Book Review: Scent of the Missing by Susannah Charleson

Scent of the Missing
Susannah Charleson
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010
ISBN 0547152442
Hardcover

I, too, learned my first lessons about SAR dogs during the Oklahoma bombing. Friends were left in that building and I watched with a mixture of anticipation and dread as dogs and handlers dredged through the broken husk of a building looking for some sign of the living.

We responded to the call for dog food, leather ‘boots’ for the dogs who’d injured delicate pads on the broken glass and concrete of the ruined structure. And, yes, I wept when I heard the dogs were often depressed after a search was unsuccessful.

Author Susannah Charleson saw those images and set out to acquire a dog to train as a SAR dog. This book details the search and acquisition of a Golden Retriever girl she named “Puzzle”.

We walk with Susannah and Puzzle as the young pup learns the hard way to heel by making her mistress fall and conk herself on the head. Then, acquires the first orange vest proudly designating her as a SAR dog–that vest doesn’t even fit.

We see the ordeal of having a snake-bit dog and a dog who’s acquired a fear of a fireman’s turnouts. We also hear Susannah‘s heartbreak as her health begins to fail and she may have to give her dog up or retire her.

Animal bonding and intelligence have always fascinated me. How do dogs and cats, who many people classify as ‘dumb’ animals accomplish so much? How did my two young female cats know to cuddle up on either side of an ailing older cat? They both held that cat like bookends and stayed at his side until he was better.  Scent of the Missing explores this bond from beginning to end with all the pitfalls and pratfalls in between. Charleson‘s prose is eloquent, literally taking you into Texas brush as the team searches for the remains of the “Columbia” space shuttle, allowing you to hear a dog’s triumph ‘woo’ as they have found their missing subjects.

This is an excellent read that will leave you with a tear in your eyes and a smile on your face. Thanks to all the hard-working men, women, and canines who contribute to these efforts.

While I’ve been a voracious reader my entire life, books about animals are the ones that have left the strongest impression on me.  Beginning with Black Beauty and Call of the Wild, I have gotten hold of much great fiction about our four-legged friends, but the non-fiction is what leaves the deepest impression:  James Herriott, Louis Camuti, and now Susannah Charleson are authors who I will never forget and will strongly recommend to any animal lover.

Reviewed by Rebecca Kyle, June 2010.

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June 12, 2010  Tags: , ,   Posted in: Full Reviews

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