David Rosenfelt and Dogs

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David Rosenfelt
is the consummate dog lover. You can tell this from his involving novels about lawyer Andy Carpenter.

In each of the 12 novels in this series, Rosenfelt works in a love of dogs as the canines have something to do with the plot.

In Hounded, the latest novel in this series, Andy is asked to take in the eight-year-old son of a murder victim and the boy’s basset hound, Sebastian.

The dog is no problem—Andy often does rescue and fostering of dogs—but a child, well, that’s another matter. Hounded is one of the best novels in Rosenfelt’s series.

Without getting too sentimental or cutesy, Rosenfelt shows in each of the Andy Carpenter novels how our bonds with dogs can change our lives.

Andy’s rescue sideline never overwhelms the plot but it is a part of this character and makes him who he is.

In the novels, Andy owns just one dog—a golden retriever named Tara, who is named after Rosenfelt’s own Tara.

But the author David Rosenfelt doesn’t own a single dog.

He has 25.

Yes, 25 dogs, all of which he and his wife, Debbie Myers, have taken in as rescues.

Of course, that number could be completely different today.

Rosenfelt and Myers rescue dogs, especially golden retrievers, and try to find them homes.

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But if they can’t find new homes, well, these dogs have a forever home with them.

Rosenfelt discusses his love of dogs, how he got into rescuing, and how he moved his family and those 25 dogs from Southern California to Maine in Dogtripping.

A funny, insightful memoir, Dogtripping shows how the best plans can go awry when humans, and, well, dogs, too, are in the mix.

When he started the relocation of his pack, Rosenfelt thought he had planned for every turn. He had GPSes, RVs for transit, and loads of food. But he was traveling with 25 dogs and he was in for an adventure.

Spoiler alert: everyone made it just fine.

Dogtripping also is the tale of the beginnings of his dog rescue foundation, which is named after Tara, the beloved golden who lives on in Rosenfelt’s novels.

Those of us who love dogs will find Rosenfelt’s recollections bring a few tears, and a lot of smiles.

And as a consummate dog lover myself, I also know the power of bonding with a dog. My first dog, Lou, came when I was about 11 months old, and, except for college, I have always had at least one dog.

Currently, we have only two—and, yes, both are rescues.

Oline Cogdill
2014-08-20 05:42:24