Rover

Walk again in your childhood with a favorite animal friend as Pastor Blackstone remembers his boyhood and best friend: a dog named Rover and their adventures together. This series of remembrances and reminisces of a canine companion after over a half a century of time was invoked by an adulthood best friend, a cat named Eddie (highlighted in his own book--Meows from the Manse). Rover: A Boy's Best Friend is a mental stroll through memory lane when the author was much younger and the world of his family's homestead was open for exploration and expedition with a mostly black German Shepherd and Collie mix at his side. Travel with these best friends through the four seasons of nature covered in white and green and brown; through the forest paths of north Perham, a tiny agriculture community in Aroostook County, Maine; through the fields and the pastures of a 720-acre dairy and potato farm as they encounter woodland creatures of every sort and barnyard animals of every kind; through meadows and mornings and moonsets that years later form wonderful illustrations and spiritual lessons for the young man who would grow up to become a pastor for nearly a half century. You will hear from Rover himself as he barks out sermons that will stand the test of time, and homestead homilies that will rebuke and reprove as the author makes a modern application to a boyhood experience with his dog. Sit back and read and recall your own ""dog tales,"" or ""cat tales"" if that is your favorite animal, as you travel again with ""a lad and his Lassie,"" with a ""shaver"" and his Rin Tin Tin, through the early years of life when your best friend was a dog named Rover!

Barry Blackstone is the pastor of the Emmanuel Baptist Church in Ellsworth, Maine. This Maineaic from northern Maine has pastored four churches in forty-four years, his last one for twenty-six years. Pastor Blackstone began writing in 1988 (included in this series of devotionals is his very first memory-story) and though he is a pastor by vocation, he is a writer by avocation. This will be his tenth book published through Resource Publications.