About this item
Based on a real-life partnership, the heartening story of the love and teamwork between a girl and her service dog will illuminate and inspire.Rescue thought he'd grow up to be a Seeing Eye dog - it's the family business, after all. When he gets the news that he's better suited to being a service dog, he's worried that he's not up to the task. Then he meets Jessica, a girl whose life is turning out differently than the way she'd imagined it, too. Now Jessica needs Rescue by her side to help her accomplish everyday tasks. And it turns out that Rescue can help Jessica see after all: a way forward, together, one step at a time. An endnote from the authors tells more about the training and extraordinary abilities of service dogs, particularly their real-life best friend and black lab, Rescue.
About the Author
Jessica Kensky and Patrick Downes were married in 2012 and were injured during the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013. Rescue joined them several months later. Their story has been featured by many national media outlets as well as in feature films and documentaries, and their inspiring efforts to educate the public by sharing their personal stories of healing have touched millions of people around the world. About Rescue and Jessica: A Life-Changing Friendship, their first picture book, they say, "We hope this story inspires you to celebrate others the way we have been celebrated. Making this book has been therapeutic, and we hope you enjoy the story as much as we enjoyed telling it." They live in Cambridge, Massachusetts.Jessica grew up in Sacramento, California. She is a graduate St. Francis High School, the University of Arizona, and Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing. Jessica & Patrick, after several years of a long-distance relationship, eventually both settled in Boston where Patrick was in graduate school and Jessica was a hematology oncology nurse at Massachusetts General Hospital. The couple were set to move to San Francisco to move closer to Jessica's hometown of Sacramento and for Patrick to serve as a clinical psychology intern working with children who had experienced trauma when they attended the 2013 Boston Marathon. When the first bomb went off, Jessica & Patrick were only feet away. The bomb amputated each of their left legs, and severely damaged Jessica's right leg. After a year and a half of treatment and recovery at some of Boston's best hospitals, and consults with experts around the country, the couple received permission for the U.S. Secretary of Defense to be patients at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Maryland. There, experts in blast injuries recommended that Jessica amputate her right leg as well. Jessica & Patrick lived at Walter Reed for nearly 3 years, where they befriended and were blessed by the company our nation's Wounded Warriors. They returned to their home in Cambridge, MA in the summer of 2017.Jessica is currently in graduate school to earn a doctorate in nursing practice at the Institute of Health Professions in Boston. She will also be returning to her old oncology floor
