Overview
Winner of Foreword Magazine's 2006 Bronze Award for Pet Book of the Year!
"Generosity and gratitude power this compelling account of the reciprocal nature of rescue. Ken Foster illuminates a profound lesson about saving a life: Doing it makes you able to do it."
--Amy Hempel, author of The Dog of the Marriage and Reasons to Live
"I read this at once, and could hardly bear to put it down. It delivers something crucial about bravery, the human spirit, and the place that dogs occupy in our landscapes. It’s about confronting need, vulnerability, and love, and responding."
--Roxana Robinson, author of A Perfect Stranger and Georgia O’Keeffe
"Ken Foster writes about the human/canine bond with wisdom, insight, and great heart. This is a fascinating and useful book, full of great stories and practical knowledge. Ken’s dogs are lucky to have found him, and so are his readers."
--Sean Wilsey, author of Oh the Glory of it All
"Foster’s dogs are memorable, delightful characters, with vivid, poignant stories. The Dogs Who Found Me is a testament to the joys dogs bring, and to the beauty in the work of saving them."
--Rene Steinke, National Book Award finalist for Holy Skirts
"If you love dogs as much as Ken Foster, you will probably recognize yourself in much of The Dogs Who Found Me. You will remember your heart stopping or being shredded . . . only to be repaired with an even greater capacity to love."
--Terry Bain, author of You Are A Dog
"Pitbulls pitbulls pitbulls, and a man, like me, who loves them. Alternately brutal and sentimental, like the lives of the dogs he rescues. A very, verycool book."
--James Frey, author of A Million Little Pieces and My Friend Leonard
Disaster-prone writer and reluctant dog rescuer Ken Foster finds himself adopting an ever-growing collection of stray dogs, from a beagle abandoned in a New York City dog run to a pit bull in a Mississippi truck stop. Their circumstances offer a grounding counterpoint to his own misfortunes: the shock of New York City after 9/11, the evacuation of New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina, and the day his heart nearly stopped for good.
KEN FOSTER is the editor of two anthologies, including Dog Culture. His collection of short stories, The Kind I’m Likely to Get, was a New York Times Notable Book. His work has appeared in The New York Times Book Review, The San Francisco Chronicle, McSweeney’s, and The Believer. For more information, visit www.dogswhofoundme.com.
Synopsis
A favorite author reveals his experiences rescuing abandoned dogs--and offers solid advice for readers who "find" dogs.
Publishers Weekly
After Foster adopts his first dog, Brando, from a shelter, he can't help noticing an alarming number of stray dogs, which he had never noticed before. Once he starts looking for them, he finds strays everywhere: on the side of the road, at the dog park, at gas stations and stuck in drainage grates. But this book isn't about Foster as much as it's about his dogs, who help him through 9/11 (he lived in Manhattan then), a heart condition that lands him in the hospital and the deaths of two good friends. Foster's relationships with the three dogs in his life aren't a one-way street, though: when one dog gets a urinary infection every time Foster leaves, Foster realizes she "was trying to hold everything in until I returned." As if channeling the frank and fundamental nature of dogs, Foster's sentences hide little pretense or poetry. It's an appropriate writing style that lets Foster present his joys and sorrows plainly. Interspersing vignettes on topics such as missing dog posters, shelters, heartworms and understanding dogs' body language, Foster fleshes out this charming account of a life among dogs while providing hints for would-be dog savers. (Mar.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.