The Secret Life of Dog Catchers: An Animal
Control Officer’s Passion to Make a Difference, by Shirley Zindler
(Shirley Zindler, 2012, 249 pages, $12.95)
Has it really been seven years since The Secret Life of Dog Catchers was
published? We here at DogEvals kept waiting for our
county library to order a copy but we finally gave up and purchased it for
review.
I was ecstatic to find a large collection of
short chapters in Dog Catchers,
animal stories that I could read when I had just a few minutes (I had just
finished reading a wonderful book for a writing competition and writing two
reviews about it and was ready for some light reading).
And they were more than just short stories, they
led to a conclusion. In many chapters we follow the personal pets of the author
as they grow.
Light Reading? Was I
Wrong!
I started with Dog Catchers late one Saturday night.
And stayed up til 2 am! (but it took another
couple of days to finish it)
This is one author I want to meet!
Dog Catchers is a book you will
carry with you until you finish it. Each story is funny and warm and human and perhaps
a little bit tragic. I couldn’t wait to be back to reading it.
But Why
Did Zindler Self-Publish?
I’m going to have to write author Shirley Zindler
and suggest she contact an agent – this book is so good, I am sure a publishing
house will pick it up.
What’s It
All About?
Forty-five short chapters and a few not so
short, each with an adorable animal photo to start, including the very adorable
little pittie puppy on the front cover (Have you ever ripped off the cover of a
paperback book and framed it? I have.). Animal stories with dogs mostly, but
also cats and kittens, several about horses (including positive reinforcement
training), pigs (smart little ones), bats, raccoons who wandered through open
doors (!!) into houses, chickens (cock-fighting), llamas and goats who need
hoof help, deer stuck in fences, skunks stuck inside houses. . . .
People and Animals - You Gotta Love 'Em
Zindler is also a very special human who knows
so much about animals she will wow you. She lives with a pilot husband, an aunt
who helps with the kids and house, two teens and a young niece, three dogs, two
cats, three horses and numerous foster humans and animals (including new
litters that have to be cared for around the clock) throughout the book.
Being an animal control officer* (also known as
a dog catcher) is also or mostly about dealing with people – frightened people
and dangerous gang members and animal abusers and even animal hoarders – all of
whom need to be handled with kid gloves so Zindler can remove the animals if
necessary for their health and welfare. And she does so with aplomb and caring
and even humor.
New
Definitions?
I loved the stories about miscommunication
because we all know people like that: people who call in about a dog hit by a
car lying on the side of the road (“Please come right away!”) who turns out to
have a broken toe nail, people who call in about a vicious dog attack (the dog
simply barked from a 20-foot distance) or even the time the bite marks on the victim
were too small to be seen.
A Very Human Human
I would love to have Shirley for my friend. She
is madly in love with her husband after 20 years, she is humanly sleepy when
on-call for the night shift, she is lucky enough to be able to take her dog
with her to work.
Who Should Read?
Yes, some of the stories may “yuck-you-out” but
most will entertain you and inspire you, perhaps to volunteer at your local
shelter if you don’t already do so!
Of course, animal lovers will love Dog Catcher, but so will dog people and
horse people and people people: after all an ACO may run into druggies and
gangs and livestock owners and non-animal people – she needs to know how to
handle each one with the animal’s best interest in mind (according to the law
which may be too flexible for an animal’s best future).
Why Does She Do What She Does?
She
educates. She saves. She is passionate about making a difference. She does it
for the animals. Read it for the animals.
*One
chapter takes the reader through a typical yet very varied day as an ACO (Animal
Control Officer)
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