Читать книгу Tails of Recovery - Nancy A. Schenck - Страница 8

PREFACE

The concept for Tails of Recovery came to me one day while I petted my sweet Sophie, a Labrador and pit bull mix my partner and I rescued in June 2006. Her unconditional love and visible gratitude for being saved from certain death was unmistakable. She knew we saved her, and I think she knew she saved me as well. Sophie didn’t care that I once struggled for fifteen years, battling an incurable disease. She didn’t care that I found recovery from the disease of addiction and had been clean for twenty-three years. She didn’t care that I was consumed with shame and guilt for the things that disease caused me to do. She just wanted to feel the warm touch of my hand and hear the gentle cooing of my voice. And I just wanted to feel those wet kisses and scratch between her ears.

Today I am light-years away from the wasted 109-pound shell of a human being I was when I experienced my third and, mercifully, final overdose. I am one of the few fortunate enough who, through trust and determination, found a new life in recovery. Addiction is a horrific disease. Throughout this book you will find facts about addiction and the terrible toll it inflicts upon our society. Many people view addiction as a lack of willpower or evidence of a morally weak character. Nothing could be further from the truth. Addiction is a brain disease that can affect anyone regardless of socioeconomic status, gender, race, religion, or celebrity. My hope is to not only inform you about this disease, but also offer insight into its effects on all creatures that come in contact with someone who suffers from addiction.

I wanted to write about how the spirits of animals, especially those we choose as our companions and pets, can heal and help mend souls wounded by addiction, by other disease, and by life’s trials. While physical trauma and abuse undoubtedly destroy one’s spirit, I believe the emotional and spiritual trauma that burrows deep into our souls is what often haunts us for the rest of our lives. The wounds I nurtured and kept close to my heart were over forty years old, and it was those wounds my Sophie helped to heal.

I also have included information about the therapeutic value animals have on a number of medical conditions, effects sharing one’s life with a pet can have on the mind, body, and spirit, and responsible pet ownership and care.

The stories in this book are from people in recovery who share, in their own words, how the destructive force of addiction wiped out their capacity to function as human beings and how their pets helped to bring them back to humanity.

I hope you find inspiration from the honest self-disclosure of these individuals; but before you start to read this book, let me warn you, there are parts that will be hard to read, even harder to comprehend or imagine. While this book’s essence—hopefully conveyed throughout these pages—is one of redemption, the path of many to finding that redemption has been paved with heartbreak and awful consequences. For some, it was during their darkest hours that a tiny sliver of light glowed with hope and allowed them to find the recovery they so desperately sought. Others found the strength and courage to stay clean one more day because of the unconditional love their pets gave.

Tails of Recovery is about how pets came into the lives of addicts, before and after recovery, and the impact each had on the other. All of these stories are about hope and courage, pain and sorrow, happiness and joy, and grief and loss; but ultimately, these stories are about love and the absolute power it has to heal and change lives.