Mark Conkling

Dog Shelter Blues, a Novel Mark Conkling

     This hard-hitting story lights up the world of animal rescue with engaging characters and their pets, bringing hope out of personal tragedies. Danny Sandoval, a character from Prairie Dog Blues, joins up with his friends to take on Norma Jean Lawson and her Safe Sanctuary No-Kill Rescue Center in Albuquerque. Danny accuses Safe Sanctuary of negligent animal care, claiming they do more harm than good.
     Norma Jean puts up a fierce fight through her attorney Ray, and sues Danny for libel and slander, seeking $500,000 in damages. Danny's friends all rise to his defense: a veterinarian friend, Virgil Hummel, his AA friends Mark and Dave, and his lover Ida.
      In the midst of the legal battle, Danny and Norma Jean also struggle with internal demons as they attempt to rescue dogs and cats, innocent creatures that sometimes bring a mysterious transforming power to broken lives. As Danny recovers from burns from a fire, he faces his childhood grief and begins to heal in the warmth of people who care. Norma Jean endures psychological abuse, and then rises up to face the evil of her lover William Redfield, finding that bad motives often end in darkness, and that animals and a clean heart can reveal pathways to God's healing. Dog Shelter Blues takes these beaten, everyday people on a breathtaking journey that ends with an astonishing triumph of good over evil.