Dandy Lion: A Legend of Love & Loss

By Kathleen J. Shields

Dandy Lion - A Legend of Love & Loss is a Christian-based story that follows a young lion named Dandy throughout the course of his life.

Wanting nothing more than to be accepted and loved by his pride, Dandy instead is the recipient of laughter and ridicule when his long sought after mane grows in and is anything but normal. White thick fur, frayed at the ends his head looks more like a white fluffy dandelion flower than a lions mane.

However, this does not deter Dandy from helping those in need or touching the lives of others, solving problems and helping the sick. After he saves three lion cubs from a stampede his father tells him how proud he is of him which starts a life long journey towards doing good.

Yet, throughout his life, his best friend Doti begins to notice how after each life he touches a wisp of his frayed hair is whisked away by the wind. By the end of his life he is completely bald but he is able to look down at the valley of those he left behind, those lives he helped save, and what he sees is a field of vibrant yellow dandelion flowers blooming as brilliantly as the sun.

Each chapter ending with scripture, this story will fill your soul with hope and ambition and help others accept the end of life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Erin Go Bragh Publishing
• Release date: May 29, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301196777

Kathleen J. Shields

Kathleen J. Shields is an award winning author, having won first place for Best Educational Children’s Series from the Texas Association of Authors in 2015, and the Purple Dragonfly Award in 2017 for the Hamilton Troll Cookbook.She has 27 published books ranging from illustrated children’s books, tween chapter books, young adult and adult, as well as Christian Fiction.She is currently working on the third book of The Painting Trilogy, her memoirs, along with a fun factual story called Turtle Diaries. Her hope is to teach young readers more interesting tidbits about various turtle species through the first person perspective of a tortoise.During the week, she runs her own businesses (plural); a website and graphic design company, and a publishing house where she assists new authors in making their dreams come to reality.Over the weekends, you can usually find her setup at a market day, craft show, church bizarre or any place that will let her setup a table to promote and sell her books, throughout the Texas Hill Country.She also thoroughly enjoys visiting schools and libraries, reading to young children and inspiring 3rd through 5th graders into using their imaginations to embellish their creative writing skills.

Book preview

Dandy Lion

A Legend of Love & Loss

By Kathleen J. Shields

© Copyright 2013, 2014 Dandy Lion by Kathleen J. Shields All rights reserved.

No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means – electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning or otherwise – except for brief passages for reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the author.

Scripture quotations are from NIV - New International Version ®. All Rights Reserved.

ISBN-13: 978-1-941345-09-2 Paperback

ISBN: 9781301196777 ebook

Canyon Lake, TX

www.ErinGoBraghPublishing.com

For more information about the author, visit: www.KathleensBooks.com

Table of Contents

Dedication

Chapter 1 The Beginning

Chapter 2 The Stampede

Chapter 3 The Hungry

Chapter 4 The Ill

Chapter 5 The Misunderstood

Chapter 6 Good Deeds

Chapter 7 The Greatest Act

Acknowledgements

About the Author

Dedication:

My pastor unfortunately, has had to give quite a few memorials in years past, which means we (as a church) have lost people we love. While this is always a difficult time, I believe our pastor does a very good job at finding ways to ‘celebrate the life’ of the one we lost.

One of the ways he does this is through scripture:

John 12:24 - Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.

It was this scripture, and the memory of a recent wildflower project, which brought to the forefront of my mind the aspects of a dandelion. The scripture, to me, discusses the certainty of seeds and how if a seed isn’t planted, it can never grow. Life is the same.

It is the things we do while we are alive, the people’s lives we touch, that plants the memories in the ones we love. Those memories transform us, mold us into the people God wants us to become. They strengthen us, nurture us, protect us and comfort us. And when someone we love passes, it is their memory that lives on in our love for them.