I’m a sucker for dog stories — movies, books, even cheesy TV shows. My 12-year-old son also likes them, and so I thought that he might like Service Tails. He actually got to it before I did. He didn’t finish, but read a lot of the stories.
I expected them to pull at the heartstrings a bit more, but they actually read more like biographies. That’s probably why he didn’t stick with it. I actually enjoyed not feeling as if I was being emotionally manipulated. I learned a lot about different types of service dogs. In addition to seeing eye dogs, there are accounts of hearing dogs, mobility dogs, as well as dogs who provide emotional support, either as their sole job or in addition to giving other aid.
I loved this snippet from the chapter about a dog who was a mobility dog for Oz, a woman in her 80’s, about what happened when they moved from her home to an assisted living facility:
It took almost no time for Eddie to map out their new home, and within a few weeks, he also discovered a new calling. With no guidance, the lab stepped beyond his calling and became the facility’s morale director. When he wasn’t guiding Oz, he somehow sensed when residents were depressed or lonely and spent time with them (page 83).
Find out more on the Litfuse blog and while you are there, enter to win this great prize pack! You can also read more about the book and author HERE.
Thank you for the post! I love dogs and books, so this makes so much sense to me