Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Book Review: Saving Audie (lovable pit bull, children's book)


Saving Audie: A Pit Bull Puppy Gets a Second Chance*, by Dorothy Hinshaw Patent (author of The Right Dog For The Job), Bloomsbury, 2011, $16.99, 48 pages, ages 4-8)


Pit Bulls are Lovable

What the world needs now is more books like Saving Audie to keep reminding us that all dogs are individuals deserving of a chance at love, even if they are pit bulls – because even pit bulls have a lot of love to share!

MV

We need to be reminded over and over again that Michael Vick* really did the inexcusable things that landed him in prison – he hurt dogs.

The Book

Saving Audie is a coffee-table children’s book to be read even by adults but especially adults WITH children.  Discussions will result and questions arise (like how Audie got his name). 

Several adult pages at the end provide additional information about pit bulls, pit bull rescues, and the Michael Vick case.

Photography by William Munoz - clear, clever, and big - make you want to touch the dogs, to laugh at their antics, to be in the pictures playing with them.

The Dog: Little Number 86

Audie is an adorable little black pit bull. Little Audie, Number 86, was rescued from living an outside life and was then sheltered, evaluated and driven clear across country from Virginia to California for fostering and finally to spend the rest of his life with his forever family.

Ambassador Dog, CGC

But Audie, like all Vick dogs, has a job for life, which he loves: ambassador for the breed and for all dogs who survive dogfighting. Audie is a normal dog: he likes to chew shoes, doesn’t like baths, and has learned not to be afraid of people. 

But Audie is also a special dog: he passed his Canine Good Citizen (CGC) test and is now an agility dog who still loves to play around with other Vick dogs when he’s not playing with the two pit bulls in his forever family.

Caveat

The subject matter may be a bit difficult for the youngest children but those pages can be glossed over, while focusing on the shelters, the ASPCA and all the wonderful people who helped the Vick dogs become just – real dogs. A very worthwhile read. A keeper!


*Also see The Lost Dogs: Michael Vick's Dogs and Their Tale of Rescue and Redemption by Jim Gorant, and the new DVD, The Champions.

*Read more about it: Audie is a champion in agilityhttp://www.woofipedia.com/articles/from-vick-to-victory

Read about Wallace, a champion disc dog pit bull from a shelter, read about the Michael Vick case, and read about a new documentary, The Champions.

Apologies: This post is late. I have been trying to obtain an update and decided to go ahead and post it anyway. And I had planned to post about these reviews and the case in a final post, but I have so many posts on my desktop that I can't find it! 

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