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Speaker 1: Hey, thanks for being a part of the conversation. This

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is Forest Stories. I am the Poet in the Forest,

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a children's series that I pinned out in the nineteen nineties. Now,

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none of it would be possible if it wasn't for

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this forest right here in South Charlotte, North Carolina. I

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talk about it so much that I thought maybe it's

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time that you get to know what has inspired me

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for thirty years. Thanks for being a part of the conversation.

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Welcome back to the forest.

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Speaker 2: A sad day today, we've lost something, a piece of history,

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a very.

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Speaker 1: Bright guided light. When Pepper first came into our lives,

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it was just a baby, maybe maybe six months old.

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He was fostered Fritz and his wife who lived halfway

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up Heartbreak Hill. They rescued dogs and fostered them out,

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and the entire forest was so in love with this

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one called Pepper. And Betty and Sergio with Amanda really

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went way, way, way beyond what we thought they ever would.

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I mean, they were cat people, but they went the

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way of Pepper. They adopted their first puppy, and he

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was always so playful. It's a Dalmatian, and you know,

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I totally understand the movie one hundred one Dalmatians because

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of the fur. I've never felt anything so soft in

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my life. Pepper and Jazzy always got along. It's almost

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like Jazzy adopted Pepper and said, welcome to the hood,

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Welcome to the forest. Welcome, Welcome, Welcome. They never fought, never,

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they were always so happy to see each other. But

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I all things in life, things transition, and Pepper is

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no longer physically in this forest. But I will say

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that Pepper is with us on this walk in this

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forest today, very much alive in our hearts. Hey, thanks

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for being a part of the conversation.