A compelling true story of one dog's rescue from a Pennsylvania puppy millGracie's life started much like any other puppy's would: she slumbered with her littermates ninety percent of the day and nursed the other ten percent. But she never had the chance to go exploring. Instead, the black-and-white puppy was crammed in a crate with the rest of her litter. She was born in a puppy mill—a large-scale and shoddily run commercial kennel. There was no room to run and play; there was barely enough room to stand.In the United States alone, an estimated 10,000 cramped kennels produce as many as 4 million dogs a year—innocent, often diseased, and emotionally damaged animals who are then sold to unsuspecting families as "purebred" puppies. Worse, some—like Gracie—are kept behind and turned into breeding stock, doomed to a life of confinement with nothing to look forward to but monotony and loneliness. But not every puppy mill dog has a sad ending, as you'll learn in this heartwarming book.Saving Gracie uses the poignant transformation of a scruffy Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, who was rescued from her sentence as a breeding dog, to tell the story of America's hidden puppy mills. Award-winning journalist Carol Bradley chronicles Gracie's makeover from a bedraggled animal worn out from bearing puppies into a loving, healthy member of her new family and follows her owner, Linda, as she becomes passionately determined to save Gracie's life and spread the word about the millions of other puppy mill dogs who need our help. Saving Gracie will open your eyes, warm your heart, and call you to action.