About book Shelter Dogs: Amazing Stories Of Adopted Strays (1999)
As part of my preparation for a writing club I’ll soon teach about rescue animals, I’ve been reading some of the pet books I’ve collected over the years, and am delighted to have found Shelter Dogs by Peg Kehret. This brief book of just over one hundred pages contains eight true stories mostly about dogs that came from The Humane Society in Washington State where Kehret has long volunteered. Shelter Dogs was an inspiring and educational read that I felt sorry to have end.Two days of my writing club will focus on how animals help humans. For that reason, I appreciate that half of Kehret’s stories featured dogs in need who ended up benefitting their owner: A dog with kennel cough becomes a sports champion; A large exuberant stray gets trained to become a service dog; An abandoned puppy saves an hearing-impaired mother and her child from a house fire; A pregnant dog whose family gives her up gets matched, through Paroled Pets, with a gentleman who can no longer work or drive due to seizures. Foremost, Kehret’ stories provide me with entertaining examples of heroic dogs, because of how she creates fast-moving plots. Indirectly, because of how her plots show how the working dogs learned needed skills and then put them into action, Kehret’s stories also educated me about the diverse uses of dogs.Two days of my writing club will focus on how humans help animals. Two stories fit the bill. Both of them also illustrate another aspect of Kehret’s fine writing ability. You see, for the most part, Kehret’s narratives focus on a few pivotal moments. Take for example, the story of Kirby, which is also my favorite in the book. For a long time, Kirby lived happily with his elderly owner. Then his owner got taken to the hospital and Kirby got left behind. For six days. This abandonment left Kirby fearful of all people, so much that he growled and snapped at anyone who came near him. A kind veterinarian technician made a special effort to help him but, when nothing worked, it seemed Kirby might need to get euthanized. Kirby’s story pulls on my heart-strings, not just because of how sad it is, but also because Kehret took the time to develop the problem, the conflict, and the resolution.Besides simply sharing stories, Kehret also provides factual inserts. For instance, after a story about a dog who becomes a movie story, Kehret explains why and how the American Humane Association monitors the use of animals in entertainment. As with this story, some inserts relate to the subject. Others seem like more just random facts. In all cases, inserts are between one to two pages, and always contain useful information about dog care. Other perks include a photograph of the profiled dog, often with the owner, and biographical information about the author and the photographer.Shelter Dogs is on par with other collections of animal stories I’ve read. In addition, I can see Shelter Dogs, which made me both smile and cry, inspiring young people to write their pet stories. For those students of mine who prefer research, I can see them instead creating pet guide books. Apparently, Peg Kehret grew up wanting to become both a veterinarian and an author. Although she never became the former, I can see how books like this draw on both of these wishes, and readers are the beneficiaries. My only remaining question is: When will she be writing about other shelter animals?
Kehret is well-known for her outstanding animal welfare-themed novels for young readers; now here's a nonfiction book that celebrates shelter dogs and their loving caregivers.Shelter Dogs is an easy-to-read chapter book that will be a fine humane education choice for students in upper elementary and middle school grades. Each chapter concludes with a brief factual section relating to what the child has read about; such as service dogs or agility sports. On a more personal note, I was glad that the author didn't hesitate to write about a girl who was attacked by a pit bull terrier, enduring significant facial injury. She later learned to trust dogs again by working with a (non-fighting) breed through her 4-H club. Some authors have been intimidated or mislead by the dog breeding lobby into ignoring the reality of dog attacks, but this is important information--especially for children, who often bear the brunt of the most serious dog bites. The only downside I found in this book was the chapter about the movie star dog working with trained chimps on the set of a Hollywood film. Unlike dogs, chimps aren't meant to live alongside human beings and the stories of ape "actors" are often sad ones. Of course, this issue is beyond the scope of Shelter Dogs.
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What I love about this book is the approach that Peg Kehret takes: she considers canines for who they are on their own terms; not simply as aides to humans, or appendages to human society. In noting that all these strays were abandoned, strays, or otherwise neglected, she also implicitly forces the reader to take the position of someone who is forced to think of acting in the benefit of such canines. These little souls are far from victims or helpless: indeed, her stories are a testament to what just a little bit of love and community can do for all of us, four legged or two legged; and how much more we benefit from treating one another well.
—Kapila
Author Peg Kehret creates a collection of true stories about the amazing lives of eight shelter dogs. Many of these dogs were unwanted because of their behavior, size, or medical condition. All of these dogs have now found owners who love them and ultimately helped change their lives in tremendous ways. As well as their owners lives too. As a class create a t-chart and identify the basic needs of all animals and compare those needs to your own. While creating the t-chart, ask your students to think about the things we, as humans, need to live and what other things we don’t need but that make us happy. It may be helpful to choose a specific animal and think about what it eats, where it lives, its necessities, etc.
—Jordan Gissing
The writing style in this book is a wee bit too simplistic for my liking. Yeah, I realize it's a children's book but kids do appreciate descriptive, emotional writing just as much as us older folks. It's what hooks you. Despite that, these true stories of once unwanted dogs who have beaten the odds and found loving homes are inspiring. A big black dog (the hardest to adopt out) becomes an agility champion, a terrier mix whose loving owner passes away is nearly euthanized until a shelter volunteer utters a magic word that spares his life, a large rowdy, unaltered (and unadoptable) dog is taken in by a disabled woman who trains him into an award winning service dog.
—Bark's Book Nonsense
