Weekends with Daisy (ePub)

Currently in development with CBS Films, this is the emotional and uplifting memoir of a woman who became a volunteer trainer for Daisy, a sweet yellow Lab puppy, and her unique relationship with the inmate who is Daisy's partner in the Prison PUP program.

When Sharron Luttrell, a journalist still deeply mourning the loss of her family dog, found out about a weekend puppy raiser program for a service dog organization, she knew it was just she needed to help her move on. It seemed ideal; pick up a puppy on Friday, return it on Sunday night, get a new puppy each year. No strings attached. Well, it turns out that there were strings – and they tugged at her every Sunday evening when she had to return “her dog” to prison.

This memoir chronicles Sharron's year co-parenting Daisy, a sweet lab puppy, with Keith, a convicted felon serving a decades-long sentence. As Sharron and Keith develop a rapport based on their brief weekend handovers (an exchange she describes as "divorced parents handing over the kids"), she begins to speculate about what the quiet, gentle Keith could have done to wind up in medium-security prison. When, through an accident of fate, Sharron finally discovers the crime Keith actually committed, she is shaken to her foundation. How can she continue to work with him, knowing what she does? But can she dismiss her personal experience with him, which has been nothing but kind?

Ultimately, she looks to Daisy to pull her through—she must “think like a dog” and react in the present, not the past. Mindful of how much Daisy has taught her in a short time, Sharron can also see how much this special dog has helped Keith learn empathy, remorse, and to face the consequences of his actions. As the two of them work tirelessly to ensure that Daisy passes her final test and fulfills her destiny by becoming a service dog, Sharron tests the limits of her own strength, compassion, and capacity for love.