September 15, 2013. It’s a date that Danise DiStasi will never forget. She certainly hadn’t expected anything special to happen that day. She’d only entered the store on a whim.
She walked around inside for a few minutes … and that’s when it happened. Louie sat quietly, a calm, somewhat sad presence amid a storm of activity and noise. His big brown eyes locked with her big brown eyes, and the world shifted for them both. She knew without hesitation that he would be going home with her that day.
It’s probably a good time for a few more details.
The store was the PetSmart in Deerfield Township. Louie was a Corgi-Beagle mix barely out of puppyhood. He’d been rescued from a shelter in Kentucky and fostered for a time before ending up at the PetSmart. “I had dogs all my life … my last one had died about a year earlier,” Danise says. “I thought my granddaughters, Evi and Mea, would enjoy having a dog around.”
Once Danise and Louie got home, however, the honeymoon was over. “He started jumping on my bed … growling and snapping at me,” she remembers. Danise briefly considered returning him, but there was something in those big brown eyes that made her reconsider.
“I made the conscious decision to love him in spite of his challenging behavior.” She also hired a trainer to teach Louie some “good dog” basics. In the process, Danise, whose job was teaching corporate leadership skills, picked up some new skills herself … from the dog trainer. “He told me I’d been letting Louie run the show—it was time I became the Alpha dog,” she says, laughing. “Not in a mean, aggressive way—but by being calm, controlled and consistent.” Within a couple of weeks, Louie made an amazing transformation. And Danise began to see a greater purpose for what was happening between them.
As the lessons on living with each other kept coming, Danise was encouraged to write about them—so she started a blog. “People loved it,” she recalls. Eventually, that led to putting those lessons into books.
The first was Lead Like Louie, aimed at adults, followed by Love Like Louie for middle schoolers. Then began a series of children’s books for pre-K–3rd grade, casting Louie and his short Corgi-like legs as the lead character.
“Louie’s Little Legs” books include lessons in patience, hope, kindness, and the joy of Christmas. A new one, Louie’s Little Legs and the Power of Trust, is currently in the works. Her granddaughters (Evi now 17, Mea 13) serve as unofficial editors. “They are brutally honest. If they like an idea, I know other kids will, too.”
In 2021, Danise formed Unleash Love, a nonprofit that partners with several organizations—including The Joe Nuxhall Miracle League, Adopt A Class, and City Gospel Mission—to get her books into the hands of as many kids as possible, free of charge. To date, Danise has done 41 author visits to area schools.
“The feedback from teachers has been amazing—we ask them to fill out an impact survey,” she says. “There’s also a QR code in the books for parents to respond.” In fact, 93% of teachers say they’ve seen improvement in character development and a 75% improvement in literacy.
“Louie has taught me that everyone on this earth wants to be known and loved,” Danise says. Although Louie, at 13, doesn’t do school visits with her any longer, the stories he inspires remain front and center.
One of the main goals is to help eradicate bullying. “I hope we have some part in teaching children—and adults—that love is being kind, patient, hopeful, trustworthy and persevering through tough times.”
Does it work? Just ask Louie.
“Louie has taught me that everyone on this earth wants to be known and loved.”