Dog Lovers Podcast

Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney, interviews Lieutenant Colonel Jay Kopelman, author of From Baghdad, With Love: A Marine, the War, and a Dog Named Lava with Melinda Roth, published by Lyons Press.

Jay Kopelman is a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps, stationed at Camp Pendleton in Oceanside, CA in September 2004, as the Special Operations Forces Liaison Officer for the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force (IMEF), Jay deployed to Iraq to train the Iraqi Special Forces. In October, he was assigned as the liaison officer to an Iraqi Army battalion, and in November they entered Fallujah to battle insurgents for control of the city. It was there that he met and adopted Lava, a five week old puppy abandoned during the during the invasion.

Following his return to the United States, based on his experiences in Iraq, Jay was asked to help train the Marines who would return to Iraq as advisors to the Iraqui armed forces and the police. He currently serves as the Deputy Assistant Chief of Staff for advisor training at I MEF.

Jay lives in La Jolla, CA, with his wife, Pam: son Mattox; stepson Sean; their two dogs, Lava and Koda, and Cheddar the cat.  Both Jay and his wife, an anthropologist, are avid surfers who make annual pilgrimage to Costa Rica. They also spend time skiing, camping waterskiing/wakeboarding and rock climbing. Visit his website.  Watch a video of Jay and Lava.

Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney, interviews Randy Grim, subject of The Man Who Talks to Dogs: The Story of Randy Grim and His Fight to Save America's Abandoned Dogs written by written by Melinda Roth, and published by St. Martin's Press.

Randy Grim is founder and President of Stray Rescue in St. Louis, Missouri. In October 2002, he received the first Guardian Award for his work with Stray Rescue. Grim and his volunteers have received the Red Cross Life Saver Award for rescuing a dog wrapped in 30 pound chains and drenched in battery acid, and the St. Louis FOCUS Award for innovative solutions.

Grim is the subject of the critically acclaimed book, The Man Who Talks to Dogs: America's Wild Street Dogs and Their Unlikely Savior and the author of Miracle Dog: How Quentin Survived the Gas Chamber To Speak for Animals on Death Row. Animal Planet, National Geographic, People Magazine, The Today Show, and numerous other media have featured Grim. Visit his website   Listen to Randy's radio show Animal Tails.

Make a tax-deductible donation to Stray Rescue of St. Louis