Weekends with Daisy

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 Ryan, a convicted felon who by the time they met had already spent more than half of his life behind bars for a crime he’d committed as a sixteen-year-old. The book traces Daisy’s evolution from puppy to service dog, and how through the process of training and caring for her, Sharron tests the limits of her own strength, compassion, and capacity for love.