In 2007, Mark Saluke sped down a seemingly inevitable path toward an early death. Stuck in the full-blown throes of alcoholism, he careened from one dreary drunk to the next, digging his grave one bottle at a time.

When another arrest provided one more last chance, Mark painfully crawled out of the darkness of his addiction and into the light of sobriety. And somewhere, in the blur of those first painful snippets of his early recovery, there was a dog.

LUCY'S WAY is the story of this dog, guiding Mark through his final days of active addiction into the early days of recovery. In a journey tying together the threads of addiction, pets and Taoism into a unique tapestry, Mark comes to realize Lucy was already living out the concepts he was only beginning to understand in recovery. Slowly, as he began to experience the joys Lucy had always known, Mark recognized how the simple principles of Taoism were illuminating his journey into sobriety, as well as day-to-day life with the Labrador beagle who became his best friend.