Crusty and His Red Sweater

Poor Crusty really needs some help. He had been left behind by his family and now is alone on the street hungry, cold, and covered in itchy bugs, with nothing to protect him except his red sweater. Rather than stopping to help, the busy people just walk past. Until one day, a kind woman named Tracy gently picks him up in her arms and tells him everything is going to get better.

This is the true story of how one dog was saved from a life on the streets near the border of Mexico, brought back to health with love and care, and found the perfect home a thousand miles away from where he started.

A portion of the proceeds from this book goes to TracysPawsRescue which rescues approximately 350 dogs a year from Texas kill shelters. The dogs are rehabilitated with love and good medical care. When the dogs are ready, homes are found with loving families all over the United States. Over the years, Tracy Voss has rescued over 6,000 dogs. She decided to write about some of her favorite rescue dogs to help broaden the awareness of the overpopulation problem in Texas, saying "Through education, we can teach our children to have compassion towards all living creatures."

Tracy Voss has been a dog lover her entire life and used to bring home every stray animal she could find. She is a working professional during the day and volunteers all her free time rescuing dogs through a charity she founded called TracysPawsRescue. Her dream is for all dogs to have a loving home and for all children to know the love of a dog. Tracy has rescued over 6,000 dogs and continues her rescue work every day. She has four personal dogs of her own which are all rescue dogs, She runs a spay-neuter clinic named Oliver's House behind her home which is also a refuge for dogs.

Marcy Tippmann is a graduate of The Art Academy of Cincinnati, where she studied illustration and graphic design. For the past 17 years, she has been working as an artist, focusing mainly on children's book illustration. In 2022, Marcy moved from Oregon to the Atlantic coast where she will be living and working on a sailboat with her partner and two dogs.