of my fosters arrived friendly, healthy, and as advertised. But a few supposedly healthy dogs arrived sick, and one “ultra-friendly” Labrador mix attacked my own dog and bit me five times in the arm and legs, leaving nasty puncture wounds and me limping for a week. My piece says that the state is right to require that all rescues perform due diligence and disclose any findings about a dog’s health or temperament before giving him to any family. Put another way: Know the dog, and be honest about what you know before you hand him over, plain and simple.

This may seem like common sense to anyone trying to adopt a dog or help the cause by fostering, but the predictable response in comments on the Globe‘s website, as well as on the Little Boy Blue Facebook page, has been backlash and outcry from some rescuers who believe that any regulation of rescue is akin to persecution. They point the finger at puppy mills—disgusting places churning out for-profit purebreds with all kinds of problems—and try to change the subject by saying things like, “Why are you bothering rescuers when these puppy mills exist? We’re the good guys, for Pete’s sake!” Another predictable response has been from rescuers who say things like, “Why is the state trying to shut me down? I care about these dogs and do a good job with the budget I have.” Which is probably true, and is admirable in concept, but does not actually address the question of protocols for behavior screening and disclosure. Having a wonderful heart and wanting to save as many dogs as possible is a great thing, but it doesn’t mean the process in place is working as well, or as safely, as it should be.

I look forward to the day when rescue supporters (and I count myself as one, despite those dog bites) can look at problems within the rescue system and talk openly about addressing them instead of trying to change the subject. Until that day, escalating rules like the ones Massachusetts is about to impose will be the norm, and rightfully so. Rescue is a wonderful thing, but the groups doing it still have work to do if rescue is going to win the public’s trust and solve the problem of homeless dogs once and for all. It’s a fact that few people are willing to write about, because so many rescuers attack the writers with comments like the ones that my piece in the Globe is receiving. But it’s a fact that rescue needs to accept and address if the cause is going to move forward and succeed.

PetSmart Charities did a study with Ispos Marketing in 2012, repeating a study done in 2009 about why people buy purebreds instead of adopting from rescues. “You never know what you’re going to get with a shelter animal” continues to be the opinion of about 1 in 5 responders. That’s about 20 percent of people out there getting dogs, saying that they don’t trust the rescue process. At the same time, Wayne Pacelle, head of the Humane Society of the United States, wrote in his book The Bond that if just 25 percent more people already getting dogs would choose to adopt, then statistically speaking, we’d have a home for every dog being killed in the shelters today—a home for every dog that rescues are so desperately trying to save.

What I wrote in yesterday’s Boston Globe Magazine is about common sense and basic math. It isn’t just about Massachusetts, but is instead about how Massachusetts is addressing an issue that affects rescue nationwide. It isn’t about persecuting rescues, it isn’t about puppy mills, and it isn’t about anything other than the fact that rescue could be better in its overall processes, which would then win the public’s trust and actually solve the problem of homeless dogs. The debate here shouldn’t be about whether rescues need to know the health and temperament of the dogs they are advertising for adoption. It should be about why any state gets so many complaints about rescue that it has to step in on this matter at all.

But I’ll take the negative comments, and I’ll be the lightning rod for debate, and I’ll keep writing pieces like this, and I’ll even do so with a smile—because at least then I will know that this conversation about rescue is getting the mainstream media attention that it deserves. That, like the new Massachusetts rules, will only serve to strengthen the cause of rescue overall.

 

Filed under: Uncategorized

New “Little Boy Blue” Review: “The Book is Highly Relevant to Canadian Readers”

Connect, a weekly newspaper in Fort McMurray, Canada, just posted this new review of Little Boy Blue.

Reviewer Rebekah Benoit writes: “While Kavin’s book focuses on animal shelters in the United States …  the book is highly relevant to Canadian readers. As abhorrent as it may seem, there are animal shelters in Canada which use gas chambers to euthanize large numbers of dogs at once. … Little Boy Blue gives a disturbing glimpse into the world of high-volume “kill shelters,” making me all the more grateful for the Fort McMurray SPCA, which remains proudly no-kill in spite of the many budgetary and space constraints which continue to face the shelter as the city’s population grows.”

 

Filed under: Little Boy Blue: The Book

Review: “One of the Most Moving Books I Have Ever Read”

We are thrilled to see a on the blog Off the Merry-Go-Round, which is written for parents who have scaled back their careers to spend more time with their families. Dog lovers truly are everywhere, treating their own pooches as beloved members of the family.

Blogger Karen Hendricks writes: “One of the most moving books I have ever read is Little Boy Blue: A Puppy’s Rescue from Death Row and His Owner’s Journey for Truth. Last fall, coincidentally, as my beloved greyhound was dying of bone cancer, I devoured this book, stunned at the statistics and moved to tears by the state of our nation’s animal shelters. Author Kim Kavin, a fellow journalist/writer, did an amazing job of chronicling her experience adopting her dog Blue, interweaving her narrative with eye-opening research.”

Hendricks also gives some great links to information about adopting dogs like Blue, which we really appreciate. That’s what the book’s ultimate message is, and we are excited to see readers continuing to spread the word.

Filed under: Little Boy Blue: The Book