The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – You and the Sunshine, Dylan…The Life and Times of a Caring Friend by Linda Sanders

Episode Date: May 18, 2025

You and the Sunshine, Dylan...The Life and Times of a Caring Friend by Linda Sanders Amazon.com Dylan, the Golden Retriever therapy dog, has helped so many. As Sanders writes, "I considered it my responsibility to do whatever was necessary to see that he could fulfill his mission in life . . . to be of service to others." Sanders carries on Dylan's work with this book. With touching photos and heartfelt, unadorned prose, sometimes humorous, sometimes stark and uncompromising, Sanders reveals the depth and power of interspecies communication, bonding, and support. When Dylan looked at you, his gaze penetrated directly into your soul. Any posturing of the ego or cultural assumptions of human superiority evaporated into the profound comfort of sharing the essence of one's existence with another sympathetic being. In one photo, Larry, sitting in a wheelchair, cries and calls Dylan the names of every dog he used to have. Dylan returns his gaze and the caption reads, "Yes, I'm right here, we all are." We could learn much from Dylan. You and the Sunshine, Dylan is life-affirming, funny, touching, makes one cry, surprising, informative, and healing. The photos alone tell an incredible story of caring for others who need it most. There's no other choice, but to love this book that makes you smile between some tears. With deep psychological insight and inspired prose, Sanders breathes new life into Dylan's legacy. Dylan's Veterinarian, Anne Rylestone, DVM, PhD About the Author Linda Sanders recently retired after working for 50 years in demanding private and public sector management positions. Although she succeeded in finding time for creative pursuits of music and theater, as well as carrying out her personal mission to ease people's suffering in any small way she could, it was only after she retired that she found the time to write her first musical comedy, "Living the Island Life" and her first book, "You and the Sunshine, Dylan...".

You wanted the best. You've got the best podcast, the hottest podcast in the world. The Chris Voss Show, the preeminent podcast with guests so smart you may experience serious brain bleed. The CEOs, authors, thought leaders, visionaries and motivators. Get ready, get ready. Strap yourself in. Keep your hands, arms, and legs inside the vehicle at all times. Cause you're about to go on a monster education rollercoaster with your brain.

Now, here's your host, Chris Voss. Hi folks, it's Voss here from the ChrisVossShow.com as always. Chris Voss Show! Hey guys, welcome to the big show. As always, the Chris Voss Show is a family that loves you but doesn't judge you, at least not as harshly as everyone else. Go to Goodreads.com for Chess Chris Voss, LinkedIn.com for Chess Chris Voss. Chris Voss won the TikTok Indian, all those crazy places on the internet.

You can find out more about it. Opinions expressed by guests on the podcast are solely their own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the host or the Chris Foss show. Some guests to the show may be advertising on the podcast, but it is not an endorsement or review of any kind. Today's featured author comes to us from bookstolifemarketing.co.uk. With expert publishing to strategic marketing,

they help authors reach their audience and maximize their book's success. Today we have an amazing young lady on the show. We're going to be talking about her book called You and Sunshine, Dylan, The Life and Times of a Caring Friend by Linda Sanders out March 11th, 2025 on paperback. Welcome to the show, Linda. How are you? I'm very well, thanks Chris. Welcome to the show, Linda. How are you? I'm very well. Thanks Chris and yourself.

I am excellent. I am excellent. We're going to be talking about your book today. You recently retired after working for 50 years in demanding private and public sector management positions. And now you're writing books. How about that? Yeah.

How about that? Yeah. How about that? You found time to write your first musical comedy, living the island life. And this is your first book, you and sunshine Dylan. Do you have any dot coms, any places on the internet you want people to find you or get to know you better? Um, maybe later once my second and third books come out, but right now I haven't set anything up. I haven't set an

author's page up yet. Pete So, give us 30,000 over you. What's in your book? You and the Sunshine. Julie This is a book about my golden retriever that I trained as a therapy dog before therapy dogs were ever popular here. They, they existed in Europe. And so this was like 25 or more years ago that this happened and picked up this puppy from a litter. I love golden retrievers. I love all animals. It doesn't matter. Fun though, aren't they? They're kind of special. Yeah. They're smart and cute.

Yeah. I got talked into getting a puppy. It had been like five years since my chocolate lab died and my friend said, oh, you really, really it's time. So I was looking at this litter and I picked up this little golden puppy. He was like the middle of the litter of nine in size and everything. And and he looked at me in my eyes. Wait a minute. You're a puppy.

You're supposed to be scattered all over the place. You're you. You shouldn't be holding attention like this. But he did. And I thought, oh, boy, he would make a great service dog. But I'd already fallen in love with him. So I had to look for something else that he could do to help people because that's what he was about. I could, I could see it.

Puppies couldn't make that much contact with a human age. So I did some research and found that in Europe, they had started, I don't know if it started there, they had therapy dogs and there was an organization, Therapy Dogs International. And now, you know, we have so many therapy dogs in the States now, thank goodness, because they just do great work with people. But back then, he was kind of on the vanguard of helping people. Pete How long did he, is he still alive? How long did he live? Marcia Oh, no, no. This was like 25, 30 years ago. He lived

to 14 and a quarter years, which is pretty good for a golden. Pete That's pretty good for a big dog. I have huskies and they, they're supposed to only last about 11 to 10 years on average, but I've been lucky to get them 14, 15, 16, although my recent one was 10. But you know, they're, they, they sure make an impact in the short time they're here. Debra Larson Absolutely. Pete Slauson On lives. I mean, the one thing that's interesting about dogs is they seem to be very intuitive, maybe some more than others as you're talking about with you,

with Dylan, but they sure seem to be intuitive as to what we need. You know, my dogs, they, they can always tell when I'm stressed, when I'm upset or something's bothering me or, you know, usually stressed and they're just, and, and, and they'll, they'll come to you and, or, you know, usually stressed and they're just, and, and, and they'll, they'll come to you and, and, you know, it's, it's, it's like, people think they're being needy, but you know, it's, oh, this dog is all up, you know, on me and, you know, what the hell's going on? It just wants to be petted and it's, it can actually, it's actually trying to help you. It's, Hey, I can feel your stress, but I know that if you pet me

and give me some love and attention, it'll take your mind off that and you'll feel better. And you know, it's just pure unconditional love that dogs give that I. Denise Jelinski Absolutely. I have a puppy right now who just turned two. He's a golden doodle. He's not a golden retriever because I got old and I can't really pick up a golden retriever and he'd be anymore. And that little guy, his name is Chase. He would never make a therapy dog, never ever. But he loves people and I live in an apartment complex with 300 apartments and everybody knows Chase

and they love him. So he's helping in his way, but no, I'd never, never train him to be a service dog. So, you know, I mentioned in your bio you spent 50 years working in the workforce there. What made you decide to be a writer or was it, what made you decide to be a writer and start writing? Dr. Piafra-I'm actually probably didn't make that decision. It just happened. I'm pretty creative and so it didn't take long, but my Chase's veterinarian asked for a picture of my old Goldens. And so I sent her a picture of Dylan holding hands with

a lady in the hospital bed. And she said, Oh my goodness, you really need to write a book about this. And I said, there's so many therapy dogs these days. Why? And she said, Oh my goodness, you really need to write a book about this. And I said, there's so many therapy dogs these days. Why? And she said, no, it's still important. People need that connection. They, they sometimes don't get from humans. I said, okay, I guess I will. People were taking so many photos of Dylan and I did too.

I wrote the story about his life and his service and his public appearances. He was even in a stage review that I did, a Broadway review that I put on. So I took the photos to support the story that I told about his life and and there's a little piece or big piece of magic in it about Dylan's relationship with with the lady on the cover. Her name is Betty Mm-hmm, and she was a hundred and one years old in that picture Oh, wow, and and something happened that I think is very notable not that it couldn't happen to another relationship, but Betty went into a coma and she didn't, they didn't really expect her to come out

of it because she was 101 years old. And I walked into her room because Dylan was visiting a lot of people in the hospital, and her family was there and told me what had happened. And I said, okay, I'll leave you to it. And they said, no, no, we want Dylan to come in, you two, but we want Dylan to come in because Betty loves him. So Dylan came in, I put him in her bed. He snuggled up next to her.

And normally when he does that with people, I leave the room so that they don't feel they have to have a conversation with me. They just really connect. And then I, so I left and I came back and Dylan was not ready to leave. Two hours and more, it was over two hours before he was ready. And when he was ready, he got up and left. And the next day I asked the nurses if they would call me and let me know if when Betty passed, because that's what they were expecting. And they didn't call me. So I called the hospital and asked about her and they said, she woke up this morning said she slept with Dylan and she's

hungry. And I said, what? Is that wild? Yeah, they see. See see there are times where sometimes people in a coma have consciousness or a semi consciousness. Like they're kind of aware or this maybe a sensory, I mean, I don't know, I never been in a coma, but that's wild. And the love and companionship of a dog, you know, I, I gotta tell you, I'm probably still on this earth because of my dogs. There are some times in life where I've had some darkness and there,

and I think probably the most darkest times are when another dog passes. And just, just knowing that I have another dog there, I have to take care of a stick around for it. It's, you know, it, it, it sustains you. And the circle of life, and a lot of times when I get a new puppy, after losing a dog, I'll sit there and look at the puppy and they'll kind of start making sense to me. This is the way life happens. It's a renewal. And that's kind of the beauty of life is that renewal of love and the renewal of life. And you get the time that you get, the dogs are on their own separate timeline.

I always like that line from No Country For Old Men, you can't stop what's coming, that's vanity. You know, I mean, I used to think, you know, something was taken from me back in the day when my darks would pass. And then I realized that they weren't really ever mine. They were beings going through this timeline on their own volition, and they were going to live their life. And what they did after that was beyond me. Yeah. But yeah,

just the way they change your life, the way they bring you healing, the way they, you know, link with you. There's just so much greatness that comes from puppies. Really does. Yeah. And they don't have the inhibitions that other people do, you know, or, or, or connection issues, you know, dogs love you unconditionally. Most people are like, Hey, what can you give me? And I'll be your friend. Oh, you kind of love you as long as I'm dating all my life. There's that, but you know, I mean, that's, that's just how people are.

I mean, you, the, you, you only get, especially as a man, you only get unconditional love from dogs. That's why they call dogs man's best friend, only women, children, and pets get unconditional love. But it, their intuitive is just knowing what's wrong with you. You know, they, you know, my dog would come up and, and just be needy. And I'm like, Oh, why are you being so needy? And then I realized that I'm upset and, or something's bothering me.

I'm pissed off about something or whatever. And she's basically saying, Hey, I'm here as you know, relief, relax, think about something else, stress, you know, bring your stress level down. Maybe go throw the ball with the dog. It's healthy for you. Come outside, dad, you know, all that stuff. And then I realized that it's not about them needing attention. It dad." You know, all that stuff. And then I realized that it's not about them needing attention, it's that they're trying to help me. And so, I've kind of

learned that's kind of the way it works. So, what were some other interesting aspects people are going to find in the book you want to tease out maybe from the stories of Dylan? Helen There are plenty of stories. There is one that the first time I agreed to let him, instead of sit in a chair and hold hands and paws next to the bed, this very thin lady, a very old, her name was Helen, she couldn't get out of bed and she had those side bars up so that she wouldn't roll off there. The doctors put that up for her. And she wanted Dylan in bed with her. And I said, Oh, no, he really might accidentally roll on you and her break a bone or something.

No he won't, she says. And Dylan looked at me like, No, I won't, she says. And Dylan looked at me like, mm-mm, no, I won't. So I said, we'll try it. And like I said before, usually I leave the room to let the relationship happen between the person and Dylan. But I hung around and watched after I put them in there to see if they were both very careful. And they were, they were right. So I left them.

Did you use Dylan a lot as a, you know, take him to places with older people or use him a lot for different things to improve the quality of people's lives? Yes. He had some, he had his own schedule and I had my schedule and I had to kind of coordinate them. You have to check with the secretary? Yes. He worked with in hospitals and nursing homes, we did annual shops for children's bereavement. And back then, and this again was like many, a couple of decades ago, little children were not given enough attention and support as they are these days, thank goodness, if they lose someone in their family. And so, the visiting nurse association in one of the cities in Massachusetts got us, worked with us every year, we agreed to do their annual workshop for children.

And Dylan and I were assigned to the five to seven-year-olds. And those poor little kids, they just couldn't get the grief out. They didn't know how. There were enough therapists around the circle and Dylan and I sat in the middle and invited each one in and said, okay, Dylan's story, since he doesn't speak English, he had an older brother who was a cat, his name was Theod, and they were so close. And Theod got sick, and then he died.

And I just really, I was very harsh at making that statement with them so that I could jog them out of their, oh no, nothing's wrong. And there were so many therapists there to support them that I could push them. And I invited each one into the circle to tell Dylan who died in their family or in their friends. And this one little girl, I'll never forget her. She was holding so tight, she didn't want to cry. So she came in the circle and she lifted Dylan's ear up and said, my mom. And that was the first time she actually faced that pain directly. Wow. So he did a lot of work with children too.

That's awesome. You know, it's interesting how much they can help us deal with our pain and loss. I've told the story probably a lot too many times on the podcast, but those who haven't heard it can check it out. But years ago, I lost my very first dog and no one had died around me for a lot too many times on the podcast, but those who haven't heard it can check it out. But years ago, I lost my very first dog and no one had died around me for 27 years, no family, no friends. I never been to a funeral for 27 years. And I kind of, I kind of started to believe we were, me and my dogs were immoral and they were going to live forever. And not

really, but you know, kind of. It's kind of felt like we were invincible. And one night she had been having seizures and I had known the doctor that told me that there was going to be one final one. And so it was always like, which one is going to be that moment? And she had a really bad seizure a couple days before and she was really having trouble. I'd put some red light therapy on her and was trying to just make sure she was really comfortable. And then the final one came and we were just enjoying our night, having, you know, hanging out, doing our things with the two dogs and chilling. And suddenly she went into a seizure and after 30 minutes of horror never came back. And in fact, to add to the horror, I had to take her shaking too, because she wouldn't stop,

come out of the thing. I had to drag her out to the car because she was so huge and then on a blanket and then take her to the hospital to end hospital to end. What was the situation that was never ending at that point into, I mean, she just would not come out of the seizure, but she was still shaking the, I came home just in shock and sadness. This thing had hit me, you know, I mean, 30 minutes of my life went full tilt from perfect to wonderful to invincible to, to immortal to, uh, she's gone. And yeah. And you didn't have time to say goodbye. You know, a lot of times with the dog, they'll say, Oh, you know, take the dog home for two or three days, take pictures, enjoy your time with them and come back.

And, you know, we'll, we'll, we'll call the ball if they have cancer or something terminal. So I didn't get that. And so you really felt like you're ripped off. I wrote, I was putting down a bottle of vodka and for the pain. And I wrote this huge, just pouring out of what it felt like to, to lose my dog and how much it hurt. And I sat there for half an hour, just looking at the foot, the thing going, I'm not going to post this on Facebook. I'm not going to share this. This is number one way to personal and number two, who cares?

Like why your dog died, Chris, everybody's dog dies. Why are you so special? And I don't know. Maybe I left it as a suicide note for all the vodka drinking, but finally after, I don't know, and a half an hour, 40 minutes of the debating whether or not to post it. I just posted it, went to bed and hope I don't wake up in the morning. And what was interesting about it in what I felt was a very selfish act was how much

it helped other people. And, and what was weird is people wrote me in there like, Hey, you just, you know, you crushed me because I realized I didn't get closure with my dog when I was young, I didn't get closure with my mom or my dad or a family member, someone that I lost my life and you opened me up and made me realize I needed to finish that closure off and, and grieve and that it's okay to grieve too. And so it helps so many people. And this thing was like 2014 or 13 that I wrote it. Still to this day, 12 years later, people remember that post. And it helps so many people. And I think it

still does. And it's crazy because people are still, people ring me up and remind me. But just, I mean, that's the difference a dog can make. Like I didn't even write that much about when my dad passed. I can relate to that. I mean, I love my dad. But I know, when your dog unconditionally loves you, man, they're there for their ride and die partner for life, you know, like they were

for me, you know, they, they, they got me through some of the most darkest times of my life and the greatest times of my life too. But you know, it helps so many people and it's amazing how much dogs have that income impact in our life. In fact, they say that there's research that I've read that it's almost more painful for us to lose these animals because they're they have unconditional love and they just love us for who we are. You know, they're not people looking for a handout, maybe treat every now and then. But every morning for my pup. But you know, they they they love us for who we are and they just give and they give and

they give and and I mean, it's sad that people don't understand dogs better maybe. I don't know. Yeah, they do. I think it's harder with people to feel that the depth of the grief because they have their own personalities and their own behaviors that kind of, they're not always right there with you, you know? So even though it's hard to lose a dad or a mother or something, it's, they had their own lives. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. They had their own lives. They were off leading it, you know? I've worked from home since 2004. So my dogs have been with me 24 seven, you know, they're with me in the office. They're with me here at the house. They're, you know, they're here. And that's really, that's really, you know, they're, they're, they're just a fabric of my life. And I think one of the hard things was to, to do, and then when I lost them was

to deal with, it was like I was losing witnesses to my life. Um, you know, these are the people that, that, you know, they saw the stuff that I went through in life and it was really hard, but so you, you decided to write this book on Dylan. What do you hope people get from the book? What do you hope they take away? I've kind of talked about what, you know, my story helped other people. I guess my, my first choice of what I hope my best hope is that it will inspire people to visit people in the hospitals and nursing homes and to see

when they don't have anybody left or they don't have family close enough. I used to go and visit people in hospitals like on Christmas and some important holidays that Thanksgiving where they miss the family and they have all these memories and their families are no longer living or they're not near enough to visit them. It's important whether you have an animal or just yourself, it's important to people who have nobody, to have somebody come and care enough to sit with them. Yeah. And then I mean, I think there's probably a lot of people that do this, maybe that they, they basically will take and go to retirement homes, help people share the wealth of the love of a good dog and all that stuff. So any future books that you're working on, it sounds like you're kind of, you, you had a prior thing that you did for writing. Do you kind of find like writing is

a new knock for you? Do you anticipate new books coming out? I'm in the middle of writing a short humorous book about how to maintain your credentials of being a hermit living in society. It's a balancing act. And for instance, this is just an example. If you're a hermit living in society and still want to maintain your credentials, and yet you want to get married, you must take separate honeymoons. Things like that. Just a lot of funny stuff I'm putting in that about it. There are a lot of bullets living amongst us. Do you see more, do you see more books coming out with more Dylan's stories? No more Dylan stories. Okay. You say, grab this book before, before it sells out.

No more, no more Dylan stories. Do you, do you see that maybe you write something about something else? Yes. I, I have just started sketching out a book that will probably turn into a murder mystery. Oh, murder. Yeah. Murder you say? The, the hero of the book is someone who had, he had devastating upbringing, if you could call it that.

But by way of that, he learned a lot about watching humans. And so he learned something about human nature that many other people miss because he watched the the deviousness or when when people are lying when they're doing something trying to hide something so he is gonna end up helping police or detectives solve a very difficult murder to solve. Ah so there's a dog in that one then too? Yep. Oh, no, there's no dog in that one. Okay. No dog in that one. All right. I guess I was thinking of Turner and Hoot where the guy was in the movie where Tom Hanks and the dog were trying to solve a mystery and the dog knew the mystery. So what intrigues you about writing murder mysteries? It isn't the murder mystery so much. I love reading mysteries.

It's, it's more the knowledge of human nature. I've learned a lot about human nature myself growing up and some things you don't want to know. You've seen a few things, I guess. But I have, I have. And so I may as well put them, put my knowledge to good use and entertain somebody. Might as well put them, put my knowledge to good use and entertain somebody. Might as well.

Might as well do what do you find satisfying to you about writing? I think it's just the, the act of creating. I love to create things. I did a, uh, several, I think four or five Broadway reviews for local benefits wherever I was living and I created those without a script, but with transition between the Broadway songs. And then the one that's mentioned in my bio at the back of this book was my first one that I wrote the whole script to. So we've got a whole lot of books that are going to be coming out from you. Do you plan

to writing a series maybe with the same character or you're just going to do the book and see how that goes? Yeah, I think I'm just going to, I'm going to do this short humorous one about being a hermit, and then I'm going to really do a regular book-size book about human nature. Pete Slauson There you go. Yeah, we need to learn more about human nature. It's amazing how people don't understand human nature, are really confused as to how human nature works. And, you know, it's kind of funny because

there's this huge history of eons of time that we've been humans. So, you know, we kind of have a pattern. I think we've established we have a pattern. We tend to repeat it. It's also another pattern that we have. So, we never seem to learn from history, but it keeps happening to us. It's funny. Yeah. Yeah. So Linda, as we go out, anything more you want to tease out or talk to the audience about before we go?

Oh, I think I'm good. I'm enjoying talking with you. As we go out to any dot coms, you want people to look you up on the internet and get to know you better? Nope. Remember, I'm a hermit, so I haven't put a lot of dot coms out there. We need to get you a dot com out there so that people can maybe follow your work, sign up to a newsletter so they can get your stuff and all that good stuff.

I'll consider, yep. Yeah. And you can put pictures of Dylan up there and other projects you're working on good stuff. Yeah. And you know, I have more, you can put pictures of Dylan up there and other projects you're working on and stuff. So thank you very much, Linda, for coming on the show. We really appreciate it. Well, thank you, Chris. I really enjoyed it. Thank you. I did too. And anytime I'm talking about dogs, yeah, I'll never shut up. What's that old line? You can maybe use this in your book for human nature. The more I get to know people, the more I love dogs. Yes.

I've seen people and I'm over it. Anyway, hope. What can you do? Thank you very much for coming to show Linda. We really appreciate it. Folks order up the book where refined books are sold. You and the sunshine Dylan, the life and times of a caring friend out april 2nd 2022 by linda senders thanks for tuning in go to goodreads.com fortress chris

fos linkedin.com fortress chris fos chris fos one on the tiktok anyhow those crazy places in the