Olivier Dunrea: Children's Book Author and Shelter Dog Rescuer

If you don't know who Olivier Dunrea is, then you should! He is the author/illustrator of one of my new favorite books - Gossie (and every other book in that series!) To read my review of Gossie, click here. He lives in upstate New York in a home/studio called Moel Eyris at Henwoodie. In addition to being the author and illustrator of more than 70 books, he is also a master map maker.

I was very pleased when I looked Olivier Dunrea up (after reading Gossie) and discovered that he supports some great causes. He is a huge supporter of dog adoption - he and his partner have 8 dogs, 6 of which were rescues.

He started a fundraising campaign called S.E.R.F, which stands for Sophie's Emergency Rescue Fund. Sophie is a dog that he rescued from a shelter in San Bernadino California, and he started the fund in her honor. Her rescue story is quite a tale, and you can read all about it on his site. "All donations to S.E.R.F. go directly to rescuing other deserving and desperate shelter dogs and helping hardworking rescue and transport teams who work tirelessly to get as many shelters dogs to safer havens, no-kill shelters, and hopefully into loving, welcoming homes."

For a $50 donation, Olivier will personally sign a copy of either Bear Noel (which is out of print) or Old Bear and His Cub available only through S.E.R.F.

He also sells artwork on his page - 100% of the proceeds go to helping shelter and deserving dogs. A lot of the artwork are sketches from many of his books before they made it to print, some are on-of-a-kind pieces (with a hefty price to boot), and then there are posters. If I had the funds, I'd buy an art piece because 1) I love his art, and 2) every penny I spent would go to helping dogs, which is one of my favorite causes. It's too bad the Gossie poster is sold out, or that's the one I would've gotten!

Julia Roberts apparently bought some of his original drawings too!

#JuliaRoberts You are brilliant in 'The Normal Heart'! And a much belated 'thank you' for purchasing several of my original illustrations
— Olivier Dunrea (@OlivierDunrea) May 26, 2014

In addition to all of that, he will be writing and illustrating a book that tells Sophie's story - 100% of the proceeds of which will also go to rescuing desperate shelter dogs. 

Though this post may not inspire you to donate to SERF or purchase some of his artwork, hopefully it will at least get you to read one of his fabulous children's books!