The culture and experience of reading a bedtime story is a time-honored tradition to soothe children into sleep, helping them learn and feel safe, comforted, drowsy, loved. Depending on how young or how tired the child is, they may take in less of the story and more of how it feels to receive the attention, soothing voice, rhythm of the story, love.
This also is true among dogs. They may not know what happened to “Thomas the Train,” “Charlotte’s Web,” or “The Giving Tree,” but, by their reader’s tone of voice, they know everything is in order, so they can let down their guard and slip into sleep. But what if there were a bedtime story written just for dogs? A story written for a dog, about a dog, by a dog?
Tennessee, a hound dog-Doberman mix, born in Pueblo, Colorado and languishing in a shelter there, must have wondered what it would be like to be adopted, to be bathed, brushed, petted, fed from his own bowl and tucked into sleep in his own bed. His dreams an imaginings came true when Jeanine Keller, living in Breckenridge, Colorado at the time, discovered him on Pet Finder and set out immediately to adopt the 9-week-old pup who had been hoping for her.
Ultimately, she brought Tennessee to Carmel, where he grew up racing down that long stretch of white sand framing Carmel Bay, chasing sticks and splashing in the surf, hiking wooded trails, and settling into his bed in his safe home in Carmel Valley. All he was missing was a bedtime story. So, he wrote one.
“Tennessee Goes to the Beach” is the story of a day in the life of a Carmel canine, starting with waking up in the morning and following his person into the bathroom and waiting, unwilling to leave her company lest she forget that his breakfast comes next. Tennessee is always certain that finishing breakfast leads to a ride in the car which might be the highlight of his day. Except more exciting than that is knowing this ride ferries him to Carmel Beach. There, he chases his way down the sand among a canine cohort, jockeying for sticks, seaweed, seagulls, and sandpipers.
At the end of the beach, down below the 10th hole at the Pebble Beach links, the dogs take it as an invitation to turn tail and work their way back down the beach, pausing their progress to wrassle with each other along the way. This is followed by another great but significantly subdued car ride and, once home, a nap, where Tennessee is lulled into sleep by his very own bedtime story.
“The idea of a bedtime story by dogs for dogs came to me while reading a magazine article about how librarians are seeing an uptick in kids learning to read by reading to their dogs,” Keller said. “This is so important for young readers because dogs give them a sweet, patient, nonjudgmental audience, which takes the fear factor down.”
So, Keller collaborated with Tennessee to write a dog-centric book, using words and phrases a dog might recognize, and including situations and scenarios common to a Carmel canine experience. The story is told ostensibly through Tennessee’s experience, from early morning through a dog-day at the beach.
“I published this book, which had languished in my brain for years, in August,” said Keller. “Motivated by the special, insightful relationship between humans and dogs, I hired well-known local photographer Glenn McDowell to photograph local dogs and settings, and graphic designer Rene Balducci out of Salinas to design the book. I knew what I wanted, described my vision, and they made it happen.”
Yet, if you ask anyone else in the canine community or its associates, Tennessee was the “paw-thor” of record for this book.
“The story is sort of Seussical,” Keller said, “with rhyming verse and a similar rhythm to Dr. Seuss poems. Which is often the way we talk to dogs, using a simple rhythm and inflection to engage them. The book, minus the time it takes to pause and study the imagery, is about a two-minute read, unless you hang out a bit with the imagery, stretching it out to five.”
A dog day afternoon
Keller has always enjoyed writing. Back when she was applying to colleges, she wrote a series of short stories and essays, through which she found her voice. Yet, once she went off to the University of Hartford, where she majored in secondary math and education, she put her writing on the shelf.
“Sometimes, when you get older, and life gets busy,” she said, “you don’t do the stuff you really like doing. But the time and opportunity and inspiration came back, particularly once Tennessee, my beloved, my best boy, died, in 2017.”
Today, the story Keller wanted to write in Tennessee’s voice has a cover on it, thanks to inspiration, she says, from Sabina, a 16-year-old Queensland Heeler-Airedale mix, and German shepherd Bucky, a triple-foster fail from the SPCA, now 7, who had one last chance at placement, this time, with this forever family.
“Bucky came to us with so many issues,” said Keller, “but he is such a good boy. He still likes to tackle the high-energy ball-dogs on the beach, but we’ve taught him not to. He looks at me with a question in his eyes, still hoping for permission, but he maintains his manners on the beach.”
Both dogs are featured throughout Tennessee’s storyline and imagery through photographs augmented by graphic elements and text.
“This book, ‘Tennessee Goes to the Beach,’ is a testament to the love of my dogs,” said Keller, “and everyone else in this canine community, who can relate.”
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