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Be pretty hilarious, that's what!

The picture below is of the funny and very hairy Yorkshire terrier that inspired the Zooky the Terrier Adventure Series.

What CAN a Dog Do? 

Ours makes us laugh, does funny tricks, escapes through a hole in the fence and occasionally talks like Scooby Doo. While doing that, this zany little terrier [Scout] inspired a set of characters and a children’s picture book.  In the story, Zooky [the Terrier] gets wind of a problem to solve and all the dogs in the neighborhood join the cause.

Why?

The idea for the character and the book was dreamed up between freelance projects while giggling girls played in the background.  During a day of sketching and brainstorming, I was thinking about how much fun the terrier brought to our house and wanted to find a way to package that up. While drawing a character based off of our dog, I commented to my daughter that it would be fun to help kids with it too. She said, "But what can a dog do?"  That question became the name of the first illustrated story.  Below is a picture taken on a snow day a few years back; he's all snuggled up with MacKenzie.

Initial Goals: 

One of the goals of the project is to help kids around the world. In the fall of 2016, we put together a treasure chest of Zooky the Terrier books for a local silent auction.  It raised a thousand dollars for a village in Kenya that rescues kids out of dire situations and gives them a home, nutrition, clothing, medical care, and an education.  

 

Another goal of ours is to help put a smile on the faces of kids in the hospital.  One thing dogs are great at is giving a lot of unconditional love and that's worth passing on.  We've been able to donate some drawing pads, notebooks and crayons to local children's hospitals and we hope to continue to do that.

 

I'm also very excited about the university education my daughter is pursuing and the opportunities that will afford her.  The retail sales of the book collection will help towards those costs.

Here is a picture from the silent auction.  This hand-painted treasure chest is filled with crayons and colored pencils along with the Zooky books.

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