The Underdogs
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From two-time National Book Award nominee Melissa Fay Greene comes a profound and surprising account of dogs on the front lines of rescuing both children and adults from the trenches of grief, emotional, physical, and cognitive disability, and post-traumatic stress disorder.
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The Underdogstells the story of Karen Shirk, felled at age twenty-four by a neuromuscular disease and facing life as a ventilator-dependent, immobile patient, who was turned down by every service dog agency in the country because she was "too disabled." Her nurse encouraged her to tone down the suicidal thoughts, find a puppy, and raise her own service dog. Karen did this, and Ben, a German shepherd, dragged her back into life. "How many people are stranded like I was," she wondered, "who would lead productive lives if only they had a dog?"
A thousand state-of-the-art dogs later, Karen Shirk's service dog academy, 4 Paws for Ability, is restoring broken children and their families to life. Long shunned by scientists as a man made, synthetic species, and oft- referred to as "Man's Best Friend" almost patronizingly, dogs are finally paid respectful attention by a new generation of neuroscientists and animal behaviorists. Melissa Fay Greene weaves the latest scientific discoveries about our co-evolution with dogs with Karen's story and a few exquisitely rendered stories of suffering children and their heartbroken families. Written with characteristic insight, humanity, humor, and irrepressible joy, what could have been merely touching is a penetrating, compassionate exploration of larger questions: about our attachment to dogs, what constitutes a productive life, and what can be accomplished with unconditional love.
Liked The Underdogs? Here’s where I’d start.
These suit anyone who liked The Underdogs. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.
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Retired Racing Greyhounds For Dummies Shares nonfiction, dogs, animals -
Lucky Dog Lessons: Train Your Dog in 7 Days Shares nonfiction, dogs, dog -
Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell, and Know Shares nonfiction, dogs, animals -
What a Difference a Dog Makes: Big Lessons on Life, Love and Healing from a Small Pooch Shares nonfiction, dogs, animals
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I'm Chocolate, You're Vanilla: Raising Healthy Black and Biracial Children in a Race-Conscious World
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Elle & Coach: Diabetes, the Fight for My Daughter's Life, and the Dog Who Changed Everything
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Outsiders Within: Writing on Transracial Adoption
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Healing Companions: Ordinary Dogs and Their Extraordinary Power to Transform Lives
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How Dogs Think: What the World Looks Like to Them and Why They Act the Way They Do
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Every Dog Has a Gift: True Stories of Dogs Who Bring Hope & Healing into Our Lives