Overview

"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. The Underdogs tells 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 manmade, 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."

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9781504736152

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Reviews

At last a real writer turns to children, love, and dogs, surely the three most important topics in life. The Underdogs is written with wit, with charm, and, above all, with genuine warmth. It is a miracle, truly. -- Dr. Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, author of Dogs Never Lie about Love Beautifully written, scientifically rigorous, and filled with heartbreak and joy. It will make you think and feel differently about the kindness, compassion, and love between us and our dogs. -- Brian Hare and Vanessa Woods, authors of The Genius of Dogs Personal stories of service dogs in action...The author compassionately interweaves these personal successes with scientific facts about dogs, the bonding that occurs between a human and a dog, and the loss or grief a dog may feel if a child should die. Dog lovers, parents of special needs kids, and those who love feel-good stories will delight in these heartwarming portraits of dogs and their families. -- Kirkus Reviews Greene lends her trademark empathetic voice to this engrossing inside look at the work of 4 Paws for Ability, a service-dog academy that has placed over a thousand dogs with those in need, particularly children...Greene, a master at telling the most human of stories, will still leave readers smiling. And dog lovers will adore this book. -- Booklist Greene shares uplifting stories from families who have benefited from service animals provided by 4 Paws for Ability, a nonprofit dog training academy...For the most part these are feel-good stories about overcoming obstacles, but there are moments of heartbreak as well...She astutely sums up the relationship between humans and canines: 'There are...reaches of the human psyche accessible only when accompanied by dogs.' -- Publishers Weekly

Author Information

Melissa Fay Greene is the author of Praying for Sheetrock; The Temple Bombing; Last Man Out; There Is No Me Without You: One Woman's Odyssey to Rescue her Country's Children; and No Biking in the House Without A Helmet. Her honors include two National Book Award nominations, a National Book Critics Circle Award nomination, the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award, the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize, the Southern Book Critics Circle Award, the ACLU National Civil Liberties Award, the Hadassah Myrtle Wreath Award, the Salon Book Award, Elle Magazine's Readers' Prize, the Georgia Author Award, and a Dog Writers of America Award. She is a current Guggenheim Fellow. Christina Delaine is an AudioFile Earphones Award-winning narrator and accomplished stage actress. Her theater credits include Jewtopia, the longest-running comedy in Off-Broadway history, and the title role in Antigone at both Portland Center Stage and Kentucky Repertory Theatre. She holds a BA degree from Dartmouth College and an MFA in acting from Brown University.

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