They had mapped the route, brought three GPSs for backup, refrigerators full of food and volunteers for help. But traveling in three RVs with twenty-five dogs turned out to be a bigger ordeal than he anticipated.
Rosenfelt recounts the adventure with humor and warmth and tells how he and his wife became passionate foster parents for rescue dogs, culminating in the creation of the Tara Foundation.
I discovered David Rosenfelt's Andy Carpenter series about four years ago. I've read and enjoyed them all ... the first one was published in 2002 and I'm looking forward to #19 coming out next month. Andy is a lawyer who is married to Laurie and they have a young son named Rich. He also has a golden retriever named Tara, who he thinks she's the best dog in the world.. I've also read his Doug Brock series ... the first was published in 2012 and the third/last one was published this past March. Doug is a police officer who was shot in the line of duty and has lost the last ten years of his memory.
I enjoy reading books about animals. I knew David and his wife, Debbie, are involved with rescue dogs so have been wanting to read this book and Lessons from Tara: Life Advice from the World’s Most Brilliant Dog for a while (I volunteer with a cat rescue). I read and enjoyed Lessons from Tara: Life Advice from the World’s Most Brilliant Dog earlier this week so was looking forward to reading this one right afterwards as it is referenced in Lessons from Tara.
When David and Debbie started dating in the early 1990s, she had a golden retriever named Tara who he soon grew to love. Tara passed away within a year and they eventually started getting involved in dog rescue. Their mission was to take, place and/or adopt older dogs that would be euthanized because most people want younger dogs. They started the Tara Foundation, named in honour of Tara. In Tara's memory, they have never not taken in a golden retriever, regardless of how many dogs they had.
According to his website, David and Debbie currently have 27 dogs. David and Debbie are both from the east coast, missed the different changing seasons and, after a scare with wildfires getting too close to their home in California, they decided to move to Maine. This book is about their move from California to Maine.
At that time, they had 25 dogs. How do they transport 25 mostly senior dogs across the country!? Flying would have been expensive. Plus the dogs would have to travel in cargo and most needed medicine on a regular basis. And there's no way they would be able to fly all the dogs there at the same time. Once they realized John Travolta or Oprah weren't going to volunteer their private jets, they eventually decided to transport the dogs in rented RVs. But they needed people to drive the RVs plus help out. They were surprised but grateful when friends, friends of friends and strangers stepped up to help them during their journey.
David and Debbie have rescued almost 4,000 dogs and found them homes. Their own home has became a sanctuary for those dogs they rescued that are too old or sickly to be wanted by others. In alternating chapters, David describes some of the dogs they have rescued and/or adopted over the years. Some of these dogs made the trek to Maine (and all made it!).
I like the writing style of this book ... like his Andy Carpenter series, it was funny, sarcastic and amusing. I like that he gave props to everyone who has helped them along the way (vets, rescues, the volunteers who traveled with him, etc.) and named names to acknowledge them.
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