The Story Behind Paddy, Apollo and Me
Written by Sarah Veall, Transformational Coach
Sarah Veall is a transformational coach, inner child practitioner, and Reiki practitioner. She is the author of "Trust", a story of how she reconnected with her true essence and a state of wholeness and healed holistically, following a cancer diagnosis in 2020.
I never intended to write another book, but apparently my intuition had other ideas! In hindsight, my second book, Paddy, Apollo and Me, probably began when I was just eight years old. I remember writing and illustrating a little children's book at school. My teacher praised me and told me to write children's books when I was older. I never forgot those words. I didn't become a children's author. At least, not then. Instead, life took me in a very different direction, and then, many years later, it started with a cat.
This is Paddy
Paddy came into my life in February 2019, when I really needed him. He was a beautiful black-and-white cat, but he quickly became so much more. He became my companion, my comfort, and a source of emotional safety during a particularly difficult chapter of my life.
Paddy always knew when I needed him. He didn't need me to explain how I was feeling. He didn't need me to pretend I was ok. He was just there. Looking back, I believe Paddy taught me some of the biggest lessons of my life.
He taught me about unconditional love. About allowing myself to feel difficult emotions rather than running away from them. About staying with those emotions and allowing them to flow through me rather than distracting myself from them. He taught me to not abandon myself.
At the time, I didn't realise that these were lessons I was learning. I just knew that having Paddy beside me made life feel a little safer.
Paddy was more than a cat
I believe our beloved animals come into our lives for a reason. Paddy wasn’t just a cat. He was one of my greatest teachers. He showed me what unconditional love could feel like, not love that had to be earned by being good enough, useful enough, or everything that somebody else needed me to be.
Just love. The kind that says: You are enough simply because you are you. Those lessons became part of my own healing journey. They also became part of my first book, Trust.
The book before this one
Trust came from my experience of being diagnosed with cancer in 2020 and the journey that followed. It became an exploration of healing, intuition, body wisdom, and learning to listen to those quieter parts of myself that I had spent years overriding.
Writing Trust helped me understand how much of my life had been about trying to be what I thought other people needed me to be.
It was about reconnecting with my own truth. Learning to listen to my intuition. Learning what it really meant to trust myself.
But in writing Paddy, Apollo and Me, I’ve realised it is the same story as Trust, just told from a completely different angle.
Trust tells the story through my own healing journey. Paddy, Apollo and Me tells it through my relationship with two very special cats. But underneath both books is the same message:
"Reconnect with your truth. Listen to your inner wisdom, and learn to love yourself unconditionally."
In many ways, Paddy, Apollo and Me is the softer, simpler and more playful expression of everything I discovered through the much deeper journey that became Trust. I thought Trust was the story I needed to tell. I didn't realise there was another way of telling it.
Then Apollo arrived
Just when I thought Paddy had taught me everything he could, Apollo arrived. A tiny ginger kitten, born on the summer solstice. Apollo brought a completely different energy into my life. Where Paddy was gentle, grounding, and comforting, Apollo was curious, playful, mischievous, and completely present.
He reminded me that healing isn't only about looking backward, it's also about learning how to experience joy again. About curiosity, play, fascination with the world around you, and being here right now. If Paddy taught me about love and staying with myself, Apollo was teaching me how to play again.
What if our animals are our teachers?
I don’t believe our beloved animals are just pets. I believe they are mirrors. Paddy reflected something different from Apollo. One taught me about unconditional love, grief, and staying with my emotions. The other reminds me about curiosity, presence, joy, and play.
I realised that Paddy, Apollo and Me wasn't really a book about two cats. It was a book about us. It's about the things we forget as we grow up. The parts of ourselves we learn to hide, the ways we can disconnect from our own truth, and the journey back to ourselves.
A book for the child within all of us
Each of us needs to feel safe, loved, seen, and accepted. The part that wants to play. The part that wants to be curious. The part that wants to feel its feelings without being told that they are too much. The part that doesn't want to have to be perfect.
That is the part of us I wanted Paddy, Apollo, and me to speak to. Because although it might look like a children's book, I believe its message is for all of us.
It is a book for the child within all of us. I believe our animals don't just teach us how to love them. They teach us how to love ourselves.
You don't have to become someone else to be worthy of love. You just have to find your way back to who you really are. Paddy, Apollo and Me is coming soon. I can't wait to share their story with you.
Read more from Sarah Veall
Sarah Veall, Transformational Coach
Sarah Veall is a transformational coach, inner child practitioner, and Reiki practitioner. She is the author of "Trust", a story of how she reconnected with her true essence and a state of wholeness and healed holistically, following a cancer diagnosis in 2020. Sarah is passionate about empowering others to love their whole 'self' in order to access a state of wellness where the body can heal itself.
