Inspiration Travels on Four Legs
By Jane Singleton

While seeking the guidance of spiritual healers, Christine Davis was asked by them, “If failure was impossible, what is the one goal you’d choose to accomplish before you die?” Chris, in search of her path in life, felt destined to follow a path that would impact people and their connections to animals. And, with the courage of her convictions, Chris found that path and continues to follow it today.

“I left my birthplace of New York City at the age of 22,” Chris said, “telling Mother that I didn’t know where I was going, but that I’d let her know just as soon as the bus got me there.”

Chris was searching for her “soul-work.” In Portland, Oregon, she found it and has been there for almost 29 years. “People tell me I still have the drive of a New-Yorker,” Chris said, “but I never connected with the city.” In the past 10 years, Chris has authored, illustrated, and published three books that celebrate the timeless connection between people and their animal companions: For Every Dog An Angel, For Every Cat An Angel, and, due out this summer, Old Dog and the Christmas Wish.

Chris began writing about “miraculous events” in her life with no idea that the writing would lead to becoming a published author and an independent businesswoman. Chris found her path and pursued it unflaggingly.

At first, before she realized her own talent at illustrating her writing, Chris interviewed artists. “But their angels were so perfect – they could have been displayed in the Sistine Chapel – they were way too magnificent for the words of my story in For Every Dog An Angel,” Chris said. So, with only her New-Yorker’s-drive and her deep spiritual connection with her dog Martha as inspiration, Chris began to sketch.

“I said, ‘Hey,’ and got out my makeup brushes and a 99 cent tray of watercolors and set-out to see what I could do. And, that’s how I began illustrating,” Chris said.

In illustrating her newest book, Old Dog and the Christmas Wish, Chris graduated to multi-media artist. She now uses watercolor, colored pencil, and dog-hair, she laughs. “My house is so full of dog hair flying everywhere that I’ve just given up and I’m incorporating it into the art – it provides texture and that’s fine.”

The inspiration for all three of the books came from deep within Chris’ soul. Chris always had an innate connection to all creatures when she was small, but especially to the dogs that were in her family. Chris’ childhood was a troubled one, so at an early age, she was looking for a way to escape. That’s where her connection with dogs started. “We had a lot of dogs and there would always be a dog sleeping in bed with me at night as my protector. It gave me a sense that if I could snuggle up to that fur, I had a chance. Then morning would come, I would open my eyes, and I would be OK,” Chris said.

Except for a three-year period when she first moved to Oregon, Chris has always shared her love and her home with a dog or dogs. “I can’t imagine living my life without creatures and without fur-r-r,” Chris said, as she almost snuggled into the word fur. “I can’t imagine not having fur in my toothbrush. If I visit someone’s house where there are no creatures, I always feel that something is missing.”

Chris shares her life now with “my old-boy Jake” and four kitties that Jake discovered eight years ago. Jake, a 75-pound collie/shepherd mix, was a cat-hater originally. He would see a cat and start drooling and want to go on attack, until the day came that he found his own litter of kittens in the yard under the deck. He brought them inside to raise as his own. As Chris said, “Jake knew what it was to be homeless.”

But before Jake, there was Martha. “I want to tell you about the gift that Martha gave me – the greatest gift.” Martha, “part poodle, part Bouvier, part shag carpet,” was born in Chris’ arms and was with her through all the changes in Chris’ life – divorce, job changes, moves.

It was 1995 and Chris was working in corporate America. “There was something so soulless about working in an office – for me it just felt empty,” Chris said. So with Martha, Chris began the search for soul-work that involved animals. “Where am I to go with this love of dogs? This love of Martha? What is my path in life?” she asked.

Chris took her questions to a Cherokee spiritual healer who said, “Chris, what is going to be your give-away? In our tribe and in the native world, when you are inviting something new into your life, you have to give-up something to make space for it.” (Chris offered-up brussel sprouts, but got only a frown from the Cherokee woman.) “Look, Chris, the bigger the thing you are asking for, it may mean that the bigger the thing you give away must be.” And Chris was asking for the path to her soul-work – guidance to her lifelong path.

Only a couple of months after this experience, Chris came home to find Martha standing outside in a trance – catatonic. Two weeks later, Martha died. “I had tried everything – all that New York blood came rushing through my veins and I was determined to help Martha live,” Chris said. “But nothing the veterinarians and I did made a difference. When I lost Martha, I lost my passion for finding my soul-work. I didn’t care anymore.”

Chris visited the spiritual healer again, lamenting the fact that she had lost all passion for finding her path. The healer said, “Chris, this is your path. It just doesn’t look the way you thought it would look.”

About a year later, the words of For Every Dog An Angel came to Chris while she was meditating. “So that’s the gift that Martha gave me – Martha’s greatest gift to me was to leave me. Martha knew that the only way I could make a difference along my path was to experience the loss of her down to the very depths of my soul,” Chris said.

“Out of that loss came a book that people respond to because, I’m sure, it came from the most honest and pure, open and vulnerable part of me. Had Martha still been by my side, I couldn’t have written that book.”

Martha died in October. Chris still had a little dog named Gypsy, 16 years old, blind, and deaf. Chris had no intention of bringing another dog into the house for fear it would interfere with Gypsy. “But soon, I found myself at the animal shelter looking for a female dog about Martha’s size. I was looking for a big furry, hairy dog because I love big furry, hairy dogs,” Chris said. “But I came out with Jake, a male Border collie/German shepherd mix. I saw Jake and he was everything I wasn’t looking for but everything I needed.”

Jake is nearing the end of his life now, but in his heyday, Jake had his own little fan club in Portland. He would be at Chris’ side at book signings and other public appearances. He would get fan mail, Christmas cards. Chris’ newest book, Old Dog and the Christmas Wish, was inspired by a dog named Maya, but it’s about Jake. “The nature of the dog in the book is the nature of this dog who’s lying under my feet right now. The book is my gift to Jake,” Chris said.

Chris met Maya in December 2004, just before Christmas. Chris was driving in a wooded area of the city down a dead-end road on the way home when she noticed a dog chained in front of this very humble little house – a shack. “I passed the dog for several days then one day I stopped, knocked on the door of the house and asked what was going on,” Chris said. “The chain allowed the dog to get to the road; there was no dog house, and it was winter.” The family told Chris that someone who could no longer keep Maya had given her to them. The family didn’t really know what to do with the dog, but they didn’t seem to want Chris to get involved.

“I was pushy,” Chris said. “I brought the dog a Christmas basket, then a big dog house, and let the family know that Maya needed a new home.” After about three weeks of this, the family agreed to let Chris and a local rescue society find a new home for Maya.

“The family was very gracious with me, even though I was butting-in. One of the children, a little boy who wanted to be a writer, asked me to come into the house with him,” Chris said. “It was Christmas and he wanted to show me a sacred Christmas object that his family treasured.”

From Chris’ experiences with Maya and the little boy, came the inspiration for Old Dog and the Christmas Wish. “Animals come to us for a reason,” Chris said, “then it’s up to us to decide whether or not we want to participate.”

When asked about special recognitions her books have received, Chris mentioned The Maxwell Award. In 2004, her new edition of For Every Dog An Angel won the best-book-under-100-pages award from the Dog Writers Association of America. Chris also gets almost daily recognition from individuals who have read her books. “I get emails from people, I get gifts and cards and letters from people who say they just needed to tell me what happened when they read my books. They tell me about the peace the books brought them in the loss of their own animals,” Chris said. “And now I know – 10 years later – that I found my soul-work. I found what I am supposed to be doing. That’s why I get up every day!”

For your copy of For Every Dog An Angel visit our store and check back later to purchase Old Dog and the Christmas Wish due out this summer.