Author Don Landy provides canine and feline pet owners with a first person look at grief and grieving in a way that may surprise you. Don Landy never expected to have a dog in his life. After falling for a German shepherd named Sabrina and spending nearly eleven years together, Landy found himself sitting on the floor holding the lifeless body of his beloved dog in his arms and sobbing uncontrollably. Reeling from the loss he vows never again to take a pet, and thereby sets himself up for the inevitable pain that most pet owners experience when the end approaches. A Letter to Tia: Grief. Grieving. The Love, Pain and Loss of a Friend is his personal account of coming face-to-face with grief and grieving. Pet owners of all ages will find comfort, insight, and at times humor in this reflective, life-affirming story of love and loss. A Letter to Tia recounts Landy's past and present struggle with the loss of pets. He starts with the death of his show cat, Charlie Brown, twenty-five years ago and continues through to the recent diagnosis received by Tia, his German shepherd. After the previous loss of Sabrina, Landy and his wife accepted Tia into their lives with understandable trepidation. To insure they made the right move they test the relationship between Tia and their kitten Holly and discover they have become fast friends. However, when Tia is diagnosed with inoperable cancer at four years old, the author finds himself staring down the prospect of consuming sadness over the grim forecast for her survival. Landy chooses to process his grief full-on, identifying the tremendous toll that loss takes on pet owners, and how best to cope with the emotions that accompany it. With a life enriched by memories of his meaningful times with Tia, Landy's book addresses this exceptional feeling of loss, while also offering proof that miracles do happen. A moving tribute to the strong love that is forged between pets and pet owners, A Letter to Tia: Grief. Grieving. The Love, Pain and Loss of a Friend is sure to provide readers with a good cry, and a good laugh, as his compassionate, deeply felt, and surprising book celebrates this extraordinary bond.
About the Author: Don Landy is a late-blooming lover of dogs and cats. A former automotive executive, he retired at the age of fifty-five years old after serving as president and chief operating officer of a group of companies that are known throughout the world. His wife is a professional breeder of show cats, and, as a result, dogs were never allowed in the house. He took in his first dog at the age of fifty-seven, after the dog, who had been dropped on a rural road, managed to find his carport. He and his wife found a family for the dog, and, in turn, found themselves heartbroken. When they lost our first dog after nearly eleven years, they said, "Never again," but seven months later, Tia entered their lives. A Letter to Tia: Grief. Grieving. The Love, Pain and Loss of a Friend is his deeply personal account of confronting Tia's diagnosis with cancer, and experiencing the grief that pet owners endure when dealing with the loss of a beloved pet.