SCOTTSDALE, AZ — When it comes to pet lovers, Sophie Starr would have to rank near the top (and this article is written by a fellow pet fanatic!)
Pets often felt like healing souls that filled Starr's cup when life did not.
Starr, who lives in Phoenix, recently got her Master's degree from Grand Canyon University and is training to be a licensed therapist.
"I describe my childhood as very colorful," says Starr, who grew up in Ohio. "I had a hard time dealing with my thoughts and feelings. I always described it as it seemed like everyone else had this instruction manual for life and I didn't get one."
Starr says she would spend much of her young life searching for meaning, purpose, and belonging - and for a time, finding what she thought she needed in substances.
"I found myself in inpatient treatment and on my own recovery journey."
It was a journey that would take Starr halfway around the world. As she marked one year of sobriety, Starr decided she needed a change...a big one!
"I was not doing well," explains Starr. "I was not thriving. And I just felt like I needed something different."
After a chance meeting, Starr decided she would spend the next three months in Ghana.
"...The experiences with the people there...I always say I was an outsider there and they had no reason to be so gracious and loving and giving - but they were, and it really changed my perspective."
But it wasn't just the amazing people of Ghana that Starr fell in love with. She would soon meet a four-legged thief that would not only steal her heart - he would fill it up with the love she had always been yearning for.
"I often tell people if there is anything good about me today, it's from Roman and the lessons he taught me."
Roman is the rescue dog that Starr found while she was living in Africa. It would quickly become clear: Roman was way more than "just a pet."
"He gave me purpose. That was my first taste of what living purposely could look like and also living outside of myself."
It is a love story chronicled in her first book, "Roman to the Rescue." As fate would have it, there would be more lessons and more animals on the way.
In her second book, which was recently released, "Gypsy and the Great Big Light," she explores her relationships with her cat, who developed a liver condition that would later rob her of her sight.
"She went from fully capable, being able to see, to not having her sight and having to receive meds three times a day. It really chronicles her resilience and really shows how this disability for her is not a limitation but a unique way she experienced the world. And it taught me about my own limitations and how I can view them as sensitivities that lead to superpowers and how to better support the people and animals in my life that may have different abilities."
For Starr, more than anything, she hopes that readers are able to see parts of themselves in her adventures.
"I hope that through my journey, readers can start to look for the 'Romans' and 'Gypsys' in their lives and find whatever their purpose is."
Starr says that part of the proceeds will be donated to area animal rescue organizations.
To purchase Roman to the Rescue on Amazon, click here. To see Gypsy and the Great Big Light on Amazon, click here.
