Bio
Judy McFadden, a coal miner’s daughter born and raised in southwestern Pennsylvania, has experienced a special connection with animals, especially dogs, throughout her life. She is a people person because of the diversity that existed in the coal mining community. Italians, Russians, Greeks, Poles, Swiss, Czechoslovakians, and African-Americans lived and relied on each other in her neighborhood.
Her love of travel began exploring the Pennsylvania woods. Judy lived in Germany for two years and learned to cook sauerkraut the German way; visited France, toured Paris, and the palaces at Fontainebleau and Versailles; saw rainbow-colored fields of tulips in Holland; traveled to Costa Rica and gazed into an active, bubbling volcano; spent three days in the Costa Rican jungle where howler monkeys swung in the trees and crocodiles sunned on river banks. She vacationed in Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and Canada. Judy has visited many of the major cities in the United States.
As a certified Therapy Dogs International volunteer and a member of K-9 Therapists of Las Vegas, Judy and her Scottish terrier, McDuff, appeared on KVBC-TV Channel 3 News in Las Vegas, and received front page newspaper coverage in the Anthem View in Henderson, Nevada, in recognition of McDuff’s outstanding therapy dog work.
She has been employed as a legal secretary, sales representative, custodian of records for The Ohio State University Hospital, and public inquiries assistant on the National Cancer Institute 800-4-CANCER telephone line. She resigned her position as courtroom clerk in the Eighth Judicial District Court at the Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, to pursue a writing career.
Judy lives in Henderson, Nevada, and is a member of the Henderson Writers Group, sponsor of the annual Las Vegas Writer’s Conference, and Toastmasters International. She has spoken to audiences with McDuff to promote
awareness of the benefits of therapy dogs and animal assisted
reading programs like Therapy Dogs International and Reading with
Rover.
