BOOKS: Thoughts and stories about people and the dogs they love

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  July/August 2011:

A Bond Unique:
Thoughts and stories about people and the dogs they love
Edited by Reg Green
Iroquois County Animal Rescue
(100 NW Lincoln,  Iroquois,  IL  60945),  2010.
60 pages,  illustrated,  paperback.  $25.00

I never tire of reading books about dogs and their owners. This one is as uplifting as any other book I have reviewed for Animal People.

A Bond Unique editor Reg Green is now a local TV personality, known for profiling dogs who are available for adoption with WCIA/WCFN meteorologist Jennifer Ketchmark,  but his involvement in animal rescue is relatively recent.  A few years ago Green was a recently retired Chicago high school football coach,  who conceptualized A Bond Unique as an investigation of the relationships between dogs and humans before realizing it could be used to help promote Iroquois County Animal Rescue.

Green began his research by simply approaching people who were walking their dogs at roadside rest stops and asking them to tell their dogs’ stories.   Thus not every dog profiled in A Bond Unique is a rescue case.  Some came from breeders,  including a few bought on line or in pet stores.  All are loved and pampered.  But the rescue dogs’ stories tend to be more interesting.

Logan and Pepper are former shelter dogs who now live the good life with Thomas Call and his wife in Savoy,  Illinois.  “I had knee surgery a couple of years ago,”  says Call.  “My dogs never left my side.”
Joan Beyer of Oakwood,  Illinois,  acquired a dog by accident.  “My neighbor  found her and didn’t want the dog,  so we said we’d take her,”  Beyer explains.  Her dog Bonnie is now spoiled with several dog beds,  lots of snacks,  and plenty of love.

Rascal probably scraped by in the hills of eastern Kentucky, where he was found and rescued.  Now the mixed breed snacks on pieces of hot dogs and sleeps indoors in Loda,  Illinois with Norma McGuire.
In addition to short stories about dogs and their owners, A Bond Unique includes clever canine cartoons and sayings such as,  “A dog fills an empty spot in your heart that you never knew was there.”

All sales benefit Iroquois County Animal Rescue,  100 NW Lincoln,  Iroquois, IL 60945. Formed as a fostering network in response to massive flooding that displaced domestic pets in Watseka, Illinois in 2008,  Iroquois County Animal Rescue opened a cat shelter in 2010 and plans to add a dog shelter soon. –Debra J. White