Book-rec: One Dog at a Time

One Dog at a Time
Pen Farthing
Amazon Product Link

Book Description

In a remote outpost of Now Zad, in Helmand Province, Pen Farthing and his troup of young Royal Marines survive frequent engagements with the Taliban and forge links with the local community. Pen's tour of duty will change his life forever, but for entirely unexpected reasons ...Appalled by the horrors of a local dog fight, he intervenes to free the victims. One of these dogs finds his way into the Marine compound - and into Pen's heart. Soon other strays are being drawn to the santuary provided by Pen's makeshift pound, including one young mum who crawls under the compound fence carrying her newborn pups to safety. But as his tour of duty draws to an end, Pen cannot leave the dogs of Now Zad to their own fates. he begins hatching plans to help them escape to a better life. This is Pen's gripping account of his time in Now Zad, the friends he made there and the remarkable journey they - and he - undertook. Above all, it is the story of one man's courage and humanity and his fight to make a difference in the most hostile and dangerous environment - one dog at a time.

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This is the last of my dog-books (real physical books) that I bought last year in a sudden dog-frenzy. Finally got around to reading this. This book was a lot easier to read, compared to From Baghdad, With Love. 

I guess these books are pretty standard. Soldier gets posted in the middle of war-torn nowhere. Soldier befriends dog, or dog befriends soldier. Mutual good feelings. Soldier can't think of abandoning dog. 

This is basically the whole premise of this book. Only that, there's more to this basic story. Somehow, various other dogs know of this safe "haven" and try to move into this "Kennel" of sorts in this one base. So much so that, a new mommydog actually squeezed her puppies through the fence into the base.

The book tells of how Farthing spends his days taking care of the dogs, building the runs, serving food (as a stand-in chef), how the base celebrated Christmas... and his attempts at sending the dogs to a rescue in Kandaar so that they can be later be adopted elsewhere.

While the ending is considered "happy", there are some sore spots. I fell in love with Dushka immediately, but her end felt really... unfair. Patches must have been frightened seeing that (we don't know if s/he did though). RPG and AK are two mysteries as well... It is just so sad to hear that not all dogs made it to the rescue.

 Definitely recommended. I liked this book so much that I already bought the second book (Kindle Format)

Farthing now has his own charity. Nowzad Dogs.