The Nicholberry Dispatch

Therapy Dog Episode One, and Puppy Brain goes to prison

BOOK NEWS

There it goes again, surprising me by showing up in places I never imagined. Puppy Brain is featured on the cover of Bay Woof Magazine. The article, Behind the Walls: How a Prison Program is Raising the Next Generation of Service Dogs, explains how Puppy Brain is the foundation of a curriculum at California State Prison, Solano, where incarcerated men are studying how a puppy develops from conception through eight weeks of age and putting that science into practice raising future service dogs.

Created by the National Institute of Canine and Service Training (NICST), Paws on a Mission began in 2021 with just a handful of inmates and has grown into one of the most robust prison-based canine programs in California.

Of the many ways this moves me, one of the deepest is imagining how my words — words I wrote while flying in a plane or sitting on the couch with Harper on my feet — might reach the men who are reading them. It’s the the quiet thing happening alongside the training, because to learn how a puppy comes to feel safe, resilient, and ready for the world is to ask, somewhere deeper, how any of us do. They’re learning to give these puppies a safe emotional foundation, and I suspect that in doing so, some of them are revisiting, and maybe even repairing, their own.

SOMETHING TO WATCH

We kicked off our live podcast series on therapy dogs and I couldn’t be more grateful for the generous sharing that unfolded in this episode. What a truly remarkable group of women who gave so openly of their time and experience. This is an introduction into the world of therapy dog work that both demystifies the process and equips you with tangible next steps.

And for those of you who love following USA Gymnastics “Goodest Boy”, @goldendogbeacon made the cutest cameo. Love his sugar face, and love the story of how his human, Tracey, found her way into therapy work.

Every one of their stories was encouraging and inspiring, and revealed just how big of an impact we can make in our communities through therapy work.

SOMETHING TO WATCH

The 79^th Tony Awards Mashup

This newsletter promises to bring rabbit holes and links to random things I love, which invariably leads us to this. Broadway’s biggest night was hosted for the first time by Pink, who has built arena spectacles for decades, but never actually performed on Broadway. I love that she poked fun at her nervousness (cannot imagine), and as always, I was wowed by her vocal range.

This opening number is genius: 170 performers, a string of cameos, including Megan Thee Stallion introduced by two of my favorites from Ragtime, and June Squibb (the oldest acting nominee in Tony history) unexpectedly joining in from the front row.

Aside from the spectacular performances, it’s fun to watch a roomful of people who spend their lives onstage be genuinely delighted and surprised. Give yourself seven minutes to feel the same.

SOMETHING TO CONSIDER

“Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of overcoming of it.”

- Helen Keller

SOMETHING TO LOVE