My Dad's Dog

About the Book

"My Dad's Dog" has majority of poems about rescued dogs Jan and her Dad own, and observations Jan has made of the way dogs are treated and perceived in our world. Her collection of works expands to include our greater world of relationships to other animals, family, friends, trees, all the living things we think we own, and of which we are a part. Photographs of these actual rescued pets, and the other pets Jan has raised as her own family, and of the inspiring real life world in which Jan lives make "My Dad's Dog" come to life. She touches briefly on a few major changes in her own life- sobriety, sudden disability, and how her animals, family and friends, with open hearts, stepped into her life and helped her adjust. Jan lives in Amado, Arizona, in a small neighborhood of very diverse cultural/economic strata of households. She finds beauty in the surrounding Santa Rita Mountains, the ever-changing, unbelievably inspiring Arizona skies, the natural beauty of the Arizona cienagas and deserts, as well as in the hearts of her family, neighbors and friends in Amado. Her own small backyard Habitat, or "the Garden," as described in her first book, "Garden Songs," houses many species of birds, bats, butterflies, amphibians and reptiles, as well as feeding the plethora of migratory and residential birds that make Southeast Arizona famous as a birder's Mecca. Jan's Backyard Habitat, which she and her husband Bruce began creating before her disability occurred, brought her cherished Nature into her back yard, just when her beloved hiking became so difficult for her. Now, "the best birding is in my back yard!"

About the Author

Jan Gaylord lives in southern Arizona , in the tiny community of Amado, with her husband Bruce, her wolf Charlie, seven dogs, two cats and countless birds that frequent her backyard Habitat, known as The Garden. She has frequent publications in the local paper, the Connection, and reads her works aloud at art showings at the Straw House Gallery in the Amado Territory. A retired RN, she is passionate about the outdoors, especially southern Arizona, which inspires many of her works. A backyard birder,her husband and she maintain a small Backyard Habitat that is frequented by birds who have made this part of Arizona famous as a birder's Mecca. Her pack of "littles" (dogs no bigger than a breadbox, many of whom are rescued ) her wolf Charlie, and her two rescued cats, Merlin and CassieKat are her constant companions and also inspire many of her poems.