Sometimes the best fictional stories come from real life experiences. That’s exactly the case with Kat Socks’ children’s book, “Pickles the Dog.” Pickles is a real dog, adopted by Kat’s mother-in-law after the Minot flood in 2011.

“Pickles just has a beautiful story. The sad part of her story is she is a flood dog and kept coming back to the shelter time after time. Finally she ended up at the Central Dakota Humane Society in Mandan, and my mother-in-law adopted her,” explains Kat. “She really is a good dog. She just needed the right home and the right person.”

Kat adapted Pickles’ story a little for her book. In the book, Pickles is adopted by a farm family. Pickles has never been on a farm before and gets into lots of trouble, but the little girl in the book helps her adjust with redirection training.

“I really wanted to put a training element in the book. I have had such great feedback from that. People have told me they’re using the redirection training technique from the book. I’m excited to hear that people are using the message in the book.”

Kat says it took her about a year to complete the book. She worked with an illustrator and self-published. “Pickles the Dog” officially launched July 30 and is available in more than 20 stores, online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble, as well as on Kat’s websites, picklesthedog.com and katssocks.com (use the code inspired for free shipping). Kat donates a portion of all her sales to animal shelters. Kat will be selling and signing her book at several events this fall. Find her list of events on her websites.