Memoirs of April: What a Blind Dog Helped Me See (Book Cover)

MEMOIRS of APRIL:

What a Blind Dog Helped Me See

by Katie Bithell
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Sometimes the farthest journeys of our lives take us not very far away from home at all.

When Katie Bithell discovered that her young dog, April, was going blind, the two of them set out on a path that would lead Katie past disbelief, anger, and doubt, and finally to the realization that life’s many obstacles are there to be surmounted and that they will not overwhelm the sturdy heart.

April showed this every day in ways that Katie couldn’t have imagined at the outset. There were stumbles along the way, to be sure, but April’s astonishing adaptation to her loss of vision gave Katie courage to face the other challenges in her own life.

Readers of Katie and April’s story cannot fail to come away with anything but admiration for their inspiring journey together.

Eyesight and insight are very different things indeed.

John Jordan – editor

Katie Bithell

Hi! This is Katie Bithell.

One of the most ridiculously hard questions first-time authors are asked is, “What is your book about?” I could say my book is about my dog April. But what is it really about? Here are some soul-searching thoughts from a week of thinking about that question:

April went blind at age 4 and almost immediately started amazing neighbors, friends, and me.

April, uncanny in her ability to navigate through her world of darkness, fetched sticks swimming in ponds and rivers; she caught bouncing balls out of the air; and April never crashed into anything chasing deer from the yard.

April’s story is not about being bigger, better, slicker or faster. There’s no sex, drugs, or violence. The flavor of the book is philosophical benevolence and warm humor. But at the onset I’d made a completely serious commitment to provide April, in spite of her handicap, with a full rich life. And I’m enormously proud to say I did not fail in that commitment.

Honestly, I think my book is about commitment. Over and over in MEMOIRS OF APRIL I use the phrase, “Love is what you do when you’re not feeling loving.” That’s commitment.

MEMOIRS OF APRIL could well be described as All Creatures Great and Small meets The Miracle Worker.