South Shields author dedicates her third book to her beloved rescue dog Ellie

Lauren Davis, from Biddick Hall, has honoured her rescue dog Ellie, who was a staffie crossed with a husky, as she releases her third book, titled ‘Ellie’.

The 29-year-old author has written the memoir to Ellie, who passed away at the age of eight in 2020, with a unique twist as it is all from the point-of-view of a dog.

When Lauren was 10-years-old, she was diagnosed with scoliosis. The condition was so severe, medics warned she would need to undergo an operation within days if she was to have any chance of surviving.

She went on to have a further six operations, including one on her stomach, in a bid to make life more bearable.

Lauren was told she would never carry a baby because of all the ‘metal work’ she’d had on her spine.

After a sixth bout of surgery to re-curve her spine, she was told she could finally carry a baby - with her son Jesse-James born after she fell pregnant in 2019.

Lauren has previously told the Gazette how Ellie was diagnosed with diabetes during her pregnancy and she held on to meet Jesse-James before she succumbed to the illness.

Despite her previous two books, The Scoliosaurus and The Rainbow Snail, being for children, Lauren wanted to focus on more emotional issues with Ellie.

She said: “It felt awful to write as it was all still really raw but in a way, it was quite therapeutic as it was nice to get it all out of my system.

“Ellie was brought up in the kennels but when I got her at the age of five months, she really improved my mental health and I definitely helped hers.

“My last two books have been children’s books with illustrations but this time I just wanted to focus on the writing side of things and there are some things in the book that would be difficult for children to read.

“I’m over the moon with the reviews so far and it has been nice to see how much the book is being appreciated.

“At first, I was nervous to write the whole thing from a dog’s point-of-view but I’m glad at how well it has been received.”

As Lauren adopted Ellie from the Newcastle Dog and Cat Shelter, she has decided to donate some of the proceeds from the book back to the shelter.

She added: “It is amazing to be able to give back to the Newcastle Dog and Cat Shelter because the staff there are so nice and do an amazing job.

“I’ve done three fundraisers for the shelter in the past so I thought ‘why not write a book’ and help them out a bit more, it is just really nice for me to be able to give back.”

Ellie is available to purchase for £8, with 10% of every sale going to the Newcastle Dog and Cat Shelter - you can buy it by clicking here.

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