Speaker 1: You were listening to Petlifradio dot com.
Speaker 2: Well, Hello, hello, and welcome to another wonderful, exciting episode
of Pet Life Radios. Ask to best with doctor Jeff
and I am your host, Doctor Jeff Werber, and I
want to first of all again thank our sponsors. We
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today we are bringing you a very very special guest.
And I have to tell you as now, years and
years ago, I was a proud parent many years ago,
considering my kids are twenty two to thirty with one
in between, but having a grandchild, and I can't wait
to read this book to my grandchild when she's of
that age. And it is called JJ the American Street
Dog and how he came to live in our house.
And the author is with us today. Her name is
Diane Rose Solomon. Diane, how are you?
Speaker 3: I'm well, thank you, thanks for having me on the show.
Speaker 2: Oh our pleasure. So you know, first of all, you
know I want to talk about the book, and we
are calling show of course, so I want anyone who
is listening, you can reach us at eight seven seven
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a question is going to get a free pro sens
product or a free contoy, depending on what be your pleasure.
So anyway, Diane, I got to tell you, we're going
to talk about another kid's book that I even remember
reading to my kids when they were younger. That it's
still I can almost recited word for word. But how
did jj' the American street dog come into a being?
Speaker 3: Well, kind of by accident. We found accidentally found JJ
about nineteen years ago. Actually a friend found him on
soccer field and we were just about to go and
buy a dog. And nineteen years ago, I don't think
anybody knew anything about rescue. Some people did, but I
certainly didn't, and it wasn't very popular then. And when
we adopted JJ, or accidentally adopted him, we learned about
this all these animals that didn't have a home, and
I was kind of horrified at the numbers. So fast
forward a few years and I ended up on the
board of a rescue organization. And then fast forward a
few more years, and I said, I feel like my
story needs to get out there. That if more people
knew that there were all these animals that were dying
because they weren't enough homes, that maybe they would make
a choice not to buy a dog from a breeder
or from a pet store even worse, but they might
consider rescuing. And it's just a matter of education. So
it just kind of it was one of those things
that flowed right through me. There was nothing premeditated about
writing a book. It just kind of happened. I wrote
down my story and I looked at it. I think
I've got a book here, and I think it's a
children's book. And then more I thought about it, I said,
you know, it would be great to have a children's book,
because let's talk to children. Let's teach children about responsibility
and the choices that they make and how they can
make a difference just by a choice that they make
and learning about it now. So and plus adults, you know,
read it with them and they get an opportunity to
learn the information too.
Speaker 2: You know, it's interesting and for those of you out
there that don't realize how big a problem it is
that Diana just mentioned. But the estimate is that a
dog or cat is put to sleep in the US
shelter every three seconds. That is frightening when you think
of it that way.
Speaker 4: And I do agree.
Speaker 2: You want to get something you know soon. You want
to think about adoption and what's interesting hearing about in
Los Angeles. We've mentioned this before that the pet store
as we used to know it, the puppy mill sort
of pet store, they're no longer allowed in Los Angeles,
which is great. So the pet stores now that are
here are basically adopting out selling, if you will. But
I like the term adopting out shelter dogs that they
would go to a shelter. They find dogs that they
feel would be the most adoptable, They clean them up,
make sure they're spade neutered, and then they bring them
to these quote unquote pet stores and they're all primped
and they look adorable, and it's sort of like they're
making it easier for you to pick up certain dogs.
And also you know, just let it be known. Don't
think that if you really are heart set on a
pure bread dog or pure bread cat, that you can
only find them at a breeder. You would be amazed,
absolutely amazed, how many pure breids are available for adoption
right now at your local shelter or a rescue. In fact,
there are so many rescues, especially in the larger cities,
that deal specifically with breeds Labrador rescue, Golden Retriever rescue,
a poodle rescue. I mean almost every breed and even
breeds that you would think, oh my god, there's no
way I'm going to find this particular breed. For example,
you know, I have two of them, and they have
increased in popularity so over the last five years. And
that is the French bulldog. You can even find Frenchies
now in Frenchy Bulldog Rescue group, so they are everywhere.
And another frightening statistic, and I is a cat nut
as well. I have five dogs but eight cats, and
that is that in the US, a cat that ends
up in a shelter has less than a ten percent
chance of being either reunited with its family or finding
or forever home with another family. So again, it's frightening, guys.
I mean, the whole goal of these city changes and
municipal rules about pet shops was to stop the bleeding,
if you will, of so many animals being put to sleep,
and even shelters with the best intentions, shelters that if
they could, if they had the funding, if they had
the space, would become no kill still can't do it,
And don't think you know. Interestingly, I read an article
once buy a shelter person a shelter personnel that you
know you read you think that these people are cold
hearted and they don't give a darn Not true. It
kills them every time they have to put an animal
to sleep, especially one that they know that if it
just had a little more time, a few more people
walking in the door, a few less people buying puppies
from pet stores and instead going to the shelter, this
life would have been saved. So it's really critical. So anyway, Diane,
let's talk about JJ.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So, first of all, this book is adorable, and why
don't you like I'm sitting here, I have a book open,
of course, and I hope you do as well. So
it opens up with a little girl saying, since as
long as I can remember, I've wanted a dog, And
she would dream about dogs, dogs with flop ears and
short legs and big dogs with pointyiers and long legs,
the idea being there were so many. She already has
a cat named Casey, and all she wants is a dog.
Speaker 4: So when do you kind of take us.
Speaker 2: Through it briefly? How did she end up getting her
dog in the first place?
Speaker 3: Well, you know, like many children, I want a dog, Mom,
can we please get a dog? And it's not uncommon.
We hear it all the time. And the family wasn't ready.
And this family they were planning on buying a dog
because they didn't know. And it's kind of like, in fact,
it's exactly like I was. I just didn't know about
the alternatives. And it turns out in the story that
Maya's uncle's playing soccer, kind of like our friend was
playing soccer on a field and finds this dog who
he can't keep because he's in an apartment building. And
he calls Maya, who's our protagonist in the book The
Little Girls the Dog and calls Maya's dad and to
you know, our found's dog. I know you guys are
thinking about getting a dog, would you, And so I
can't keep the dog, and Maya says, please, can we
keep him?
Speaker 1: Please?
Speaker 3: And you know, the moment says, well, I don't know
if I want to trust a dog from the streets.
And this is, like, you know, my story, this is
exactly what happened with me. But they took a look
at the dog, and like what happened with me, I
fell in love and I realized that it wasn't that
I needed the breed that I thought I wanted, but
I fell in love with the dog. And I call
it the dogness of the dog that you fall in
love with. It's not the breed, it's the fact that
they're a dog and you just fall in love. So
in the story, they tentatively adopt JJ and then they
do all of the responsible things. And that's a big
word that I use when I speak to students. Let's
talk about the responsibility here. Well, first of all, the
first thing you do when you find a dog is
you need to make sure that the dog doesn't actually
belong to somebody else. So you go out and you
put up posters in the neighborhood, You go to the
shelter and give a description, and sometimes people place an
ad in the newspaper just to be safe and make sure.
But you also want to make sure people aren't going
to take advantage of you and just take the dog.
So they do all of these things to be responsible.
But they also go to the vat the next day,
which as you know, is super important. You want to
make sure that the dog is healthy and take care
of anything like fleas or ticks or things that are
going on, and get them dewarmed and just give them
a good check up. And then you'd want to get
them good toys and come bed and good quality food.
And these are all the things that they do in
the book because it's important to know, well, now you've
found this dog and you're going to maybe rescue and
adopt the dog, but there's other things to do afterwards
to make sure that it's a successful relationship. And so
they go through, they give the dog a bath, they'd
buy some toys, and then there's a little bit of
a twist. They think that a neighbor calls thinks that
maybe this is their dog that they lost, and she's
very on she said, no, it's not my dog. My
dog was found somewhere else her dog had gotten loose,
and not to give away the whole ending, but you know,
you can imagine that, right, you know the title of
the story and how he came to live in our house.
So it's kind of a little bit of a giveaway as.
Speaker 4: It is, right.
Speaker 3: So yeah, So ultimately they get to keep JJ. They
fall in love, and Maya couldn't be happier with this
new dog, and the family really loves them too.
Speaker 2: Now, there are a couple of points here that I
have to make, and I so appreciate that you took
a number of pages for kids that are gonna have
this book read to them and or ultimately maybe read
it themselves. Is the importance of a kid who wants
a dog so badly. Typically what happens is once they
get the dog, the dog sorts to take a back seat.
I mean, they still love the dog, and they wanted
the dogs seat bed with them. It's all great, but
as far as the bathing and the walking and the
feeding and the cleaning up the you know, the poop
in the yard, that sort of mom ends up doing
that stuff and we always, you know, the big joke
is my mom will say when they come in with
the kids and the kids you know, I wanted this dog.
The mom says, yeah, I know, it's going to be
really be my dog. I'm going to be doing all
the work. And you know, a good thing to do
is really teach kids at this age that you know
what it's probably would be a good idea to teach them,
and it becomes a participation. It's a family affair, and
you know, one of the things that my folks used
to do. And again, obviously I grew up in a
house my parents had pets before they had the kids,
and the same thing in my household. My kids were
born into a home with pets. I never have been
without a pet. My high school graduation president was my
own dog, who went to college with me and used
to go to class with me. So I don't know
what it's like not to have a pet, but so
many kids, I'm amazed. I met a family the other
day and I and we were talking about pets, and
they were amazed that I have thirteen and they said
they don't have many pettes.
Speaker 4: How can you? How do I don't understand it.
Speaker 2: It's it's such a great way to teach kids responsibility
and to give that love. I mean, besides the fact
that you're saving a life if you adopt, but there's
so much more to a household where there are pets involved.
And you know, it's also interesting is as when I
meet adults or even young adults that are absolutely petrified
of pets, it's clear that they've never had pets.
Speaker 3: I never had a pet in the homet amazing.
Speaker 2: Exactly. And I have the exact scenario with a cross
street neighbor. He is scared. He literally, if he's walking
and he sees a dog coming, he will go four
blocks out of his way to avoid the dog. And
his kids are the same way. He had one incident
when he was younger, and it's effected, it scarred him
ever since. And interestingly, and I tell the story that I,
you know, I kind of reversed. And I actually wrote
this in one of you know, the chicken soup books,
you know, his Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover Soul,
edited by my good friend Marty Becker, and Marty asked
me to write a story. I wrote a story that
happened to me when I was a kid and after
having a successful relationship with three boxers at home, my
dad fell in love with this eleven month old intact
male Doberman pincher that had just come off of the
show ring, and for whatever reason, he didn't make it
as the show dogs. They decided to sell him and
his sister. This dog's sister lived down the block from us,
was owned by an older couple, and the dog was magnificent.
I was all of five. I was outside and I
came in the house. I was living in New York
at the time, all bundled up, and again, I was
not much of a talker, but my parents can only
guess based on my injuries. But I apparently stepped on
this sleeping Doberman who jumped up out of reflex and literally,
very literally grabbed me by the face and ripped open
my entire left side of my face under my nose.
Chin said you could see into my mouth from my cheek.
So it was a bit obviously traumatic, and I had
the fortunately, a very competent plastic surgeon put me back together.
And yet when I got home from the hospital, instead
of being scared, you know what, liss, I was in bed.
I was all bandaged up and my arm I was
still kind of drugged up, and this dog walked into
the room. My arms were at my side. He nudged
his nose under my right arm because it was like
literally limp. He kind of kept advancing. So now my arm,
my limp arm is draped on his neck and shoulder area.
He rested his head on my chest and he sat
there all night long.
Speaker 3: Yeah, mean to hurt you, of course not.
Speaker 2: And I write about this dog the story, and it
was like to me talk about a bond.
Speaker 4: I mean this dog.
Speaker 2: If I could anthropomorphize, I would say he was actually sorry.
It was not what he meant to do.
Speaker 4: Anyway.
Speaker 2: We got to take a quick break here. We'll be
back in just a few minutes. We're here with Diana
ro Solomon, who wrote a great book, JJ, the American
Street Dog, and I want to talk a couple of
other things, plus a children's book that I treat to
my kids, and one of the pages in here just
reminded me so much of it that I will share
with you when we come back. We're back here with
doctor Jeff and Diane ro Solomon asked the be's with
doctor Jeff here in pet Life Radio.
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Speaker 4: Com and welcome back. After the short break.
Speaker 2: You are here live with doctor Jeff Werber on Astabets
with doctor Jeff. You're on pet Life Radio and we
have have I would normally say in studio, but probably
in her own studio. Home studio is Diane Rose Solomon,
author of this really, really cute book that teaches a
lot of things, including responsibility and adoption and the importance
of both. It's called JJ, the American Street Dog and
how he came to live in our house. So we
were talking before the break about and I was reading
this book and it is absolutely adorable. Anyone out there
with small kids, it's a must.
Speaker 4: So I'm reading this.
Speaker 2: On page sixteen, it shows they're giving this dog that JJ,
that they found this little girl, Maya's uncle found on
the street while he was playing soccer, and they're, you know,
teaching one of the responsible things to do is you'd
have to bathe your dog. So there's a picture of
the Maya and mom and little JJ being bathed. And
I don't know, Dan, do you ever hear or remember
a book called Harry the Dirty Dog?
Speaker 3: Absolutely all right?
Speaker 4: So that is one of my favorites.
Speaker 2: And basically in Harry the Dirty Dog, a family has
a dog named Harry, and he was a white dog
with black spots, and he's lost, runs away, he gets
out and they're looking all over for him. In the
process of looking for Harry, they find this really cute
dog about the same size, seems to look a lot
like Harry, but this is a black dog with white spots,
so it can't be Harry. Harry's a white dog with
black spots. So the story goes on that they end up,
you know, they can't fight Harry, and the kids bag
and bag and they get to finally keep this other dog.
And of course, because he was an outside dog and
he was filthy, they put him into the tub. And
what do they find out after all this that this
black dog with white spots after they clean him up,
it's actually a white dog with black spots. And it
was Harry coming home again. So and it was really
really cute. And it's funny because my daughter just had
a daughter, so we've gotten out all the old kids books,
and of course, being a veterinarian, I have a zillion
of pet stories. We found Harry the Dirty Dog, and
I can't wait to read it. And now I get
to add this to the collection. Now let's speak of collections, Diane,
it seems like there are more JJ books in the horizon.
What's the plan for sure?
Speaker 3: Well, the next one is coming out this fall. Because
now that you've successfully adopted a pet and they start
to acclimate to your home and you've gotten all the
necessary things that you want for them, the goodies, and
you're giving them love and they're giving you love back.
But you also want them to behave properly so that
they're doing what you expect of them, So you've take
them to puppy class. So JJ's going to go to
puppy class starting this fall.
Speaker 4: Oh that's great.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's great. And then there's three more behind that
as well that should I don't know when they're coming,
but they're coming. And the next one after that is
introducing a dog to a new baby that comes into
the family. I think Maya is going to have a
new sibling, okay, and that's always important to do that correctly.
And then after that the importance of service and therapy dogs,
because if everybody just knew how wonderful dogs are and
what they can do for us, people, I think would
have a whole new respect for dogs, right. And then
the fifth one that's written so far is about misunderstood breed,
like you were talking about your adobe when you were
a child, and people this is a big thing with
breed specific legislation and how it's really not the breed,
it's really the deed, and it's an isolated thing, and
it's really how you treat an animal that determines how
they're going to act.
Speaker 2: And I often say when it comes to that that
in Baron's case, to my Doberman, it was just the
wrong dog in the wrong situation, you know what I mean.
This dog had never been around kids, four rambunctious kids,
all under the age of six. And you know, my
dad had no idea how he, you know, the dopeman
to react if he was intact. He was never fixed,
he was never neutered, so all these things come into play,
and he turned out to be.
Speaker 4: By the way.
Speaker 2: After this happened, of course, we were not as dog lovers.
He was not going anywhere but to another home, and
the older couple down the street that had his sister
ended up adopting Baron and took Baron in and he
was an amazing dog. But you have to sometimes understand lifestyle.
How much time are you going to have? It's all
a matter of selecting the right dog and in the
right dog in one environment. One situation may not be
right for another one, and it's rarely the dog.
Speaker 4: As you say, I work with.
Speaker 2: A number of rescue groups and one of them, I
actually two of them, deal pretty much solely with pits.
One is called Ace of Hearts and one is called
Angel City Pits. And I have to tell you that
they adopt out the most amazing dogs. And by nature
these dogs, you know, I always joke I get more
tongue than anybody I know. And I am literally licked
in the face by these dogs daily. It's amazing how
misunderstood they are. And another one called Rescue Pet adopts
out and they go to the shelters. Again, this is
a breed that is often destroyed because of their reputation,
and that's the chow chow and Blake finds the most amazing,
sweetest chow chows. And so they're out there, and I
am so much against these legislations. Actually, you know, there
are more bites that are attributed to say, a Chihuahua
or a Cocker Spaniel than to a bit pull, partly
because obviously they're much more popular dogs. But the bites
are it doesn't make the news. No one's going to
lose a limb or an arm or finger because of
a cocker Spaniel or a chihuahua bite. But of course
when a pit pull does it, or a Rottweiler or
a chao chow, it's major news. It's a problem. It's
not fair, absolutely not fair one of the stories. And
I don't know how far along you are, but I
deal with it a lot, and I would, you know,
love to maybe chat with you at some point off air,
or even we could talk about it on air. Be
A great segment is the baby and the introduction of
a resident dog and a new baby, and some suggestions
to make that introduction seamless.
Speaker 3: And I find that done well, and I've seen it
not done well, as I'm sure you have to.
Speaker 2: You know, absolutely, And I think that that's another one
where you know, it's unfortunately when it's not done well,
it could be disaster. And it's sort of like when
you sit back and think about some of the suggestions
that I would offer, you'd say, oh my god, that
makes so much sense.
Speaker 4: And it does.
Speaker 2: But then why people don't get so wrong? You know,
most of the people don't realize that what they're doing
is they are encouraging resentment when you do it the
wrong way, and between dog and resident dog and baby.
Well is if you do it the right way. And
then if anything, I always say, that dog is going
to be saying himself, where's that little baby? Give me
that baby, because I'm getting all this treats in attention
when I got this little kid in the room and
exactly instead of you know, people make the mistake and
they say, Okay, now I feel so guilty about the dog,
and I'm giving all this attention to the baby. So
I'm going to shower all my affection and love onto
the dog when the baby's to sleep, Well, then what
are you doing. You're teaching the dog that life is
better without the baby. You need to teach the dog
that life is better when the baby is there, and
so the dog wants the baby there. It's all psychology
and it makes sense. It's not like it's oh my god,
it's so difficult. It makes all the sense in the world.
It's common sense, and we often, unfortunately do it the
wrong way. But these are absolutely great, great books. We
look forward to it. Could you give us some information
real quick before we have to sign off. Where can
we find your book?
Speaker 3: You can find it on my website and that is S. O. P.
Three Publishing dot com and the SS and Sam ops
and Peter three the number three publishing dot com. And
if anybody does wish to purchase a copy and they
shoot me an email through the website and so that
they learned of it through your show, I will sign
it to them.
Speaker 2: Oh good, by the way, everybody, my copy is signed
as well. That's us.
Speaker 3: And then if people prefer Amazon, it's available at Amazon
dot com or Barnes and Noble.
Speaker 2: Excellent. Well, I do want to thank you. Our time
is up because half hour goes very fast. Best of
luckout again. I would love to, if it's not too late,
read over your manuscripts. Maybe throw in a suggestion or two.
Speaker 3: I'd love to discuss it.
Speaker 2: But anyway, it's great having you. When you when the
next one comes up, we will have you back for
sure and talk about that as well. And thanks for
joining us. I want to thank our sponsors once again.
Next week we have a very special guest. Her name
is doctor Heather Lenser. You can see her on Fox
for you can see doing some segments on the Today Show,
and we're going to talk about diseases that both pets
and people seem to get. It's very funny and sat
at the same time. And it's amazing how many similarities
there are between us and our four legged friends. So
we'll see you next week here on Ask the Vets
with Doctor jeffon pet Life Radio. Thank our sponsors Pro Sense,
Balmart Kong and we'll see you next week.
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