Betsy Pauly was an animal lover who liked nothing more than to help stray creatures: \u201cIf there was a cat or dog that appeared to be on its own, she would round it up and get it rehabbed, get it socialized, and then have it adopted.\u201d When Betsy died, she left behind a document recounting her adventures; her husband, Chips, reached out to Braaksma, a book coach and editor, with the manuscript. This work explores both Betsy\u2019s writing and what that writing has meant to Braaksma. She explains that she felt a connection with Betsy, even though she herself is not particularly an animal person. This left her to wonder, \u201cwhy did she appeal to me so much?\u201d As Braaksma puts it, Betsy \u201chad sass, and she had spunk, but she was far from perfect.\u201d Betsy\u2019s writing conveys what it was like rehabilitating strays and seeing that they went to good homes\u2014she didn\u2019t want to collect animals, she wanted to help them. And she wasn\u2019t shy about her disgust regarding animal neglect and abuse. The reader learns things from Betsy, like how it can be difficult to place animals when they age beyond their kitten and puppy stages and turn \u201cinto teenaged Tasmanian devils who dig, claw, climb, bite, and break their way toward sedate adulthood.\u201d The text also covers moments from Braaksma\u2019s life, such as her realization of how little one can \u201ccontrol the cries, sounds, and discomfort of another living thing.\u201d The dual perspectives make for a refreshing blend. Betsy does, however, like convoluted sentences\u2014she writes of one cat, \u201cPeter Pan, on the other paw, hemmed and hawed his way around us like a lost little black panther that took a wrong turn at the last watering hole.\u201d Still, the reader comes away with an understanding of an unlikely bond.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Betsy Pauly was an animal lover who liked nothing more than to help stray creatures: \u201cIf there was a cat or dog that appeared to be on its own, she would round it up and get it rehabbed, get it socialized, and then have it adopted.\u201d When Betsy died, she left behind a document recounting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":5079,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5078"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5078\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}