Life on the road through the eyes of a dog

Whether it be a dog, cat, bird – or even something more exotic – a trucker’s travel companion is simply irreplaceable.

Mary Paramore, who rides along with her trucker husband, Joseph (aka “Trucker Joe”), wrote a children’s book about her experience of life on the road through the perspective of the family dog, Atlas.

“I’ve ridden with my husband four years now,” Paramore said in an interview with Land Line Now.

“I’m naturally a print person, but here I was on the road, seeing so many things and learning so many things. I wanted to share all of this.”

Paramore, who has a Master of Arts degree in technical communication, previously earned military home accreditation and operated an Army Family Child Care Home, assisting more than 40 families and 100 children.

Her husband is a retired Army staff sergeant and currently drives for National Carriers, Inc.

“Atlas the Trucker Dog” features 42 pages detailing a dog’s journey from a rest area in Florida to Dodge City, Kan. Along the way, Atlas explores a truck stop, watches a trailer wash-out and experiences his first tractor-trailer hookup.

“Atlas filled my empty nest; thank goodness I got on the truck,” Paramore said. “He absolutely loves riding with us. I didn’t realize the community of trucking dogs that exists. There are so many dogs on the road. Walking the dog gets me out of the truck, and I know it helps other drivers get out and get moving, because it is a sedentary lifestyle.”

Writing a children’s book took some time, as her previous writing experience was in news reporting, Paramore explained.

“It was a completely different genre than what I was used to,” she said. “With print sometimes, it will just come out and the pieces just fit together. I really had to work at this. Going through different illustrators, I would package it differently each time, and I think that process really helped produce a better end product.”

Despite this being a children’s book, Paramore hopes the story will appeal to all generations and offer a bonding experience for families.

“With our military background, my husband was gone a long time,” she said. “The trucking lifestyle is a lot like that military lifestyle. As a driver, you schedule your life around your work responsibilities, just like the military. A lot of drivers are gone from their families for periods of time. Hopefully, this book would give them quality time when they are home together and talk about where they’ve been.”

She added that the potential exists for more stories like this one.

“If I do more books, I’m going to have a route and build the story around it,” Paramore said. “I want it to be realistic and feature the places we’ve seen.” LL

Land Line Now’s Ashley Blackford contributed to this report.