Geelong’s Karyn Connors has released her first children’s book about the special bond between a person and their assistance dog.
The One World For Children childcare centre owner wrote and illustrated ‘Kitty and I’ and will launch the book at the North Geelong centre.
Ms Connors said the story was “very personal” to her as it was based on her bond with five-year-old chocolate poodle Raffy, with the book told from his perspective.
“I’ve had Raffy for five years and he’s been a formally assessed assistant dog for three years,” she said.
“It’s a unique story about how we met and what transpired to have both of us trained. At the time, fewer people knew about assistant dogs, so I thought it would be a good way of educating children in the community about them.
“It was really about telling a story that I felt wasn’t tackled enough, and not just about assistant dogs, it goes far deeper than that, It’s really about anxiety.”
Ms Connors said Raffy was a big part of who she was and couldn’t imagine him not being in her life.
“It talks about anxiety being something like being afraid of coming across a lion in the jungle, so making it relevant and relatable to children,” she said.
“Lots of children have anxiety or their lives are touched by family members that have anxiety, so I really want to explain in ways that children could understand what anxiety is.”
Ms Connors said everyone was welcome to come to the book launch from 10am to noon on Saturday, December 9, and that there would be little goody bags for children, door prizes and competitions.
