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The pain caused by the death of a dog can be difficult to deal with, especially for children. When she saw how her daughters were struggling to cope with the loss of the family’s beloved pet, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Barbara Walsh did what she does best: she wrote about it as a way to discover the truths behind the story. The result is a new children’s book called Sammy in the Sky, which describes the life and death of Sammy, Walsh’s mixed-breed hound, and how her children, Emma and Nora, tried to cope with watching their best friend fade away:
The girls were told to enjoy their time with him, because it was drawing short. On the night he died at home, Emma echoed her father’s words: “You’re the best hound dog in the whole wide world.”
Walsh teamed up with famed artist Jamie Wyeth, and together, they created a book to both celebrate Sammy’s life and to take an unblinking look at the pain of loss. For much more on the story behind the book, its author, and the illustrator, click here for the story in USA Today.