Many of us have dogs we love. Many of those dogs are rescue dogs. We’ve adopted them at shelters or adoption day events, or in the case of my Rupert, they managed to wander into your life at just the right time, when your heart is soft and your resources sufficient.
But what were their lives like before we became their forever homes? How many people loved and cared for our dogs before they became our special friends?
In 2015, Peter Zheutlin wrote Rescue Road: One Man, Thirty Thousand Dogs, and a Million Miles on the Last Hope Highway to give us an inside look at animal rescue and the people who labor to make each adoption come about.
The story focuses on Greg Mahle, a former restaurant owner, who now makes a living as a long-haul trucker transporting dogs to their adoption days. While Greg claws a living out of this, we see that it his passion to ensure a happy ever after for the dogs that enter his care for four days and nights on a round trip that covers thousands of miles.
The story starts farther back, however. Life as an adoption dog has many steps, from their selection at an animal shelter or from a back street, their placement with a rescue organization, relocation to a foster home, and finally onto the websites where they stir the hearts of would be adopters. And it’s good people who make this happen.
This book pulls at your heartstrings but educates you in the care of rescue dogs and the people who work to save “just one more.” The dogs need vaccinations, medicines for various infections or parasites, operations for spaying and neutering. And all of this is accomplished mainly by sheer dedication and shoestring budgets.
If you are brave enough to venture down Rescue Road, you’ll find a story that will give your heart a little lift as you enjoy that fact that there are so many people out there with good in their souls and resolve in their hearts. Come take the walk by checking this book through the LIBBY App. For more information, be sure to reach out to your local branch library.
