KENNEBUNKPORT — Dogs have a knack of finding owners who need them, and then making them realize what’s truly important in this world.

In Liz Baker’s case, sharing her dog Cecil’s journey from abandonment to finding a forever home in her Kennebunkport household last year prompted her write a children’s book about the experience, becoming a first-time author at the age of 75.

Cecil had been tied to a tree in Alabama and left to fend for himself by his previous owners before being rescued and then put up for adoption. About the same time Liz Baker and her husband, Ted, both retired educators, were looking for a dog through the Sunshine Golden Retriever Rescue website.

They spotted the photo of a yellow lab called “Basil” by the rescue group and decided to apply to adopt him. They went through an extensive screening process, but eventually they were successful and drove over to Vermont to pick him up and take him home. They renamed him Cecil, which also happened to be Liz Baker’s father’s first name.

“They told us he was about 6, but he’s really just 3 or 4 and look at what he’s turned into,” Liz Baker said. “He’s just a wonderful, happy and well-adjusted dog.”

She said she’s always admired people who can write and never thought of sitting down and writing a book, but Cecil’s story and the plight of dogs intrigued her and inspired her writing project.

“I was moved to write this and it just sort of came out in a stream of consciousness,” Liz Baker said. “I just imagined how a dog felt, tied to a tree, then being found and taken to a clinic for a skin infection, before being put on a truck and shipped to New England.”

Written from a dog’s perspective, “Jackson’s Story One Dog’s Journey to his Forever Home,” is modeled on Cecil’s life story and is dedicated to all of the rescue league volunteers who spend countless hours at every step of the adoption process on behalf of stray and unwanted animals.

Trying to find a publisher wasn’t a major obstacle, as the retired special education teacher soon found that Archway Publishing of Bloomington, Indiana, a division of Simon and Schuster, was deeply interested in her book from her initial contact with them.

“We went through a number of rewrites, but the hardest part of it all was finding an illustrator because the publisher wanted it to include artwork,” Liz Baker said.

After interviewing a number of artists and sharing details and ideas with them about her project, she chose artist Matt Blanchfield to illustrate the book which includes 10 depictions of a dog’s journey to a permanent home. The couple’s daughter, Annie Baker, came up with the cover design concept.

“I started writing in September and the book came out in February,” Liz Baker said. “It didn’t take long at all to complete. It’s available on Amazon and through the Barnes and Noble website.”

Ted Baker said he’s proud of what his wife has accomplished in basing the book about Cecil’s life.

“I thought it was wonderful,” he said. “Almost everyone who reads this book get teary-eyed. She’s done something with this that has a profound affect on people.”

He said he read the book as it progressed, but only offered suggestions to his wife about it.

“It’s entirely all her work,” Ted Baker said. “I think she’s making a real difference by writing this book.”

Now a fixture in the couple’s lives, Cecil accompanies Liz when she visits Gooch Beach and follows Ted wherever he goes around their home. He gets along well with the couple’s neighbors and their grandchildren when they visit.

“He’s just one of those dogs that does what you want him to do,” Liz Baker said. “He just wants to be where we are.”

She said she included an afterword chapter to the book that gives tips to kids about ways they can help dogs overcome heart-rendering situations and about responsible, loving dog ownership.

“The moral of the story is that dogs are creatures of spirit and dignity and they feel what we feel,” Liz Baker said. “They need to be respected. People need to understand that they feel all of the emotions that people do.”

— Executive Editor Ed Pierce can be reached at 282-1535 ext. 326 or by email at editor@journaltribune.com