K9 Tambo by Chris Bingham

Rich Bennett: 00:00:00

Before we begin today's pitch, I want to thank EcoKool H Vac for sponsoring this episode.

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To learn more or schedule a Visit, go to ecokoolhvac.com welcome to the author pitch, where writers from around the world deliver a powerful pitch for their book and read a short excerpt in their own voice.

I'm your host, Rich Bennett, and today's guest is Chris Bingham, author of K9 Tambo.

Now, we're doing a little something different this time because Chris has written a children's book, and I had Chris on my other podcast talking about his canine, Tambo.

And this dog is simply amazing.

So, first of all, welcome.

Chris.

How you doing?

Chris Bingham: 00:01:01

I'm good, Rich.

Thanks for having me on again.

It's good to see you.

Rich Bennett: 00:01:05

All right.

I want to talk about the book because it's hard to read an excerpt from a children's book.

Chris Bingham: 00:01:10

Yep.

Rich Bennett: 00:01:11

But tell, you know, let's hear your pitch.

Tell everybody what the book is, who it's for, why it matters, what makes it unique.

You know what?

I'm just going to let you go in, talk about the book and tell Tambo's story.

That's the easiest way to do this.

Chris Bingham: 00:01:27

So, you know, the backstory on Tambo.

He was kind of the.

I had retired two working dogs, lost them both to cancer.

I came back to the unit as our commander, and at first, they weren't going to give me a dog.

And I went back and forth, you know, with my supervisors for a while trying to get a dog.

And then they kind of gave me the take it or leave it offered, which was taking Tambo.

And the story on him is he was kind of the dog that.

That nobody wanted.

He had been through several handlers, known as a dog, wasn't aggressive, just known as a dog that couldn't bond with anybody, was aloof, guarded.

So I was up for the challenge.

Rich.

I, you know, and I remember I, you know, I talked about in our interview, I go up to that kennel the first day, and I'm pulling him out of the kennel, and I'm looking at this dog and all the labels he has as guarded, aloof, stubborn, misunderstood.

And I realized those are all the same labels that, that I grew up with.

So really saw a mirror version of myself.

And, you know, the bonding process took.

Took a Little bit of time to.

To get there with him.

But we went on to have this amazing career.

We had over 10,000 detection sweeps, over 500 calls for service.

He worked with me for.

For seven years, and then he retired when my.

My son was born.

I had my son at 47.

And then my life got kind of turned upside down because Tambo was diagnosed with a terminal and aggressive cancer called hemangiosarcoma, where they basically gave him.

He had a mass rupture on his spleen, and he was in the process of bleeding out.

So the first thing is they wanted me to let him go right then and there.

But I looked at this dog, and I knew him.

We were so bonded and connected because we were so much alike that, you know, he was telling me he wasn't ready to go.

And so I told him I wanted to move forward with the surgery.

He made a full recovery.

They then gave him two weeks to live after that based off his cancer diagnosis.

now, that was back in July of: 2025

So he's still here with us, and he's still fighting.

And, you know, when I.

And what inspired me for the children's book, Rich, is when I. I started documenting his journey on social media, it not only inspired a lot of people in law enforcement, in the canine industry, but what it started doing was inspiring a lot of people that were going through cancer, and especially a lot of parents reached out to me that had some children that were going through cancer, and they said that my post with Tambo, you know, gave them light in a dark time, and they were motivated by them, and it helped them through some hard times.

So I wanted to create a book, a children's book, not only because, you know, for my son, but also for kids that are going through a hard time, because, you know, I knew what it was like to grow up and feel small and unseen growing up without my dad.

And so the book is basically for any child that's ever been sick or felt unseen or small.

And the kind of.

The moral of the story is that, you know, Tambo is a working dog.

You know, you know, I'm in the book with them.

Tambo gets sick, but he gets medicine and gets better.

And what he does is he shows children that are going through a hard time to.

To not give up.

Rich Bennett: 00:04:51

Nice.

Now, who did the illustrations in the book?

Chris Bingham: 00:04:54

Well, it took.

It took me a while.

You know, I had.

I had a local author, Lindsay Pope, that really was.

Was amazing and guided me through a lot of.

Yeah, she was.

She was Amazing.

So shout out to Lindsay.

She did a great job guiding me through the process since this was all new to me and kind of gave me some.

Some areas to look.

And, you know, I did a lot of research and, you know, I had a vision of what I wanted to look for in illustration, and I was able to find a, you know, a young artist that really matched what I was looking for.

And, you know, and then we kind of moved from there.

Already kind of had the story in place, so it was that final thing of finding that illustration.

So it kind of all came together.

Rich Bennett: 00:05:36

And I have to.

Now, I've never met Tambo, but.

And what kind of dog is Tambo?

Chris Bingham: 00:05:42

He's a German.

German shepherd.

Rich Bennett: 00:05:46

German shepherd.

Okay.

But looking at the book cover itself, man.

Man, it looks good.

The artwork is.

Or the illustrations, I should say.

Artwork.

Well, illustrations are.

Artwork are very good.

Chris Bingham: 00:06:05

Yeah.

And, you know, I really wanted something that.

That I.

The vision that I had in my head.

And that's why I wasn't going to rush the process.

I really had this vision.

And when I finally saw this artist's artwork, I knew that's.

That's the one.

Rich Bennett: 00:06:21

All right, so I don't know if you can answer this or not.

Well, you talk to him all the time.

Did Tambo see the book?

And what did he think?

Chris Bingham: 00:06:31

Yeah, Yeah.

I actually, you know, I mean, don't laugh at me, but I, you know, I read it to him and I thought it was kind of symbolic.

I had my.

The first time I.

It came in the mail, I got the first copy and I grabbed my son, who.

Tambo is his hero.

And I sat down with both of them and I read it.

And it was kind of a, you know, an emotional moment of seeing when you have a goal and a vision and seeing it come to fruition and then being able to, you know, share that with my son and Tambo as well, for a dog who wasn't supposed to be there, was pretty special,.

Rich Bennett: 00:07:07

Man.

You just took me back some time ago.

And those of you, there's nothing wrong with reading to a dog.

The last dog I had, I'll never forget this.

My son was 3, and I had him for the weekend.

And I brought home this shar pei.

2 O' clock in the morning, I'm in bed and I hear this laughing.

I'm like, what in the world is going on?

And I hear it again.

I said, daniel Lee, go to sleep.

And he's still laughing.

So I go into his bedroom.

Well, he's not in his bedroom.

He's in the living room.

I go down to the living room.

Here he is with the Shar Pei laying on the couch with her head on his lap.

I said, what are you doing?

I'm reading to Blossom.

And he was reading the dog a book, and she's just laying there, like, enjoying it.

Dogs can sense this stuff.

Chris Bingham: 00:07:58

They can sense, and it's the, the soothing sound.

Rich Bennett: 00:08:02

They understand it.

Chris Bingham: 00:08:03

Yeah.

Of, of the voice and, and, you know, especially with, you know, with a dog like Tambo and being so in, in sync and bonded with them, you know, he, he, we have an unspoken bond where, you know, we just kind of understand each other's on, on so many different levels.

Rich Bennett: 00:08:20

Yeah.

All right, so where can people actually get the book and follow you in Tambo?

Chris Bingham: 00:08:27

So I'm locally here in Habit of Grace.

So if you're not into buying books online, I do have it in some local bookstores in Harford.

I have it in Joe Mercantile's Washington street bookstore in Habit of Grace.

It will be in the Barnes and Noble in Bel Air and then also have it in another bookstore in Valer.

It's the, I think it's called the odd book bookstore.

They, they, they just opened up, so they're carrying it.

And then if you want to order it online, you can find it on Amazon, IngramSpark or, you know, Barnes and Noble and just type in canine Tambo and it'll, it'll pop up.

But I'm, you know, as I was telling you before, Rich, you know, right now we just cracked the, the top 50 for, you know, the book for, in, in juvenile fiction.

So I'm pretty proud of that.

And, and to see the book, you know, you know, inspiring kids, you know, that's what it's all about.

Rich Bennett: 00:09:28

For those of you listening, when, when we say canine Tambo, not canine, spelled out the letter K, the number nine.

Like a canine dog, you know, like a canine police dog.

Chris Bingham: 00:09:38

Yep.

Rich Bennett: 00:09:38

I, I, I didn't even think about that on the other podcast of mine that you were on.

But it's like, Kate, wait a minute.

Canines also.

Chris Bingham: 00:09:45

Yeah, maybe a lot of people may not know that.

Yeah, good point.

Rich Bennett: 00:09:49

Yeah.

But where could people follow you on,.

Chris Bingham: 00:09:53

On Instagram is, is primarily where I'm at right now.

I, I'm working on getting some other social media platforms up and running.

But if you want to follow me on Instagram and, and Tambo Story, I put a lot of content on there.

That's at K9, the letter K. The number 9 underscore Tambo T a M b o.

Rich Bennett: 00:10:16

Now, what is next for Chris as an author?

Chris Bingham: 00:10:21

Well, we are working on that right now.

I have the book done for the adult memoir, which is the full story of my career and canine Timbo and us together.

I'm working diligently on a publishing deal right now that hopefully will come to fruition, but that.

That book should be.

Should be out this year.

And, you know, the end goal after that is to, you know, there's been some preliminary interest to take it to film eventually.

So we'll just.

Trying to be patient and, you know, see what.

See what happens.

But we have some other things cooking behind the scenes too, that I can't talk about yet, but hopefully I'll be able to, you know, announce those things soon, which will be pretty exciting.

Rich Bennett: 00:11:08

Yeah.

Especially when you come on and pitch the next book.

Chris Bingham: 00:11:11

Yeah, absolutely.

Rich Bennett: 00:11:12

Hopefully you know, everything by then, you know.

Chris Bingham: 00:11:14

Yeah.

Rich Bennett: 00:11:15

Those of you listening, you know what I'm gonna say.

And I.

And I have a funny feeling.

Chris's book, this book that we're talking about now, Canine Tambo, is a lot like other children's books that I always mention, and it's a good children's book, also teaches adults.

And I know that this one will.

Everybody, no matter what age, will get a lot from this.

So you know what I'm going to say.

After you purchase the book, leave a full review, whether it be on Amazon, Goodreads, Barnes and Noble, matter of fact, leave a review everywhere, actually.

And somebody gave me this idea.

I want to thank her for this.

Take a picture of yourself with the book and write her review on social media as well.

Tag Chris and Tambo in it.

So this way people know, hey, this is a book you have to get and you have to read and then purchase copies for other people.

Chris, I want to thank you so much.

Do me a favor when you get home.

I still haven't met him yet, and I have to.

But, man, give Tambo a big hug for me.

Chris Bingham: 00:12:21

I will.

He's.

He's.

He's waiting for me now anxiously to probably take him on a walk.

So I definitely will when I.

When I get back.

Rich.

Rich Bennett: 00:12:30

Well, if you ever bring him down to Mariner Point park, you got to let me know so I could come down there and meet him.

Chris Bingham: 00:12:34

Absolutely.

Yep.

You'll meet him very soon.

Rich Bennett: 00:12:38

Sounds good.

Thanks for listening to the author pitch.

I'm Rich Bennett, and until next time, keep turning pages and discovering new voices.

Chris and I actually recorded this back in April, and on September 4, Tambo had crossed the rainbow bridge Cancer didn't win.

Tambo did as Chris said, and I believe that his story lives on.

Which makes it even more important to purchase this book.

Purchase it.

In memory of Tambourine.