A Dog's Devotion
In late March of 2014, death descended upon the community of Oso, Washington, in the form of a massive landslide. Ten million cubic yards of dirt and mud crashed through homes, sweeping a 20-foot-high wall of debris before it and scouring the valley floor. In the cold rain of that morning, an entire community disappeared in a sea of mud. In the desperate hours that followed, rescue crews were able to pull only eight survivors out of the wrecked landscape. And then all became quiet, with the stunned realization that many more people were missing, but none were still living.This is the moment when the story of A Dog's Devotion begins. The emergency call from Oso went out and was answered by K9 Search and Rescue (SAR) teams from across the Pacific Northwest. Suzanne, along with her four-year-old Labrador Retriever, Keb, and her teammate Guy, was one of the SAR teams to respond to this disaster. In this book, readers immediately find themselves on the ground in the cold mud of the Oso Landslide Disaster on the desperate search for the remains of over forty lost souls. In subsequent chapters, readers will accompany Suzanne, Guy, and Keb as they are inserted by helicopter to search high snowfields on Mount Rainier or as they traverse steep, forested slopes searching for the clandestine grave of murder victims. They'll join K9 Keb as her keen nose leads to human remains in the forests of Washington State and as far away as the woods of Scandinavia. Keb's story is of a dedicated K9 who can distinguish the scent of the dead from the scent of the living, and who can detect buried bones and even corpses underwater. Readers will follow this intrepid K9 and her teammates as they face the challenges of changeable weather, deep northwest forests, high mountain slopes, and menacing coyotes to find dead bodies, missing hikers, and even the bones of murder victims from long ago. Among their successes: finding multiple victims buried by the 2014 Oso Landslide, solving the mysterious disappearance of women in wealthy suburbs, and finding human bones thought to be forever lost to time. It's their story about evolving as search and rescue volunteers while overcoming harsh conditions, inner demons, a rust-bound bureaucracy, and back-stabbing teammates. While internal conflicts threaten their larger K9 team, Keb's training, loyalty, and perseverance inspire them and help them find the resolve to carry on their service to the community.
Report on the Isopoda Collected by H. M. S. Challenger During the Years 1873-76
Bringing Up Beaver
A lively and charming account of one human's relationship with an orphaned beaver kit. On May 10, 2020, an orphaned beaver kit was found in St. Albans, Vermont and handed over to John Aberth, a licensed volunteer wildlife rehabilitator. Over the next two years, John raised the kit, whom he nicknamed "BK," and prepared him for release back into the wild. During that time, John and BK developed a special and unique bond, which John documented in a daily diary. That diary became the basis for Bringing Up Beaver, a lively and engaging account of one human's relationship with a wild animal. Bringing Up Beaver is more than just a feel-good story about human encounters with nature. Full of fascinating observations about beaver behavior and biology, Bringing Up Beaver also documents the unique challenges and obstacles to be faced and overcome in rehabbing a wild beaver kit. Populating the story are plenty of other wild creatures that John encounters in the course of his journey with BK, including other beavers--one of whom became BK's mate--as well as hawks, owls, mink, and weasels. For anyone who has been charmed by a beaver's "smile" or enjoyed books like Fox and I and Eager, Bringing Up Beaver is a must read that will give us a new perspective on the wildlife and natural world all around us.
