Lionel James & Dillon's Autobiography

Writing one's first Autobiography isn’t easy, believe me, but here it goes. I am the founder and owner and President of Dillon’s Doggie Creations. I was born with the disease of alcoholism. I am the oldest of two children. My drinking started when I was a teenager and progressed over the years.

As a young man I faced many challenges. However, my mother told me that we were all children of God and that the color of one’s skin or their background bore no importance on my relationships with them. My mother’s words of wisdom hold true to this day. She also told me that God knows all and sees all, so I knew I could hide my Alcoholism from everyone but God. So I was more careful in my early years of what I said, what I did, and who my friends were. As the disease progressed, those things I once held as important became less important to me. At one point, I felt Hell was the only place for me. I wasn’t a bad person, and I didn’t do bad things to hurt others. In fact, the one I hurt the most was myself.

But when you have a mother who gives her all for you to succeed and you fail her repeatedly, destroying her confidence in you, her dependence upon you, her faith and trust in you, then she was the one who was hurt the most by me. I never knew the pain I caused my mother until I moved to California and found the road to recovery. Once I got sober, I thought I had accomplished a great feat. I later learned my journey had only begun. October 11, 1998, isn’t only a sobriety date for me; it was also the day I began to make my amends to my mother and my family with the help of my Lord and savior, Jesus Christ.

But that wasn’t the end of it, either. I learned that living my life the way I had was the reason for all my troubles now. How could my life be the reasoning for my Alcoholism? But it was, to say the least. It was then that I learned of something called Depression, and I had it bad. But I had, and still do have, one of the best support teams consisting of a loving God, a Sponsor in AA, Doctors, and a Mental Health Therapist, and it helps to have a good supporting family and friends.

It was suggested to me by people around me to get a dog. I love dogs but never really had one of my very own until Dillon. He was born on December 21, 2012. I call him my Christmas Miracle. I brought Dillon home from where he was born in Hesperia, California, and my life changed. It's more than six years now, and Dillon is always there for me.

I lost my only brother in November of 2013. A few days later I was watching Oprah’s new network, OWN. (I love her and pray to meet her one day.) I was watching a repeat of Super Soul Sunday. She was interviewing her good friend, Ms. Lyanla Vanzant. In that interview Oprah said something that struck me as being profound. Oprah said to Ms. Vanzant, “God has, or she felt God has, a purpose for all of us, and it’s up to us to find out what that is.”

I looked at Dillon and said, “Oh, Dillon, my girl, Oprah has lost it now,” because my thoughts were, what in the world could God have for someone like me to do? I was 52 at the time of that interview, and I believe it was first launched on OWN in 2011. I believe that Super Soul Sunday show was in November of that year, but don’t quote me.

I started praying that day—not every day after that, but from time to time. But it wasn’t so much because Oprah had said so, but mostly because my mother told me always to pray, and that day Oprah just reminded me of something my mother instilled in me. My prayer went like this: “My Heavenly Father, I come to you with a humble heart and a willing soul, asking for your guidance so that I may better do your will in whatever it is you have for me to do.”

That prayer started in November of 2013. I have always believed in God, and I’ve always known that God is a miracle worker. It was in January 2014 when God gave me his vision. Dillon and I were in bed sound asleep. My head was going from side to side and my mind was racing. It was 2 a.m. in the morning when something inside me was telling me to get up.

I got up and I knelt down. I looked up towards the ceiling and I asked God, “God, are you talking to me?” It was at that moment I started seeing colors, then names of businesses—what later would be my businesses—and mountains and mountains of ideas. My head just would not shut off, even now.

Tears began rolling down my face. I started repeating out loud what I believe God was telling/giving me: “The Adventures of Buff, Gray & Chocolate, How Buff Became Marshal of Cockapoo City, Dillon’s Doggie Creations, 4 Leggs & Me.”

I got up and went to my computer and I started typing what God was telling me to write—my first book, “The Adventures of Buff, Gray, and Chocolate, Behind the Secret Wall,” a canine western.

It goes back to the day I was looking for a dog. I wanted a Cockapoo. I looked online at local animal shelters, but every one I found had been adopted. Then I found a wonderful breeder named Rhonda of Rhonda’s Cockapoos. She told me her dog had just had a litter, but it would be a while before they were ready for adoption.

I waited and waited. Then on February 16, 2013, the call came. It was Rhonda. First she asked me if I’d found my baby yet, and I said no. She said, “Good, because I have one for you.”

She only had three left, and all three were sold. She invited me to come to see the puppies and see which one I would bond with, but by the time I arrived there was only one left. It was Dillon, and I knew at once he was the one for me.

And so began the title of the series of books God gave me in my vision in January 2014—“The Adventures of Buff, Gray and Chocolate, Dillon and his brother.”

Only God can take a person with ADHD, Dyslexia, and a degree in Alcoholism and turn their life completely around. And to think it was a little Cockapoo named Dillon that brought God's miracle to me.

I don’t know what I did in my life to be given such a wonderful miracle as this, but I will forever be humble and grateful God gave this one to me. I have learned many things from my Dillon, but most importantly I’ve learned the true meaning of Unconditional Love!                                                                                                                                                                   

                                                                 Lionel James