Alison Rand - Walking Alison
Joining me for this episode is author Alison Rand. We discuss her latest memoir, Walking Alison. Told from the perspective of Alison’s savvy and smart black poodle, Dea. We discuss teachings and support provided by Dea during a life full of challenges, both physically and emotionally, in Alison’s life. Have a listen to this funny and heartfelt story. Enjoy!
Listen to Episode #200 Now:
BIO:
Author Alison Rand was born and raised in New York City. She has enjoyed an eclectic professional background, including acting, voiceovers, audiobook narration, advertising copywriting, and social work. She currently lives in Manhattan with her poodle Dea.
Interestingly enough, Dea and Alison share the same birthday, April 2nd.
Dea was born six weeks after Alison’s beloved first dog, Alba died. At first, Alison was so bereft she couldn’t imagine that she could ever love another dog, especially the way she loved and cared for Alba who had suffered from concurrent illnesses her entire life.
But, soon enough, Alison realized she was pining for another dog and got in touch with a breeder she had heard about from a Facebook post. The breeder told her the good news– a new litter of poodles would be born towards the end of March (it was already the end of February) but she couldn’t guarantee there would be a black female, the color Alison had requested. Alison knew she could not get another chocolate poodle, Alba’s color. Alison couldn’t think of anything else until she heard the news.
Dea, the only black female, was born in a litter of 4 puppies, the night of April 2nd.
Alison was overjoyed and understood that this was a relationship “meant to be”.
Dea is in love with life, all people and all dogs. She even gives strangers that she meets on her walks with Alison knee hugs. After the hug, the stranger would then tell Alison that Dea’s hug was the nicest thing that happened to them that day.
Transcript:
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Announcer: This is Pet Life Radio.
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Announcer: Let's talk pets.
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Tim Link: Welcome to Animal Writes on Pet Life Radio. This is your host, Tim Link, and I'm so glad you're joining us today.
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Tim Link: Super duper excited about this show.
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Tim Link: We've got a fun book to talk about, and a wonderful author.
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Tim Link: Her name is Alison Rand.
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Tim Link: Alison's going to talk to us about her latest book, Walking Alison, a poodle's mostly true story of helping her human navigate life.
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Tim Link: So I love that, love the title, love the cover.
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Tim Link: So we're going to talk to Alison a little bit about that, and talk to her poodle, Dea, get the viewpoint of Dea, since the book is written in that viewpoint.
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Tim Link: And then we'll obviously talk a little bit about writing, writing styles and publishing books, all that wonderful stuff.
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Tim Link: So it's going to be a fun, fun show.
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Tim Link: Everybody hang tight.
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Tim Link: Welcome back to Animal Writes on Pet Life Radio.
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Tim Link: Joining me now is author Alison Rand.
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Tim Link: Alison, welcome to the show.
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Alison Rand: Oh, it's really wonderful to be here, and I'm very grateful.
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Tim Link: Oh, well, it's our pleasure having you on.
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Tim Link: I love the book, Walking Alison, a poodle's mostly true story, so I want to pick your brain on that, but a poodle's mostly true story of helping her human navigate life.
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Tim Link: And we all know that our animals, our dogs in particular, navigate us down the right path or at least the path they want to take.
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Tim Link: So I love the subtitle on the book as well.
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Tim Link: Tell us a little bit about the book, Walking Alison.
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Alison Rand: Oh, sure.
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Alison Rand: Well, after I published my first memoir, A Place Called Grace, I heard from many people that they were curious what happened to me because it concludes in a bittersweet way and it's not a fairy tale ending.
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Alison Rand: Plus, I felt I still had more of a story to tell.
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Alison Rand: But I didn't feel that telling it from my own point of view was the way to go.
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Alison Rand: So as I looked for a different angle, I realized that only my beloved Black Poodle, Dea, knows me as well as I know myself.
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Alison Rand: And she's pretty opinionated.
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Alison Rand: So I thought, why not write my second memoir from her point of view?
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Alison Rand: I had actually been trying out some blogs from Dea's point of view before.
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Alison Rand: So it was on the back burner in a way to write my own story from her point of view was actually quite challenging.
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Alison Rand: I needed it to be completely different from my first very bare and open memoir.
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Alison Rand: Well, Walking Alison is also very bare and open, showing my vulnerabilities and health issues.
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Alison Rand: But writing it completely from Dea's viewpoint, not my own, is I'm just a character in her story.
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Alison Rand: And you know, in a way, it's like two different books for those who like memoirs and for those who can see themselves in other struggles in life and can relate, and those who would enjoy a story told by an amazing, proud poodle.
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Alison Rand: So trying to intertwine Dea's voice and personality into telling my story was the goal.
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Alison Rand: And it wasn't that easy, but it was the goal.
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Tim Link: Well, I think you did a marvelous job with her.
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Tim Link: Dea did a marvelous job with it.
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Tim Link: We'll give her credit on that for sure.
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Tim Link: It is interesting because oftentimes we'll see not necessarily memoirs, but books will come across, fiction books will come across in particular, mysteries involving the animals and animals solving problems, these type of things, whatever the book may be, but told from the dog's, in this case, dog's point of view.
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Tim Link: But rarely do I see anything come across where you're actually having the dog's opinion or viewpoint on a memoir.
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Alison Rand: Right.
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Tim Link: So I can imagine that that is difficult.
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Tim Link: And how did you strip out a strap, you know, move apart from the first book to this book to get into the, what you feel is the mind's eye or the inner body of Dea?
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Alison Rand: Well, this memoir chronicles many of the most difficult and also many of the joyous moments of my life.
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Alison Rand: And it begins when Dea is born, six weeks after my dog, my first dog, Alba, died.
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Alison Rand: And it was also on my birthday.
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Alison Rand: Dea and I have the same birthday, which is amazing.
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Alison Rand: So I knew it was a good sign.
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Alison Rand: And I take her home and she seems to suddenly develop her huge, proud, person, plural personality, but not without a lot of difficulty being left alone.
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Alison Rand: She's a very needy puppy and suffers from separation anxiety, which is very difficult in the beginning, and I couldn't leave the house.
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Alison Rand: But soon enough, after I get trained, and I write about this in the book because it was I who really got trained, she initiates all the good things that happened to me, like making so many new connections and bringing humor and more acceptance of myself and others into my world via our life journey and long walks together.
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Alison Rand: And of course, she has firm opinions about my love life.
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Alison Rand: I had fallen in love again with a man, which fortunately didn't work out, but she, well, she's okay with it.
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Alison Rand: She has firm opinions about my health in the book.
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Alison Rand: I write I had gone through two bouts with breast cancer, and her opinions about her own real life dog friends.
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Alison Rand: And anytime she's left alone in the house.
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Alison Rand: So, you know, Dea is my solace for all the bad and difficult moments I go through in this book, such as loss, illness, fear.
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Alison Rand: And she has her own reasoning as to why they happen.
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Alison Rand: She gives me a completely different perspective on all the vicissitudes of life that might seem really tragic to me.
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Alison Rand: But even when I hopelessly try meditation, for example, Dea feels this is ridiculous.
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Alison Rand: Why don't I just be in the moment like she does and go outside and sniff other dogs?
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Alison Rand: There's no need to sit in a chair listening to loud gongs.
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Alison Rand: So it's been an interesting journey trying to get her voice.
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Tim Link: I love that part of the meditation part because I've professionally recorded some guided meditations that are out there.
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Tim Link: I'm a big believer in meditation and guided meditation is definitely one path.
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Tim Link: Yeah, of course, listening to gongs and chants and mantras and, you know, getting in the lotus position is meditation.
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Tim Link: But I think that Dea hit upon it because I talk about this quite often, that meditation to me is anything allows your conscious mind to shut off and allows your subconscious to open up.
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Tim Link: So being out in part of nature and smelling the smells and seeing the things and just being there actually allows that subconscious mind to open up.
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Tim Link: So Dea was actually, in my opinion, directing you to the proper form of meditation, which is obviously the dog's perfect form of meditation as well.
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Alison Rand: Oh, absolutely.
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Alison Rand: I mean, she's taught me so many things.
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Alison Rand: I mean, as all animals do, I believe they teach us more than we ever give them credit for.
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Alison Rand: You know, also, I live alone in New York City.
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Alison Rand: And after going through so much loss, like my brother's death and my mom's death and my first dog Alba, plus my own serious physical illnesses like the cancer, Dea seems to understand that I'm a bit sensitive and sometimes a bit fragile, which she makes fun of, especially after I have a number of silly accidents, one of which that leads me into the ER with her by my side.
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Alison Rand: This was during one of our breaks from the city.
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Alison Rand: But even with my two bouts with breast cancer, she gets me out of myself because I guess of my love and caring for her, she also understands that my focus is really on her and that we need to throw her favorite toy of the day so that the day can begin well.
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Alison Rand: She knows if something were to happen to me, she would be my concern.
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Alison Rand: She always knows that.
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Alison Rand: But this wise and opinionated puppy literally pulls me along and moves me forward on our life journeys.
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Alison Rand: And really, it's her gift to me is when I realized I began to trust in myself and my own abilities again, experiencing an inward feeling of safety and security that I had always longed for.
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Alison Rand: And it's through Dea's teaching me that this really came to fruition.
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Alison Rand: It was a big part of the ending of my book.
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Alison Rand: Through each of the chapters, the one thing that Dea always accomplished was to help me look at life differently with more joy and acceptance and just being able to move forward.
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Alison Rand: So I don't know if people who don't have dogs would understand that, but we are so intertwined and we've gone through so much together that she really leads me in this journey.
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Alison Rand: I lead her too, but she really leads me in a different journey, appreciating life in such a different way than I never would if I didn't have a dog.
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Tim Link: I love that.
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Tim Link: Well, let's talk a little bit about the comparison in your take on this from writing your first memoir.
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Tim Link: How did you feel after writing that compared to writing this book?
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Tim Link: Was there a big sense of relief and feeling that, okay, I set out to tell my story in the first book?
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Tim Link: Or was it more of once this Walking Alison came out, it really allowed you to sort of release what perhaps you didn't get accomplished in the first one?
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Alison Rand: Oh, that is such a great question.
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Alison Rand: Really, my first book was my first memoir.
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Alison Rand: And yes, while it was cathartic, it was helpful to me to move forward as well.
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Alison Rand: My first book was about feeling really unmoored in New York City after my divorce and trying to be an actress.
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Alison Rand: And I needed an adventure.
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Alison Rand: So I moved alone to Rome, Italy, without knowing anyone or speaking the language or having any work.
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Alison Rand: But I made a life there.
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Alison Rand: I got a work permit by myself.
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Alison Rand: And lived there for three years until a terrible accident forced me to come back home.
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Alison Rand: But when I came back home, I went through a series of terrible, terrible losses where I lost my brother, and then my mother right after, and then my beloved first dog, Alba.
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Alison Rand: And I was a wreck.
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Alison Rand: I didn't want to do acting anymore.
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Alison Rand: I also got very sick with another illness.
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Alison Rand: And I decided to get my masters in social work, that that would be the best thing to do.
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Alison Rand: But I was really floundering until a quirky octogenarian named Grace, aptly named Grace, came into my life and helped me get my resiliency back.
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Alison Rand: She was an amazing woman.
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Alison Rand: And so this book does have a lot of humor in it, but it's also very, very bittersweet.
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Alison Rand: So it ends on a bittersweet note, not a happy fairy tale ending, as I said.
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Alison Rand: You know, other authors have written about moving to Rome, and then they meet Prince Charming, and their life seems to be wonderful.
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Alison Rand: My memoir is a bit different.
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Alison Rand: I don't want to say it feels more real, but it was more real for me.
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Alison Rand: It didn't happen so easily.
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Alison Rand: So, but this second book, Walking Alison, written in Dea's perspective, was the most joyful writing venture I've ever encountered.
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Alison Rand: It was very difficult.
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Alison Rand: And yes, we talked about difficult subjects and opened up a lot of vulnerabilities for me, but it's okay.
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Alison Rand: I mean, that's what a memoir is.
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Alison Rand: And writing, again, trying to write from her perspective, I tried to do the opposite of anthropomorphizing because I did not want to put human characteristics on Dea.
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Alison Rand: I tried to the best of my ability to write thinking, she's really a dog.
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Alison Rand: This is what she'd think.
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Alison Rand: She doesn't care about other things.
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Alison Rand: She wants to be with me all the time.
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Alison Rand: She wants to sniff flowers.
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Alison Rand: She wants to run around.
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Alison Rand: She wants to be very social.
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Alison Rand: So writing from that perspective was the biggest joy, I can tell you.
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Alison Rand: It was a complete different venture.
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Tim Link: That's fantastic.
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Tim Link: What would you say if you were asked the one thing that this book taught you that the first one didn't or the one thing, let's perhaps say Dea has taught you when going through writing the book, Walking Alison?
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Alison Rand: Oh, she's taught me.
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Alison Rand: That's an awfully wonderful question as well.
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Alison Rand: What she really taught me with this book was to not take myself so seriously because if I wrote it from my own perspective, I think, oh, this is so sad.
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Alison Rand: This is really awful.
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Alison Rand: The breakup, the this, the that, the illness.
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Alison Rand: But when I write it from what I truly believed, she could be thinking and feeling and saying, it's comical, it's lighter.
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Alison Rand: I can look at life in a different way.
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Alison Rand: And it's a lot easier to move forward that way and not stay stuck in any particular sadness.
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Alison Rand: I hope that answers your question.
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Tim Link: Yeah, absolutely.
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Tim Link: And I think that's the key, you know, and you highlighted a little bit earlier in the fact that, you know, memoirs are sort of, you know, yes, you're telling your story, but it's also a release of, okay, here's, here's all my stuff.
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Tim Link: You know, take a look, take a look at it.
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Tim Link: You've asked for it.
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Tim Link: Here you go.
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Tim Link: Be careful what you ask for.
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Tim Link: But oftentimes I find with memoirs is there's not the healing aspect afterwards.
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Tim Link: You know, you tell your story, but okay, now what?
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Tim Link: What are you doing now?
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Tim Link: How is this putting this pen to paper, we'll say, old school here, helped you get through that situation?
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Tim Link: Or is it more of you've just told your story and you're still haven't had a release?
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Tim Link: And it sounds like in the book, Walking Alison, this is your chance to not only tell the story and the challenges that you faced, but also now a release in Dea's voice and in a comical way without making it a comedic type book.
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Alison Rand: Absolutely, right on.
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Alison Rand: Yes, it was a release.
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Alison Rand: I wanted to continue my story because, you know, I'm not alone in my story.
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Alison Rand: I'm sure there are many people that can relate to cancer, being scared, living alone, isolation, you know, living in New York and going through COVID alone and all the things that I wrote about.
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Alison Rand: But the release is the joy of my dog and me as partners, you know, getting through this together and looking at it from what I believed her perspective would be.
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Alison Rand: Maybe I'm right, maybe I'm wrong, but that's what I truly believed.
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Alison Rand: She has so much personality, this dog.
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Alison Rand: She's not just a lap dog.
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Alison Rand: I mean, she's so comical and silly and she's a very proud poodle.
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Alison Rand: And yes, she has separation anxiety and she's very needy.
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Alison Rand: But her opinions, I just thought, made my foibles very funny and very relatable to other people.
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Alison Rand: I wanted to be as honest about my own stuff as I could be.
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Alison Rand: And it's a lot easier to be honest via my dog, actually.
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Tim Link: Absolutely fantastic.
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Tim Link: Well, you did a great job of doing that.
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Tim Link: So we'll take a quick commercial break.
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Tim Link: We'll come back right after this.
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Tim Link: We'll continue our conversation with Alison Rand and her book, Walking Alison.
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Tim Link: You're listening to Animal Writes on Pet Life Radio.
00:17:52.320 --> 00:17:58.300
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Tim Link: In the workshop, you'll learn the essential techniques that are necessary to communicate with animals, including what is animal communication, breathing correctly to achieve the perfect state to communicate with your animals at a deeper level, using guided meditation exercises and methods to communicate with animals, and how to send and receive information from your animals.
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Tim Link: So if you're wanting to learn how to communicate and connect with your animals at a deeper level, visit petliferadio.com forward slash workshop and purchase and download Learning to Communicate with Animals.
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Tim Link: You'll be glad you did.
00:18:51.660 --> 00:19:08.740
Tim Link: Welcome back to Animal Writes on petliferadio.com We're continuing our conversation with author Alison Rand in her latest book, Walking Alison, Poodle's mostly true story of helping our human navigate life.
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Tim Link: So we talked a little bit about the book and the memoir and looking at this from Dea's standpoint and the differences between your previous memoir and this new memoir, Walking Alison, when people pick up a copy of this book and whether they read your first one or not, but in this case, if they have read the first one, what do you hope they gain from that?
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Tim Link: Is there a tidbit you hope they walk away with or what was your goal in putting together this particular book?
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Alison Rand: Definitely.
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Alison Rand: I tried to write it and I believe that there are some layers of poignancy in this book.
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Alison Rand: First of all, the power of the human-animal bond has so many layers and can help in so many ways via the complete selflessness of a dog.
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Alison Rand: For me personally, but also I believe that these are universal themes for so many people.
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Alison Rand: For me, the power of a bond with Dea or for someone else, the bond with the dog in their life, dealing with the serious illness multiple times with more resiliency and keeping the focus on Dea, even before the cancer was something I always would do, but also during the cancer, loneliness.
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Alison Rand: There is a huge loneliness epidemic in this country, I think.
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Alison Rand: And having a dog by my side and I tried to write that we were such a team, there's nothing more helpful, and the love and fear of loss, which I've suffered from, because I've lost most of my family.
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Alison Rand: Having a dog or a cat enables one to care about something or someone other than themselves and put that focus on the animal.
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Alison Rand: So what I wanted people to get out of this really was about getting through life's ups and downs.
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Alison Rand: Sculpt is only helped by the human-animal bond.
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Alison Rand: Dea engages in life, and she makes me more engaged in life.
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Alison Rand: She became really my best teacher, because writing this from her point of view made me see my world completely differently.
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Alison Rand: In other words, life's vicissitudes can be looked at differently, and I began to look at them through Dea's eyes and learn to appreciate the humor of some of my life's struggles.
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Alison Rand: I tried to show the reader through Dea's voice that it is okay and a good thing to laugh at your own foibles.
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Alison Rand: So my bond with Dea helped me on my journey, my own journey, to finding more self-acceptance and self-love in the face of having gone through so much loss.
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Alison Rand: During the darkest moments of my life, my dogs have always been there with me, right by my side.
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Alison Rand: And I have to tell you, there's nothing that helped me more.
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Alison Rand: We all know dogs live in the moment.
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Alison Rand: And I began to see life differently with her by my side.
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Alison Rand: We met also, I met amazing new connections with neighbors and strangers with dogs.
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Alison Rand: Via Dea, during COVID alone in New York City, she gave me a sense of normalcy and routine during our long walks.
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Alison Rand: It was our only connection with the outside world for a while.
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Alison Rand: So I guess one of the big points is with this human-animal bond that is so humance, I don't think we give credit to how much dogs and animals do for us.
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Alison Rand: But I just wanted people to realize to never underestimate the power of loving an animal.
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Alison Rand: It can become the strongest love for some of us.
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Tim Link: Very well put.
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Tim Link: And the book definitely covers that in detail, you know, it really gives it a good perspective.
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Tim Link: And I think you're absolutely right.
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Tim Link: Whether we've gone through, I'm sure we've all gone through loss in our life, we've had health challenges in our life, we've had personal challenges in our life.
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Tim Link: And for those listening to this show, they definitely know that a dog or any other animal can definitely help you get through that, better understand that and come out a better person on the other end.
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Alison Rand: Oh, definitely.
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Tim Link: So everybody go out and pick up a copy of the book.
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Tim Link: It's called Walking Alison, a poodle's mostly true story of helping her human navigate life.
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Tim Link: And we will make sure to everybody check out Alison's site as well.
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Tim Link: It's allisonrandauthor.com and we'll post that on the site so everybody can take a look at all of your writings and all the wonderful things you've got going on.
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Tim Link: So Alison, thank you so much for coming on the show.
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Tim Link: It's a real treat and love the book and just keep up the great work.
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Tim Link: Look forward to chatting again somewhere down the road.
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Alison Rand: It's been wonderful.
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Alison Rand: Thank you so much.
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Tim Link: While we're coming to the end of the show today, I want to thank everyone for listening to Animal Writes on Pet Life Radio.
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Tim Link: I want to thank the producers and sponsors for making this show possible.
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Tim Link: If you have any ideas, comments, thoughts or questions, you can drop us a line at petliferadio.com.
00:24:12.438 --> 00:24:16.398
Tim Link: And while you're there, you can check out all the other wonderful shows and hosts.
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Tim Link: It's a cornucopia of great entertainment with always an animal in view.
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Tim Link: So everybody take a look at that.
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Tim Link: So until next time, write a great story about the animals in your life and who knows, you may be the next guest on Animal Writes on Pet Life Radio.
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Tim Link: Have a great day.
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