A Dog’s Life Gift Book | Dogs Trust & The Little Dog Laughed
A quick recap in case you don’t know the background to this art project or have far more important things to remember!
To celebrate The Little Dog’s 25th year of existence, we wanted to mark the occasion by giving a little something back and by doing what we believe we do best – drawings dogs! Being in a reflective mood had us thinking about how our business first started and what makes us stand a little aside from the pack. Rescue dogs are and always have been our inspiration, therefore it was an easy mental leap to approach Dogs Trust – the UK’s largest dog welfare rescue charity, to see if they’d be interested in a partnership with us and to collaborate on a special collection.
It turns out they did and so we have!
Partnerships
In the past we’ve worked on projects with other animal charities – Battersea Dogs & Cats Home for our 10th anniversary and the RSPCA for our 20th, but hopefully, what will make this collaboration extra special is the warmth, loyalty and fondness people have for Dogs Trust. Their popularity and reach is a touch bigger than ours – over a million at the last count! Our humble input is the creativity, artwork, humour and a smidge of style for what promises to be a heartwarming and original collection.
The Project So Far
For the last twelve weeks Anna has barely moved from her art desk, existing – despite her healthy eating promises, on her default setting of chocolate, biscuits and tea! Her home is a health and safety disaster zone and the dog has switched his allegiance to the other household members for his walks and supper. Piling on the pounds, her bottom is a completely new shape! She missed her hair appointment, had her car smashed in and written off and failed by almost four weeks to hit the deadline. It’s gone exceptionally well! But, at long last the end is in sight. All the artworks are finished and the final proof reading and editing done. It has been an intense few months but we think the results look strong. Hope you agree!
The plan for this range is to make the gift book featuring over fifty rescue dogs from Dogs Trust, the centrepiece of the collection. Their stories touch on everything from divorce, friendships, new careers, health, misfortune and motherhood. Some will make you laugh, some will definitely make you cry, mostly, we think it will resonate with those who function best with a dog in their life.
The Target
The fund raising target is £25,000 and a percentage from the sales across all the collection’s additional card and gift lines, including coasters and a 2024 calendar and diary should help us reach this total. The big launch is September 2023. Now, it’s really not a good look to beg, but, this is about forever homes so please, please, please consider adding it to your list for Father Christmas, every book sold really will help Dogs Trust and the invaluable dog welfare work that they do.
The Artwork | A Preview
Here is a quick snapshot of some of the rescue muses from the book, starting with the Jacks, because, well, they insisted they went first!
Meet Emmy, the high energy, bat eared legend who has climbed the 3 Peaks and raised over £2000 for Dogs Trust with her coastal challenges.
Or how about little Lacey, the faithful companion who kept her human focused and sane when she was going through a heartbreaking divorce.
And then there is Greg, an elderly chap who liked to get straight to the point, the point being whatever worked best for Greg!
Perhaps you’d like to know more about Figg, the sweetest Staffie and animal assisted activity dog who tornadoes her way into everyone’s hearts!
And if you are going to meet Figg then you must also stop to admire Logan, a soulful legend who had a penchant for soft furnishing thievery.
And then of course there is flower girl Maddie and page boy Flea, itching to get to the bit where the vicar says ” You may now lick the bride”
There is a good chance you’ll find your ‘breed bias’ among the pages. From Labs to lurchers, Rotties to rascals, doodles to dachshunds. They are all here, and if by chance they aren’t, leave a review and demand for Vol.2!
And for all you calendar and diary faithfuls, 2024 will be slightly different in that all the dogs featured will be Dogs Trust rescues with a percentage of each sale helping to reach that donation total.
Want a sneaky peak of the covers? Oh alright then, twisted our arm! 
Finally, if you can think of any dog friendly businesses or events that might want to help sell a small counter top display unit of books, drop us a line or comment below, a number of our veterinary practice customers have already pre-ordered so our hope is to reach the places that are not necessarily obvious or on the high street.
Okay, time to leave you in peace, thank you for reading our news and apologies if we’ve waffled on, a touch of cabin fever!
Take care and best wishes from all of us at the Little Dog xxx
How do I pre order the book and calendar?
Good morning Lisa, we’ll add your email address to an interested spreadsheet and make sure you are notified first when the stock arrives. Thank you so much for your message, best wishes, Anna
What a wonderful idea!
Lovely to see dear Basil on the cover. Will definitely be ordering. Thank you
Insisted on him being the front cover muse, felt that was the least he deserved!
Will need at least 3 copies. How wonderful.
Ann x
Marvellous, thank you!
Hello, Please can you add my email address to your files and let me know when the book is available? Such a fantastic idea, I hope it sells out completely for you.
Thank you, you’re on the list!
Please include me on your ‘Definitely interested/want list’! Thank you.
Done! thank you x
Pls let me know when the calendar is available – thanks
Absolutely and the calendar will likely be available from mid August so we’ll ping a little “Now in stock” nearer the time.
Could you add me on pre order for book please
A pleasure, thank you!
Could you add me to your pre order list please… wonderful idea!
Our Molli dog is in the book and she’s also miss August in the calendar, thank you so much she deserves to be a super star.