Are you looking for a great children’s book that teaches your child to be kind and caring?

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In Michelle Pendergrass’ book, Some Dogs Are Different, she takes us on a journey with Murphy and his friends who are all a little different.

Some Dogs Are Different Author Interview

Some Dogs Are Different

Some Dogs Are Different was the perfect book to read to my 2.5-year-old.

My wife and I want our kids to grow up to be kind, caring, loving, and productive human beings.

This book’s message is how we are all different and that is ok, the most important thing is to be understanding and kind to one another.

Sofia loved looking at the beautiful pictures of Murphy and his friends. I highly recommend this book.

Michelle Pendergrass

Michelle is the author of, Some Dogs Are Different. Michelle lives in Colorado with her husband, two boys, and two dogs.

Michelle has worked with dogs in the veterinary field and has a local dog-walking business to help busy people keep their dogs active during the day.

Michelle hopes that this book spreads a positive message and brings a smile to little faces who see it.

Some Questions Asked In The Interview

If you could just tell us a little bit about yourself and your book, and kind of what made you want to write this?

I have a three-legged Boston Terrier named Murphy.

We bring Murphy a lot of places, and most of the time when I would go to soccer games I would hear people say, “What’s wrong with that dog?”

It’d be adults asking and kids asking.

Every time people asked that it made me think that it would be a great idea to write a book so that people could read about Murphy.

Then when they see something that’s different, instead of thinking, “What’s wrong,” they can say, “Look at how awesome that dog is.”

And then relating the dog’s situation to people.

What is your hope with this book?

Is that this book is a tool for conversations. It’s a very short book. It is less than 400 words, but it can start very important conversations about differences, and that we all belong.

There’s one little girl, the grandmother bought it (the book Some Dogs Are Different) for her granddaughter who can’t hear.

The granddaughter who can’t hear, I believe she’s around eight years old, was reading it to her hearing brother and she got to Peppermint Patty, who in the book who also cannot hear.

She was reading to him, got to that page and said, “Oh, just like me.”

So it’s nice for them to see that they’re not alone. Look what this dog can do. Don’t give up.

Lots of messages from the book that, depending on the age, you can talk about after you’re done with the book.

Three legged boston terrier — Murphy & Habs

As far as Murphy, how did he end up becoming a three-legged dog?

I worked at a veterinary hospital for 13 years and love Boston Terriers, bulldogs, any squished-face dog.

A breeder brought in Murphy at six months old with a broken leg and said that they didn’t want him.

They gave him to the vet and just said, “Euthanize him,” which of course they were not going to do.

So everybody’s calling me, “Come, come meet this dog. He has a broken leg, he needs a new home.” My husband said … we had young kids at this time.

So I didn’t go meet Murphy, but they had fixed his leg. I just went to go visit him when he was in recovery, and I left with him. He was cute.

It was love at first sight. We brought Murphy home, he became part of our family, and the orthopedic surgeon said, “His joints are so bad in his right leg, you will someday have to amputate it.”

He rebroke it about eight months later, jumping from a couch. It’s been over six years that he’s had three legs, and it’s the best thing for him.

When he did have four legs, he was always limping on that leg.

What’s been your most interesting experience from writing this children’s book?

I get a lot of letters … My husband will come in, I have a desk upstairs in the living room and in the mornings I’ll have coffee and I’ll just start crying, and he’s like, “Oh my gosh, what’s wrong?”

Like, “What did I do?” I get these emails and thank-you cards and letters from people, from kids, kids have written, saying “Thank you.”

Podcast Episode

Here is the podcast episode on YouTube, as well as the podcast.

YouTube

Michelle’s Interview

Anchor Podcast

Other Podcast Platforms

The Boston Terrier Society Podcast can be found anywhere you get your podcast. Here are the top 5 podcast platforms I use to listen to the show. These links will take you directly to the Boston Terrier Society’s channel.

Where to find the book

You can find the book on Michelle’s website listed below. For a limited of time she is offering a coupon code of 10% off to the Boston Terrier Society readers and listeners.

www.somedogsaredifferent.com

Coupon Code: BOSTONTERRIER