My sister's book Pawprints of Katrina

I'm very excited about my identical twin sister's just-launched book: Pawprints of Katrina I'm going to her booksigning at BestFriends Sanctuary in Kanab, Utah this coming Saturday, July 26th. I have not read the book yet, just the inside flaps and lots of reviews. I wasn't going to buy the book until I go to the booksigning so I could have it autographed by Cathy and Ali MacGraw, who wrote the forward and will also be at the signing Saturday. I need to be up to snuff, so to speak, so I now want to read the book on the way to Kanab so that's what I'm going to do. I will be going to Barnes & Noble tomorrow to pickup my copy.

Immediately after the flooding in New Orleans, Cathy was hired by Best Friends to document their animal rescue efforts. She dropped everything, including her classes she was teaching at UNLV, to go. As is with disasters, human kind rises to the occasion and not in a small way. Cathy's experiences in and around New Orleans were life changing and she was compelled to write about what she learned and saw. It had to be shared. So here it is. I'm proud of her so I will join her Saturday with my husband Bob, my brother, Mike Scott and his wife Sharon from Idaho. I only wish our Mom and Dad were here, too, they would be so proud but I have a feeling they'll be surrounding us wth their love. It will be a pleasure to be at Best Friends and be in the company of people who cared enough to put their lives on hold, stay in tents for weeks with little if any sleep, put themselves in harm's way in order to help where they could, touching lives and saving helpless, beloved pets who were left behind.

Here is the official information on the book launch:

A book launch event will be held on Saturday, July 26, marking the national release of author Cathy Scott's book, PAWPRINTS OF KATRINA: Pets Saved and Lessons Learned (to be released this summer by John Wiley & Sons).

The event will be held from 1:45 p.m. - 5 p.m. at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary's Welcome Center (5001 Angel Canyon Road, Kanab, Utah 84741, a 3-1/2-hour drive from Las Vegas). Refreshments will be served.

Attending and signing books will be actress and animal activist Ali MacGraw, who wrote the book's foreword, and photographer Clay Myers, who has more than 70 compelling photos in the book. Also signing will be police K-9 handler Cliff Deutsch, who is featured on the cover rescuing a dog.

On display at the Welcome Center patio deck during the event will be Ark, a full-sized replica of a flat-bottomed boat used to save animals from floodwaters. It was created by Cyrus Mejia, in-house artist and a co-founder of Best Friends . The 4-by-10-foot boat is covered in a unique collage of animal admissions forms (with rescued pets' pictures), photos from volunteers, satellite images of Katrina, maps of New Orleans and strips from pet product bags used during the rescue effort.

Volunteers from Katrina will be at the event, and many Best Friends staffers who worked in the region will be attending too, so it will very much be a reunion. While book signings are scheduled for other parts of the country (including New Orleans on the third anniversary of Katrina), this is the kick-off event and a great opportunity to visit the sanctuary.

To find out where to stay in Kanab, go to: http://www.bestfriends.org/atthesanctuary/angelcanyon/visitorfaq.cfm.

A new Holiday Inn Express has opened in Kanab (435-644-3100), so if the sanctuary cabins and cottages or other hotels are full, the new one will probably have openings. Summer is a busy time in the area, because of nearby Zion, Bryce and the Grand Canyon, and booking early is highly recommended.

If you'd like to take a free tour of the sanctuary, which sits on 33,000 acres in Angel Canyon with about 1,800 animals on any given day, you'll need to book a reservation by calling 435-644-2001, ext. 4537. Or, for more info, go to: http://www.bestfriends.org/atthesanctuary/angelcanyon/visitorfaq.cfm