Lucy Goes to The Gentle Barn by Tenny Minassian and Agavny Vardanyan

Based on a true story, Lucy Goes to The Gentle Barn follows Lucy, a rescue poodle-mix, as she goes on another adventure with her mom. This time they visit an animal sanctuary called The Gentle Barn!

“The Gentle Barn is a special place that not only rescues animals, but allows humans to heal by bonding with them. There is nothing more healing than hugging a cow,” says Tenny Minassian. “I wanted to share the story of our visit to The Gentle Barn because Lucy also rescued me. She saved my life when I was battling depression. I want children to know that even if we are different from each other, whether we are talking about humans or non-human animals, we can still be good friends.” 

In 2015, a small poodle named Spring, was rescued from a shelter when she was pregnant with four puppies. Lucy was one of those puppies. Shortly after, she became an Emotional Support Animal (ESA) when her mom was struggling with her mental health. They saved each other! 

Tenny Minassian is a vegan lifestyle coach, business consultant, and independent author living in Los Angeles, California with her Emotional Support Animal Lucy. She focuses on compassionate coaching and donates a portion of proceeds to nonprofit organizations helping animals, people, and the planet. She is an Armenian-American immigrant and came to the U.S. from Iran as a refugee with her family. Visit vegancoachtenny.com/books and follow on social media @VeganCoachTenny for more information on upcoming projects and events. Follow Lucy’s fun adventures on her Instagram account. 

Agavny Vardanyan is an Armenian American character designer and prop artist based in Los Angeles, California. She’s a 2021 Summa Cum Laude graduate from Cal State Northridge with a BA in arts and concentration in animation. In addition to having recently worked as a full-time prop artist for HBO Max’s Fired on Mars, she’s also worked as a children’s book illustrator for GarTam Books and as print designer for New York Times and Indie Bestseller Allison Saft. She is currently working on her first graphic novel, The Pomegranate Princess. Learn more about Vardanyan here.

You can now purchase Lucy Goes to The Gentle Barn from Bookshop, Abril Bookstore, Barnes & Noble, Amazon and Walmart. Part of the proceeds of this book will benefit The Gentle Barn, a national non-profit with locations in Santa Clarita, CA, St. Louis, Missouri and Nashville, Tennessee.