Here come the confetti emojis! 🎉🎉🎉

Coming October 12 from Tiller Press at Simon & Schuster - Life's a Puppy Party:Recipes, DIYs, and Activities for Celebrating the Seasons with Your Dog a DIY and Cookbook for Dog Moms and Pup Parents — *The Dapple sometimes receives a small affiliate income when you shop using our links, but we’ll only ever link to products we truly love.*

Yep, you read that right! We have a book coming out with Simon & Schuster! On October 12, you’ll be able to buy a book of recipes, DIYs, puppy party plans, and more fun written by yours truly and featuring a bajillion pictures of Dave and Lizzie living their best lives as costume models and taste-testers. 🎉

Here is the adorable cover that the team put together for us—isn’t it the cutest? You can also see it and pre-order it at Barnes & Noble here and on Amazon here.

So how did this even happen? Well, to be honest, it’s still completely surreal to me.

Back in February 2020, I was working at our kitchen table while the dogs and our five-month-old were all taking afternoon naps, and I got an email from an editor asking to talk about a book project. I assumed that she just wanted to include one of our photos in someone else’s book because I was pretty sure that editors contacting bloggers about writing books only happened in Julie & Julia.

When we scheduled a conference call and the team explained to me that they did actually want me to write a whole book myself, I was completely blown away. I told them I’d have to think about it because I felt like I was way too not-famous and not-glamorous to write a book. (I mean, you should see how much corgi hair is normally on my jeans.)

And then guess what happened—three days after the conference call, Seattle went into lockdown for the pandemic. It was such a dark and scary time that I assumed the book idea would be scrapped—after all, who was really feeling like celebrating anything in March 2020?

When my wonderful editor Veronica told me that the team was still just as excited about the book as ever, I spent a lot of time trying to sort through my own feelings about creating something so small and silly at a time dominated by so much sadness. And as I did, I kept coming back to all the conversations (and DMs and emails) that I’ve shared with all of you in the last three years. For so many of us dog owners, it’s the little moments of joy that make pup-parenthood so rewarding—whether that’s watching your dog gobble down a pupcake or seeing them race around at a barkday party with their best friends.

Life’s a Puppy Party is a handbook for creating moments of celebration all year long—it gives you an easy recipe for baking Saturday morning donuts for your pup, instructions for creating a pawprint holiday ornament, a DIY for dogosaur Howloween costumes, and a whole lot more.

To me, the best part is that the amazing Dr. Sarah Machell—Vetster’s medical director and a veterinarian with over two decades of experience in small-animal veterinary practice—has reviewed the entire book to make sure everything in it is safe for pups. She’s approved all the recipes and activities, and has also left helpful tips for pup parents throughout.

I’m honestly still pinching myself that this is even happening, and I’m so grateful to all of YOU for making it a possibility. Without all of your encouragement over the years on here and on Instagram, I’d never have thought I could write a book at all AND I’d never have been given the opportunity without all of the incredible pup parents who have been rooting for The Dapple from the beginning. This is starting to feel like an Oscars speech, so I’m gonna stop talking, but really truly THANK YOU.

And if you want to help get the word out, I will probably weep tears of joy if anyone pre-orders the book or shares it on social media or tells their friends. We also included a little downloadable template that you can share to your Instagram stories below. Just save it to your camera roll and then post. 🎉