I opened this book hoping it wouldn't be the typical dog book with the sad ending: that is, "I learned a big lesson and now my dog is dead." It wasn't. Scent of the Missing is really about the love and partnership between a woman and a dog. I expected stories about training and about searches and they are here. But I didn't expect them to be as beautifully written and powerful as they are, especially the searches. Some of them are more powerful because they don't have a final resolution. The author writes that sometimes they search and never find out the answers to what happened and she passes that "ache" (her word, Chapter 1) on to the reader.
The book answers many questions I had about these dogs and how they are chosen and trained - and how they do the work - without being a textbook.
I appreciated what seems to be a realistic look into the working life of a dog team where some conclusions are happy, some are very sad, and some may never resolve at all. I also like that the author tries to imagine what the dogs are thinking about things, but in this book the dogs don't seem like humans. The people working here with the dogs also seem to be real people. For example the handler whose voice shakes after his search dog is nearly mauled by another dog.
If you expect this book to be a roller coaster ride with a big drama at the end and all the questions wrapped up neatly, go to the movies. I think this book is more like the work it describes. A journey with a good dog into unfamiliar places, where good things and bad can happen.Get more detail about Scent of the Missing: Love and Partnership with a Search-and-Rescue Dog.
No comments:
Post a Comment