Underdogs (eBook)

Children, Dogs, and the Power of Unconditional Love

Melissa Fay Greene (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2016
352 Seiten
Harpercollins (Verlag)
978-0-06-221853-7 (ISBN)

Infos

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 Shirks 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 Mans 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 Karens 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.

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 17.5.2016
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Biografien / Erfahrungsberichte
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Romane / Erzählungen
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Gesundheit / Leben / Psychologie ► Schwangerschaft / Geburt
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Natur / Technik ► Tiere / Tierhaltung
• ISBN-10: 0-06-221853-0 / 0062218530
• ISBN-13: 978-0-06-221853-7 / 9780062218537