BOOKS: Rescue Pup

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  July/August 2011:

Rescue Pup
by Brenda Fiorini
Joyful Journey Books
(P.O. Box 216,  Rock Falls,  IL 61071),  2011.
32 pages,  paperback,  illust.,  $7.95.

Stranded by his people,  Buddy sits and waits for their return.  He doesn’t know yet that they are not coming back.  Gnawing hunger leads him to break through a screen door.  Like most stray dogs and cats,  he confronts hardships such as unfriendly people and road hazards,  and lack of food.  Eventually a car stops.  The driver takes Buddy to the local shelter where he finds comfort.  A family adopts Buddy and his story ends happily.

That’s not the case for all abandoned dogs and cats, especially since the 2008 mortgage meltdown.  Many are rescued,  but others scratch out a bleak existence surviving on garbage,  enduring blistering summers and frigid winters without protection from the elements.  Dozens are known to have starved,  locked in houses or left chained in yards by people whose homes have been repossessed.

Rescue Pup imparts values such as responsibility,  caring, and that pets are part of the family.  The art sags in a few places because it’s too dark.  On one page I could hardly see Buddy’s expression.  And where are the page numbers?  Many children learn numbers from turning the pages of a favorite book.

Rescue Pup sales benefit the Happy Tails Animal Shelter in Rock Falls,  Illinois.  The real Buddy was never adopted.  He lived at the shelter,  where he was doted on and cared for by staff and volunteers,  until he died in 2010. –Debra J. White