I am Leslie Yerkes and have lived in the Village for over thirty years. I was drawn to the lake and started as a renter in Bratenahl Place Building One. When that beautiful condo with east and west views sold, I moved to the north side of Building Two and felt like I was living on a cruise ship with my unobstructed lake views. I love the Bratenahl Place property with walking

paths, swimming pool, picnic area, tennis courts (that now accommodate pickle ball), beautiful gardens and interesting people galore! 

I adopted a dog that I met at the concierge desk as a puppy. A special brindle boxer that earned the name of Buddha Bear and changed the countenance of every person he met (bringing out their smiles and soft hearts).

As I became a member of the dog tribe in the Bratenahl Place Community my world became wider, and I met more of my neighbors. 

On Labor Day 2013, a neighbor’s dog ran away. I spent the weekend looking for this beloved pet with my wing dog. Buddha Bear. CoCo found

his own way home ultimately, but in the process, I found a abandon dog on a industrial plot not far from the Village. The evening the Bratenahl Police and I sighted this dog I made the commitment to him that I would return every evening to bring him food and water. My goal was to rescue, rehab and rehome this ‘Big Boy’. That intention turned into a patient commitment of

two months visiting every evening until we (Buddha Bear and I) earned his trust and he let us put a collar on him.

I shared this adventure on my Facebook pages and was encourage by friends to write the real-life rescue story as a book. I am a consulting/business owner since 1987 in the field of organizational development / change management. I have written six business books. So, I wrote a business book entitled ‘Who Rescued Who? Life Lessons from A Junkyard Dog’. My Bratenahl friends had a different vision for me. They meant for me to write a children’s book. I however am not a children’s book

author. So, I studied the genre and eventually wrote ‘Lost, Found & Forever – When You Make a Promise Keep It’. This children’s book written for youth tells the real-life rescue story of Big Boy, Buddha Bear and

me – who is a nine year old girl in the story. This book did not meet with my orientation of a children’s book, so a second highly-illustrated, hard-cover book was written with Big Boy as the narrator entitled ‘Your Forever Dog’. I love this book that is for all ages because it looks and feels like the children’s books I so enjoyed as a child.

Big Boy was not a dog for a high rise building, and I owned a suite in Building One when he was rescued. We decamped to a cottage that I owned on the East end of the Village, on a private lane that leads to a sandy beach. This little cottage that I made into a ‘Swedish Summer House has one of the oldest trees (a red oak) in the Village standing tall next to it. The Independent

Tree company believes it to be about 170 years old.

Together, Buddha Bear, Big Boy and I became a family. My dog trainer advised me that he should not be rehomed as he had led a challenging life before he met us and came to trust us and respect my leadership. He needed his buddy Buddha Bear as a guide in life and me as his pack leader. So, we stayed in the cottage for the last ten years.

This was a bit of a new life, with beach dog walks in the morning and coffee with my neighbors before work. It was so healing and magical that six months after settling into the cottage I rescued my mother from a locked dementia ward (and she didn’t have dementia) and brought her to live in the cottage with us. She was in the hospice care the entire time but lived a year

longer than anyone expected as she had autonomy, unconditional love, a garden, two big dogs and was teaching me how to cook. Our Village friends leaned in to help. Janet Lowder of Hickman Lowder became her attorney and Kay B. one of her buddies. As it was with a young puppy, Buddha Bear, it continued with my mother, the Village and my neighbors supported me in

all of my endeavors. I am so very grateful.

My mother passed away in 2015. Big Boy developed cancer and we let him go gracefully in 2019 and my best boy, service dog Buddha Bear developed a brain tumor and crossed the ‘Rainbow Bridge’ in 2021. It is some of the best and hardest work of my life and career. I would do it ten times over again.

I was encouraged to write a book about loving, letting go and keeping one’s heart soft for another dog to find me as there are very few books about death and grief for children and parents. It was a hard book to write but so very important. 

I am proud to announce that ‘You Left Your Paw Prints on My Heart’ is up on amazon this summer. I would love your feedback. There will never be another Brindle boxer or South African Mastiff like Buddha Bear and Big

Boy. Yet I don’t want to live a life without the companionship of animals. I once had 250 pounds of two big dogs and now have a pack of four French Bulldogs, an English Bulldog and my neighbor’s dog - who moved into independent living, a hound dog named Bailey. We are a happy family living in a Colonial Williamsburg style home at the Westend of the Village. You

might see wonderful dog-walker Tom K. taking my pack on their walks in our Village.

This has been the summer of unplanned interruptions. Our household now has five growing French Bulldog puppies that will find forever homes. I have always wanted the experience of raising a litter of puppies but did not plan this adventure. It has been a perfect way to spend the summer. There is so much to learn from our animal friends. I have been the mother dog’s

nursing doula and auntie to little pups that started at 2 ounces and now are walking, talking, roly-poly personalities.

I love what I do for a living, love our home of Bratenahl so close to downtown and University Circle. I care deeply about the future of our Village and may bump into you at a Village event. I am loud, enthusiastic and moving forward in all I do at work and in play. I want to contribute in a positive way in everything I do. I look forward to meeting new people – as our Village continues to grow and flourish and attract very cool individuals.