Helpful Score: 1
What is every person carried with them a tiny piece of what makes Levin (and his family) so great? A tiny piece. Would that be so hard? Imagine the difference that would make for the animals in this country. In the world.
I finished this last night and I hope I get to meet Oogy someday. I'd get in my car and drive to the Levin's today if presented with the chance. He truly is remarkable. Oogy's story may be one of the rare ones but people should be aware there are others. If not in exactly the same situations. (Look up Firu on FaceBook for example.)
It scares me to think how much worse these animals would have it if it weren't for people like the Levins, the people who came into Oogy's life at the animal hospital, myself, other rescue workers, pet owners who go "above and beyond", etc. It's funny but we never look at it as "above and beyond" - it's just what people should do.
Oogy's story needed to be told. All of their stories need to be told. I had one main problem with the book and aside from that my comments will all be personal.
My main problem - Levin's writing. I've tried to not think too harshly because after all Levin isn't an author. (I find it kind of amusing that when I read the first few pages I immediately thought to myself that Levin had to be a journalist or a lawyer. He's a lawyer.)
But his writing is very.... detailed. Far too detailed. Far, far, far too detailed. Like, I don't care that he sleeps on the left side of his bed, or that he turns his doorknob to the right. I don't care that he sleeps using 3/4 of a blanket. I know he microwaves his coffee for 50 seconds. I don't want to know that. I don't want to know that much about my own kids life! Good God! It makes me wonder, since I know nothing about how publishing works, if maybe someone okay'd the book and gave him a minimum page count? But no, I think this is just him. Which is fine but it doesn't work extremely well in written form.
His writing is very bare. I think it would have done good to have had someone helping him along with this.
I don't like flowery, overly descriptive writing and it's the reason I stay away from certain kinds of fiction. You usually don't meet up with that in this sort of book. Unless this is something that would bother you to great extremes I say try it. It's quick, just over 200 pages, and it's meaningful. I don't agree with everything Levin writes about but a true animal lover he is. And I also want to point out, in case he ever reads this, he has multiple reasons to be proud of those boys of his. I'm sure he knows this but if what's written about them here is true, wow. I can only hope my daughter is like them when she's their age.
I almost forgot, does anyone think color photos were left out for a reason? Because of Oogy's looks? I wish they'd been included. Oogy isn't scary looking to me. I'd be hesitant to go up to him by myself or with my daughter without first asking permission but we do that with every dog. That should be done with every dog. If the owner said it was okay I'd be all over him and so would my daughter. I think he's beautiful.
About the personal stuff. One of the doctors involved with Oogy's care had a young boy come into his hospital years earlier. (Or what I'm led to believe was years earlier - it doesn't actually say.) The young boy had a torn up pit with him, was crying, and said his dog was attacked. Dr. Bianco fixed the dog up, handed him back and went about his business. (If he did this without charging the child, which I have to assume by the info here, he should be commended, that's rare as hell these days.) Several months later the kid came back. Same dog, same injuries, same act. Dr. Bianco stepped to the kid and told him he knew he was fighting the dog. So what did he do? Did he take the dog? Call the police? Even call the kids parents? He fixed the dog up - again - handed him over and told him to not bring him back. There is nothing included here about him trying to talk to the young boy, maybe to school him on dog fighting and what happens, etc. Nothing. One can only think of what that dogs time after that entailed. I'm sure his time on this earth ended by now. Not very professional IMO but certainly nothing having to do with the writing of this book. Something I wanted to mention.
Whenever I hear someone talk about how a dog can't, or they think they can't, understand certain words I laugh. While certain breeds are more capable of learning and understanding, most, if not all, dogs will understand some words at some point.
My Lab knows all of the usuals, 'want to go for a ride?', 'treat', 'bone', 'walk', 'ball', 'toy', 'shake'. He knows an insane amount of non-usuals like 'belly scratches', 'medicine', 'Julia', 'mailbox', 'ham', 'cheese', 'apartment', and I could keep going. And these are all words that are not associated with anything. Not with any special time of day, activity, mood, nothing. He knows the words. I don't consider that all that crazy myself. Maybe because I've been around dogs all my life. Aren't animals as a whole fairly intelligent? This makes me want to write down a complete - or as complete as possible - list of all the words Scooter knows. Just to see it in front of me. I may have to do that now.
I want to meet Oogy. I want to drive to his town and sit somewhere until he walks by. I want to pet him and I want to look in his eyes. I want to give him a kiss. Maybe one day I'll get to do that. Until then I'll be happy that he's made it to where he is now, that he's surrounded by love and great people, and that I got to know a little about his life.
I finished this last night and I hope I get to meet Oogy someday. I'd get in my car and drive to the Levin's today if presented with the chance. He truly is remarkable. Oogy's story may be one of the rare ones but people should be aware there are others. If not in exactly the same situations. (Look up Firu on FaceBook for example.)
It scares me to think how much worse these animals would have it if it weren't for people like the Levins, the people who came into Oogy's life at the animal hospital, myself, other rescue workers, pet owners who go "above and beyond", etc. It's funny but we never look at it as "above and beyond" - it's just what people should do.
Oogy's story needed to be told. All of their stories need to be told. I had one main problem with the book and aside from that my comments will all be personal.
My main problem - Levin's writing. I've tried to not think too harshly because after all Levin isn't an author. (I find it kind of amusing that when I read the first few pages I immediately thought to myself that Levin had to be a journalist or a lawyer. He's a lawyer.)
But his writing is very.... detailed. Far too detailed. Far, far, far too detailed. Like, I don't care that he sleeps on the left side of his bed, or that he turns his doorknob to the right. I don't care that he sleeps using 3/4 of a blanket. I know he microwaves his coffee for 50 seconds. I don't want to know that. I don't want to know that much about my own kids life! Good God! It makes me wonder, since I know nothing about how publishing works, if maybe someone okay'd the book and gave him a minimum page count? But no, I think this is just him. Which is fine but it doesn't work extremely well in written form.
His writing is very bare. I think it would have done good to have had someone helping him along with this.
I don't like flowery, overly descriptive writing and it's the reason I stay away from certain kinds of fiction. You usually don't meet up with that in this sort of book. Unless this is something that would bother you to great extremes I say try it. It's quick, just over 200 pages, and it's meaningful. I don't agree with everything Levin writes about but a true animal lover he is. And I also want to point out, in case he ever reads this, he has multiple reasons to be proud of those boys of his. I'm sure he knows this but if what's written about them here is true, wow. I can only hope my daughter is like them when she's their age.
I almost forgot, does anyone think color photos were left out for a reason? Because of Oogy's looks? I wish they'd been included. Oogy isn't scary looking to me. I'd be hesitant to go up to him by myself or with my daughter without first asking permission but we do that with every dog. That should be done with every dog. If the owner said it was okay I'd be all over him and so would my daughter. I think he's beautiful.
About the personal stuff. One of the doctors involved with Oogy's care had a young boy come into his hospital years earlier. (Or what I'm led to believe was years earlier - it doesn't actually say.) The young boy had a torn up pit with him, was crying, and said his dog was attacked. Dr. Bianco fixed the dog up, handed him back and went about his business. (If he did this without charging the child, which I have to assume by the info here, he should be commended, that's rare as hell these days.) Several months later the kid came back. Same dog, same injuries, same act. Dr. Bianco stepped to the kid and told him he knew he was fighting the dog. So what did he do? Did he take the dog? Call the police? Even call the kids parents? He fixed the dog up - again - handed him over and told him to not bring him back. There is nothing included here about him trying to talk to the young boy, maybe to school him on dog fighting and what happens, etc. Nothing. One can only think of what that dogs time after that entailed. I'm sure his time on this earth ended by now. Not very professional IMO but certainly nothing having to do with the writing of this book. Something I wanted to mention.
Whenever I hear someone talk about how a dog can't, or they think they can't, understand certain words I laugh. While certain breeds are more capable of learning and understanding, most, if not all, dogs will understand some words at some point.
My Lab knows all of the usuals, 'want to go for a ride?', 'treat', 'bone', 'walk', 'ball', 'toy', 'shake'. He knows an insane amount of non-usuals like 'belly scratches', 'medicine', 'Julia', 'mailbox', 'ham', 'cheese', 'apartment', and I could keep going. And these are all words that are not associated with anything. Not with any special time of day, activity, mood, nothing. He knows the words. I don't consider that all that crazy myself. Maybe because I've been around dogs all my life. Aren't animals as a whole fairly intelligent? This makes me want to write down a complete - or as complete as possible - list of all the words Scooter knows. Just to see it in front of me. I may have to do that now.
I want to meet Oogy. I want to drive to his town and sit somewhere until he walks by. I want to pet him and I want to look in his eyes. I want to give him a kiss. Maybe one day I'll get to do that. Until then I'll be happy that he's made it to where he is now, that he's surrounded by love and great people, and that I got to know a little about his life.
Back to all reviews by this member
Back to all reviews of this book
Back to Book Reviews
Back to Book Details
Back to all reviews of this book
Back to Book Reviews
Back to Book Details
