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Ex-medical writer’s life goes to the dogs
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Children’s book illustrator Jenny Campbell of Chagrin Falls introduces Ollie, a King Charles cavalier spaniel, to students at Struthers Elementary School. They were there Thursday as part of a literacy program, along with author Sandra Philipson, who writes about her spaniels.
By Jeanne Starmack
STRUTHERS
When a springer spaniel named Annie lost a leg to cancer 12 years ago, her owner, Sandra Philipson of Chagrin Falls, found a new calling.
Annie has since died, but her story lives on in “Annie Loses a Leg but Finds her Way,” a children’s book by Philipson, a former medical writer of research documents.
“Once Annie lost her leg, I gave all that up,” Philipson said Thursday after a literacy presentation at Struthers Elementary School. “And I’m glad. Boy, it’s been fun.”
Annie not only inspired her owner to begin writing about her spaniels, including Tak and Ollie, who came with Philipson to Struthers, but she inspired kids with cancer, Philipson said.
Annie met up with another three-legged dog on a walk, Philipson told pupils gathered in the lunchroom for one of several presentations. “I used to imagine their conversations about what they could still do even though they have three legs,” she said. “It’s focusing on the positive.”
She and her illustrator, Jenny Campbell of Chagrin Falls, work in turn to inspire kids to read and write.
The dogs and their stories grabbed the kids’ attention — there were plenty of “ooo’s,” “aaaah’s,” and other delighted gasps during a slide show that showed the real dogs, Annie, Max, Tak, Trini and Ollie, in between Campbell’s book illustrations of their adventures.
After Annie died in 2005 at 15, Philipson said, she got Max. “I wanted to train him into the male version of Annie,” she said. “It didn’t work. He was his own dog.”
Mischievous but sweet, Max liked to escape to a nearby swamp and come home covered in mud. On one school visit, he jumped into a fish tank in the library. On another, he went into the principal’s office and ate her lunch. He starred with Annie in the 2002 TV movie “Miracle Dogs,” which is based on the story of how she beat cancer.
His book, “Max’s Rules,” chronicles the story of how he dealt with a new dog, Tak, coming into his home.
“We all get younger brothers and sisters, and Max wasn’t taking it well,” she recalled. He made up a list of 36 rules for the new dog, “but eventually discovers that too many rules are not a good thing,” she said.
Max and Tak eventually became good friends, fighting occasionally now over who gets to ride “shotgun” in the car, she said.
Trini also had three legs — she was born that way, Philipson told the kids.
She was “set out on the road” in North Carolina in 2005 to find her own way, she said. With the help of a rescue group, she eventually found her way to Philipson. Her book, “Forever Home,” is about support, love and rescue, she said.
Ollie doesn’t see objects the same way others do. His book, “Ollie’s Monsters,” is a lesson on imagination, Philipson said. Only Ollie sees the danger the fearsome vacuum cleaner poses.
With input from a dozen volunteers on what he should look like, Campbell drew a character named Jeff, who took Tak, bespectacled in sunglasses, to the beach.
“This was character development and setting the stage,” Campbell said. “Now the only thing missing is what’s going to happen to Tak at the beach — you would write the story.”