Anita Campbell
County Reporter
Rescuing and providing a home for an older dog led to a new career for author Beth Halsey as she wrote her first book after retiring from her job from the University of Central Missouri.
Fifty years after they graduated from Warsaw High School, Larry and Beth (Downing) Halsey decided to come home to Benton County to enjoy retirement in the country.
“Larry loves to fish so we decided to build a home near the water,” said Halsey.
While the Halsey home had always included pets, they had never had an indoor dog so they decided to adopt a dog to live with them in their new home.
“Since we were new at caring for an indoor dog, Otis more or less trained us to let us know what he needed,” said Halsey. “So, I started sharing the adventures of Otis on Facebook.”
Halsey’s friends on Facebook enjoyed hearing about Otis’s adventures, so when she didn’t report about what Otis was up to, she would receive messages asking about him.
“I didn’t consider myself an author, however, when I received so many messages asking about Otis, I decided that maybe there was a book in these messages,” said Halsey.
Since Halsey had never published a book, she reached out to a local educator, Rebecca Spencer for advice. Spencer agreed to edit Halsey’s work and format it for publication.
The next step involved contacting Amazon to have her book “My Forever Homestead Home A Rescue Dog’s Story” published.
In the forward of her book, Halsey (who refers to herself as “Nana”) writes, “In light of social media becoming increasingly negative in our culture, the positive Facebook posts of the adventures of Otis resulted in the creation of this book. What began as something to make people smile and laugh came to life in this story of a rescue dog named Otis. This book is sure to resonate in the hearts of readers, young and old alike,” Otis and Nana (Beth Halsey).
Halsey said that she was scrolling through Facebook and saw a post that an elderly gentleman with cancer was looking for a forever home for his beagle. He wanted to pick out the people that would give her a new home. Halsey contacted the man but he had already found a home for his dog. However, a woman saw the post and contacted Halsey that she and her husband had recently found a beagle and were searching for someone to take him.
As soon as the Halsey’s saw Otis, they knew he was their forever dog. They agreed on the name of Otis because they thought he looked a lot like the Otis character on “The Andy Griffith” television show.
Even though having an “indoor” dog was not part of Larry’s plan for retirement, he became a companion for Larry as well as Beth.
“First thing Papa (Larry Halsey) and I do every morning is patrol the homestead to see what critters have been out and about overnight. We have deer, turkey, raccoons, bobcats, opossum, skunks, armadillos, squirrels and rabbits that live in our woods. Some mornings the smells are strong and plenty, other mornings not so much but I always check. If I find something I really like I bark and then follow the trail. If I lose the scent trail, I go back to where I first found it and start again. I can entertain myself for hours doing that,” (Halsey wrote).
Halsey will be at Harbor Village on January 26 from 4 to 7 for a book signing. The book sells for $7.99 and can be purchased on Amazon or from Beth Halsey halseyb72@gmail.com. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Warsaw Senior Center. Since Otis is an older guy, he will not be at the signing.
It is Halsey’s hope that the book will encourage other retirees to try something new. In addition to rescuing Otis, Halsey has started beekeeping and selling honey. Her husband enjoys fishing and home brewing.
Halsey has evolved from being a stay-at-home mother to her two boys Will who is 47 and lives in Seattle, Washington, and Craig who is 46 and lives in Miami, Florida. After her boys went to school, she went to work for the University of Central Missouri as the assistant director of facilities. She is also a grandmother to two teenagers, Campbell, 17, and Creighton, 15, who live in Miami, Florida. Now, she can add published author to that list. Her first book is listed 173 on the Best Seller’s List and she is working on her second book about Smokey, a barn cat.
“Just because you have retired doesn’t mean that you can’t try something new,” said Halsey. “You have things to offer. You should look into something different.”
