Join us on a literary world trip!
Add this book to bookshelf
Grey
Write a new comment Default profile 50px
Grey
Subscribe to read the full book or read the first pages for free!
All characters reduced
JJ's Journey - A Story of Heroes and Heart - cover

We are sorry! The publisher (or author) gave us the instruction to take down this book from our catalog. But please don't worry, you still have more than 500,000 other books you can enjoy!

JJ's Journey - A Story of Heroes and Heart

Tracy Calhoun

Publisher: Diversion Books

  • 0
  • 1
  • 0

Summary

Tracy Calhoun, a longtime nurse, shares the heart-melting story of working alongside JJ, the Therapy Dog, the brightest and most intuitive dog Tracy has ever trained in this memoir loaded with over 60 color photos of our canine hero and pals. When not mooching dog treats, JJ is dedicated to helping humans cope with tragedy and loss through love and hugs. 
Tracy Calhoun, a nurse on staff at Samaritan Evergreen Hospice House in Oregon, paused at the bedside of an elderly patient in a coma. The woman had no family or friends, but the hospice team had learned she liked dogs, so Tracy put her Golden Retriever, JJ, a staff “therapist,” on the woman’s bed. JJ snuggled up, nuzzled a motionless hand, and then settled in, letting her body warmth cuddle and comfort the patient in her final hours. The woman, who had been unresponsive for days, then performed her final, intentional act. She stroked JJ’s head. 
Tracy recorded the intimate moment on her phone, then uploaded it to Facebook where she was keeping a modest account for friends, family, and community members who knew her and JJ. In August 2015, that video went viral, and was rapidly seen by tens of millions of viewers worldwide. To Tracy, it was a turning point in her mission to explain to a wider audience the joy that therapy dogs provide, and to do it with humor and canine chaos, as only a dog obsessed with bacon, puppies, and swimming can.  
Along the way, Tracy’s own story has grown and changed through her love of animals, and she’s found, in difficult times, she has needed the same comfort her pups offer to patients—for herself.
“These stories of an unforgettable and deeply intuitive Golden Retriever named JJ, as told by her fabulous handler Tracy, are shared with humor and heart. Many wonderful moments happen when working with therapy dogs and reading about JJ’s magic is an extraordinarily moving experience.” — Donna Frindt, Executive Director, Project Canine 
“An emotionally satisfying and entertaining collection of tales not only between a dog and her human, but between this remarkable soul in a Golden Retriever suit and dozens of people in crisis—from hospice care to school shootings.” —Janet Velanovsky , Owner, Kaizen Pet Training & Behavior 
“An inspiring memoir, JJ’s Journey illustrates the medical and spiritual benefits of the human-animal bond through JJ’s unwavering patience, love, and support for the hospice patients and their grieving families. JJ’s Journey brings to light that in our greatest time of need, every person can feel they are loved, honored, and mean something in this world thanks to the unconditional love that comes so naturally from a therapy dog’s heart.” —Colby Webb, Founder, Sav-a-Bull Rescue and author of Forty One Pit Bulls
Available since: 10/03/2017.

Other books that might interest you

  • When You Come to a Fork in the Road Take It! - Inspiration and Wisdom from One of Baseball's Greatest Heroes - cover

    When You Come to a Fork in the...

    Yogi Berra, Dave Kaplan

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    Everyone knows Yogi Berra for his famous non sequiturs : "It ain’t over ’til it’s over." "It gets late early out here." "The future ain't what it used to be." They seem like throwaway lines, but over time they reveal deeper meanings—playful truths, like Zen koans. Yogi's not trying to be mystical, but his seemingly simple phrases reveal the depth and wisdom of his mind. 
    In this  book, Yogi takes his experiences as one of baseball's all-time heroes and turns them into funny, appealing, and moving essays on the game of life. His philosophy is plainspoken and down-to-earth, hones through more than 50 years of reflecting on the game of baseball: "Keep trying. Stay humble, Trust your instincts.  Most importantly, act.  When you come to a fork in the road, take it." 
    In his inimitable style, using apt examples from his personal trove of baseball stories, Yogi tells us what really matters in life; what it takes to win, how to learn from losses, how to remain true to yourself, and how to be happy even when life is throwing you nothing but knuckleballs.
    Show book
  • On the Duty of Civil Disobedience - cover

    On the Duty of Civil Disobedience

    Henry David Thoreau, Eireann Press

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    Thoreau wrote his famous essay, On the Duty of Civil Disobedience, as a protest against an unjust but popular war and the immoral but popular institution of slave-owning.
    Show book
  • A Child of the East End - cover

    A Child of the East End

    Jean Fullerton

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    Sorrow and joyin London's oldest suburb. . .Welcome to the East End.Life in Cockney London was tough in the post-war years. The government's broken promises had led to a chronic housing shortage, rampant crime and families living in squalor. But one thing prevailed: the unbeatable spirit of the East End, a tight-knit community who pulled through the dark times with humour and heart.Drawing on both family history and her own memories of growing up in the 1950s and '60s, as well as her working life as a district nurse and local police officer, Jean Fullerton vividly depicts this fascinating part of London - from tin baths, to jellied eels, to tigers in a Wapping warehouse.A Child of the East End is an eye-opening, heartfelt and atmospheric portrait of life in the East End after the war, and is perfect for fans of My East End by Gilda O'Neill, Four Meals for Fourpence by Grace Foakes and Call the Midwife by Jennifer Worth.
    Show book
  • See How They Run - cover

    See How They Run

    Geoff Hoon

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    This is an open and frank account of how someone from a railway family in a small East Midlands town went on to become a Cabinet Minister serving in the Ministry of Defence as Britain conducted difficult and demanding operations in Sierra Leone, Afghanistan and Iraq. It sets out his political career from his earliest days knocking on doors for the Labour Party through to his becoming a Euro-MP, an MP for eighteen years and a Cabinet Minister for almost ten years. It describes his careers as an academic, lawyer, politician and in international business, as well as his commitment to conservation and protecting the environment.
    Show book
  • Defying the Nazis - The Sharps' War - cover

    Defying the Nazis - The Sharps' War

    Artemis Joukowsky

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    In 1939, Rev. Waitstill Sharp, a young Unitarian minister, and his wife, Martha, a social worker, accepted a mission from the American Unitarian Association: They were to leave their home and young children in Wellesley, Massachusetts, and travel to Prague, Czechoslovakia, to help address the mounting refugee crisis. Armed with only $40,000, the Sharps quickly learned the art of spy craft and covertly sheltered political dissidents and Jews, and helped them escape the Nazis. After narrowly avoiding the Gestapo themselves, the Sharps returned to Europe in 1940 as representatives of the newly formed Unitarian Service Committee and continued their relief efforts in Vichy France. This riveting true story offers listeners a rare glimpse at high-stakes international relief efforts during World War II. Defying the Nazis is a fascinating portrait of resistance as told through the story of one courageous couple.
    Show book
  • A Burst of Light - and Other Essays - cover

    A Burst of Light - and Other Essays

    Audre Lorde

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    "Lorde's words — on race, cancer, intersectionality, parenthood, injustice — burn with relevance 25 years after her death." — O, The Oprah Magazine Winner of the 1988 Before Columbus Foundation National Book Award, this path-breaking collection of essays is a clarion call to build communities that nurture our spirit. Lorde announces the need for a radical politics of intersectionality while struggling to maintain her own faith as she wages a battle against liver cancer. From reflections on her struggle with the disease to thoughts on lesbian sexuality and African-American identity in a straight white man's world, Lorde's voice remains enduringly relevant in today's political landscape. Those who practice and encourage social justice activism frequently quote her exhortation, "Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare." In addition to the journal entries of "A Burst of Light: Living with Cancer," this edition includes an interview, "Sadomasochism: Not About Condemnation," and three essays, "I Am Your Sister: Black Women Organizing Across Sexualities," "Apartheid U.S.A.," and "Turning the Beat Around: Lesbian Parenting 1986," as well as a new Foreword by Sonia Sanchez. "You don't read Audre Lorde, you feel her." — Essence "Lorde's timeless prose in this collection provides contemporary social justice warriors the language, strategies, and lessons around resistance, through the power of intersectionality, a Pan-African vision, and — ultimately — through the power of love and radical self-care." — NBC News "When I don't know what to do, I turn to the Lorde." — Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Bitch Media "Whenever my mind is heavy with questions and my heart thirsts for nourishment, I turn to the writing of Audre Lorde. Every time I revisit the words of Audre Lorde, I marvel over how relevant they continue to be." — AfterEllen.com "The self-described black feminist lesbian mother poet used a mixture of prose, theory, poetry, and experience to interrogate oppressions and uplift marginalized communities. She was one of the first black feminists to target heteronormativity, and to encourage black feminists to expand their understanding of erotic pleasure. She amplified anti-oppression, even as breast cancer ravaged her ailing body." — Evette Dionne, Bustle Magazine
    Show book