katekintailbc | The Lost Dogs: Michael Vick's Dogs and Their Tale of Rescue and Redemption by Jim Gorant (Reply)

The Lost Dogs: Michael Vick's Dogs and Their Tale of Rescue and Redemption
by Jim Gorant
(Audio)

Wow. A lot has happened to Michael Vick, football player, since I tutored him in college. Confession #1: My connection to Vick is why I picked this book up at the library. Well, that and the adorable puppy on the cover with its head cocked and those dark eyes staring back at me. I love dogs. I love animals. And the news of Vick's pit bull ring made me both sad and sick. Only having a general idea of what I was getting into, and hoping that I'd find out some good things, I gave this book a try.

I was pleasantly surprised. There were definitely painful and emotional moments. I teared up a number of times, especially at the descriptions of the rescued dogs. I didn't realize dogs were just tied up outside to car axles buried in the ground. But it wasn't until the end that I actually cried.

The book explores the case--going behind the public information to see why officials got involved and what they did to find justice for these dogs. We see the rescue and the conditions the dogs are kept in while they're "evidence" for the state against Bad News Kennels. And we see what happens to the dogs afterward.

Rescue workers said that if even 5 out of about 50 could be saved (10%) then it would be a success. Instead, SO many were saved from euthanasia and some were even so rehabilitated they work now as service dogs. This really is a unique situation, because it involves someone who has so much money and a court order to provide so much money for the surviving dogs. It's rare that you'd ever get something like that again, but the publicity that came about from it--including this book--continues to inform about dog fighting rings. Also, some of these people working with dogs seem to be inhumanly patient.

Confession #2: I feel in love with the little brown dog and several other dogs. Sadly, the book doesn't go into detail for all of the dogs (that would be an incredibly long book that no one would get through, probably), but each dog gets its own section at the end of the book, so we get to know what happens to each dog. Some of them made me laugh, some were sweet, some made me sob. I loved how the book got right into the dogs' mindsets. You really started to understand the needs and behaviors and reactions.

In all, the book was so much more uplifting than I could ever have imagined when I started it. i thought we'd get maybe one or two success cases. But many of them were successfully rehabilitated and got to know love. That was incredible and unexpected. It was inspirational, insightful, and beautiful.