Vets and Pets: Wounded Warriors and the Animals That Help Them Heal
By: Dava Guerin, Kevin Ferris / Narrated By: Teri Clark Linden
Length: 8 hrs and 35 mins
Not the best of books on Wounded Warriors and their furry saviors, but there are several compelling and heartwarming stories
I guess I should start with Teri Clark Linden’s narration as that’s definitely one of the weakest things in Vets and Pets. She narrates a lot of Chick Lit and Romance (Which, yes, I’m familiar with), plus a lot of Erotica (Which, noooo! I SWEAR I’m not familiar with). And I’ve gotta say that her voice is much more suited to genres of that ilk than to an audiobook on warriors, even if within this one, there are several women veterans. She has a rather mousy-mouthed voice, and while I generally listen to books at x1.25 speed, and that’s just my preference, here I’ve GOTta tell ya, that ya really, really should try it at that speed yourself, no matter what your druthers. Anything slower? Like listening to someone speaking to really young children. Anything quicker? Things get all zippy and peppy and, considering we’re talking about horrible traumatic bodily injuries and grievous PTSD, that’s just unfortunate.
But I do appreciate that the authors went to great lengths to cover all forms of services to the country. There are veterans from combat in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and the like. And there are individuals who served in Bosnia during a time when gases from mass graves were being sent out and causing basically unpredictable central nervous system injuries. Plus, there are people who served in peace and survived only to come back and have automobile accidents that caused traumatic brain injuries.
And I DEFinitely appreciate that all sorts of animals, service animals, therapy animals, companion animals were covered, including dogs, cats, birds of prey, horses, pigs—You name it, and you’ll probably hear of it here in this book. It’s incredibly touching to hear of the bonds that develop, the trust and the love, between (wo)man and creature. Some individuals, tho’ perhaps working with an animal for only a short time, were so changed by such interactions that they would continue to send communications of warmth and gratitude. And huzzah for groups and organizations and the (extra)ordinary men and women who make it happen for the warriors.
I admit that there were a couple of times that I scowled. There’s one case where the woman who was so greatly helped by her service dog turns out to have kinda sorta just parted with him, not even being the one who cared enough to know to seek veterinary help for him. I mean, I realize that, coming from working with the blind and visually impaired, that animals are basically viewed as equipment, but still: These animals devote their lives, their hearts, their souls to y’all. Take him to the freakin’ vet yourself! But yeh yeh yeh. She wasn’t a total jerk and did indeed weep for him and have her kids get a chance to say goodbye before he passed.
For the most part, however, it was a heartening book, and I was floored time and time again by the changes in attitude that came to the veterans who took animals into their lives. I’m fairly sure that, met with those challenges myself, with such emotional devastation, with such great change in my life, I’d pretty much wither away and die. This is not a book of people who do that! These are stories of such positive outlooks, despite multiple amputations, total blindness, PTSD that has limited life to the barest of essentials (With nightmares and panic attacks thrown in for fun), crippling disorders.
But veterans are a different sorta breed. And God bless all the breeds and kinds of animals who love their ways into positions of trust and bonding!
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