Derby is Graduating!

Back when I was still involved with the annual Pets in Space anthologies -- before the series changed hands -- I donated toward the training of two Hero Dogs. 

Hero Dogs is a noble organization that raises and trains service dogs for disabled first responders and the Pets in Space volumes donated to the cause every year since inception in 2016. It was a great choice, IMHO, the perfect charity to be supported by limited edition volumes with a focus on "pets in space."

Both service dogs I sponsored had names that held meaning for me. 

The first was MITCH. 

Mitch is also the name of the hero of my as-yet-to-be-published novel, The Outer Planets, so picking out my first pup was an easy task. I followed him through his training and, as I was about to by a part of the second Pets in Space release, he graduated to become a bonafide service dog (not all pups make it, so I was very proud of him). This was the announcement I made on this blog on November 4, 2017:

_________________________________________________________ 

~ ~ ANNOUNCING A VERY SPECIAL GRADUATION ~ ~

 

As a participating author in both of the Pets in Space anthologies to date, one of the bonuses is being able to help support the Hero Dogs organization with a 10% donation from all preorders and first month's sales.

 

My Hero -- Hero Dog Mitch
Photo credit the Hero Dogs site

A year ago, while involved with the original Pets in Space, I "adopted" one of the Hero Dog trainees -- Hero Dog Mitch -- as a side project and made special donations to assist with his training toward becoming a service dog over the last year. (You can read Mitch's blog here.)

 

I am absolutely delighted to announce that tomorrow, November 5th, Hero Dog Mitch will successfully graduate the Hero Dogs program as a service dog and will be paired with a US Coast Guard veteran!

 

Much is asked of these dogs, and not every candidate has the right stuff to successfully graduate as a full-fledged service dog, so this is a very special occasion indeed. I received a personal invitation to attend from Hero Dogs, but will be unable to make the trip to Maryland this weekend to witness Mitch's graduation.

 

I want to take this opportunity to wish Mitch and his veteran a very long, happy, and successful partnership.

  

_______________________________________________

I was super proud of my boy, Mitch. :) 

After his graduation, I picked out a second pup to support for future Pets in Space volumes, and her name was DERBY. 

For those of you who are familiar with me, you probably know that we've been involved in breeding and/or raising Thoroughbreds for well over a decade, so "Derby" was an obvious choice. 

(Link to Derby's page at Hero Dogs)

Today, I was notified in a newsletter that Derby is now graduating, also as a bonafide service dog. She made it! 

Her graduation ceremony will be on October 7th (which will be right around the time the latest volume of Pets in Space will released this year--but no, I haven't been involved with PISA in a number of years now). 

Here's Derby's class graduation announcement:

The graduation of Derby feels like the Pets in Space chapter of my authordom is now closing. Though I'm still planning to publish my last former Pets in Space story -- Courting Disaster -- later this year, and that will close the entire book on my involvement with the Pets in Space franchise which introduced StarDogs to my Inherited Stars galaxy. :)

StarDogs will be back in later stories (or at least, that's the plan) but Pets In Space now feels a bit like a booster rocket that's been jettisoned. It helped to get me where I am, but it's no longer part of the program. 

Best wishes to Mitch on his continued mission as a Hero Dog, and Happy Soon-to-be-Graduated Derby. It was fun sharing part of my journey with two very exceptional Hero Dogs.