One Dog at a Time ( Book Review )

I've been meaning to do these book reviews for a while now but never got round to it, so i thought i will make the effort now before i end up with to many to do, plus i think Sheba's enjoying having a break away from blogging.

This is another of my favourites and another true story this time featuring dogs.  It's about British Army sergeant Pen Farthing serving in the Royal Marines on his tour of Helmand in Afghanistan. A lifelong dog lover not only does he find himself fighting against the Taliban but also the stray dogs of Afghanistan.

His task wasn't made easy by the fact no pets are allowed on army grounds and the Afghanistan's love of dog fighting. So he had to try and hide the dogs and work around his army duties and caring for the dogs and also keeping the dogs safe from the Afghan soldiers who wanted the dogs for dog fighting and also shared the compound with the British Army. So he enlists the help of his wife in England to help in getting in touch with rescue centres in Afghanistan to try and arrange transport to get the dogs out of the Army compound and to safety. It's a lovely heart warming story but will also bring a tear to your eye. Be warned when you start reading it you won't be able to put it down it's addictive.

Sgt. Farthing with a new friend.

British Army sergeant Pen Farthing, now retired, first deployed to Afghanistan in 2006. He had no idea what awaited him, beyond fighting the Taliban. He found the living conditions in Afghanistan shocking: “There was no electricity and sanitation was non-existent.”

Apart from the heat, Farthing decided on first impression that the worst aspect of Afghanistan was the dust. This was notorious even in 1897, when the dust on Dr. Watson’s clothing caused Sherlock Holmes to observe, as his first words in Arthur Conan Doyle’s first Sherlock Holmes story, “You have been in Afghanistan, I perceive.”

Farthing soon perceived the stray dogs of Now Zad, the town where he was stationed. They were “hard to miss,” he writes, “especially during the dark hours as they roamed the town and perimeter of the compound. There were dozens of them, all types of breed of dog. All had one thing in common: they all looked bedraggled and unfed.”

Soon afterward Farthing saw Afghan soldiers among a crowd cheering on dogs as they tore each other apart. The Taliban suppressed all forms of animal fighting, which was forbidden by Mohammed. Since the end of Taliban rule, however, animal fighting may be more popular in Afghanistan than ever. Cockfighting and songbird fighting are again common; transporting birds for fighting has contributed to the spread of the H5N1 avian flu.

Traditional non-lethal Central Asian dogfighting, in which herding dogs rush at each other until one dog knocks the other one down, has largely been supplanted by western-style fights to the death between “bully kuttas,” the regional pit bull variant. Bred in Pakistan for more than 200 years for use in dogfighting and bear-baiting, bully kuttas are at least partially descended from fighting dogs imported by British troops.

Canine adoptees in the military compound.

But Farthing knew nothing of that. “I wasn’t going to stand by and watch the dogs fight. No matter what someone else’s culture allowed,” he recalls. Though pushed, shoved, and threatened, Farthing broke up the fight, and saw the dogs run away. Eventually the British compound became home to 14 dogs. The first arrival was named Nowzad. Tali was named after the Taliban. Jena gave birth to puppies. Farthing and other soldiers build a special area for the dogs, including a fighting dog they bought from a local Afghan. For the first time the dogs ate regularly, slept on discarded bedding, and were treated with kindness.

Unable to leave the dogs behind when his tour of duty ended, Farthing enlisted his wife Lisa to help rescue them. Lisa eventually located a shelter in northern Afghanistan, more than 700 miles from their base. With time, effort, and lots of luck they found a local to drive the dogs to a mid-point where volunteers from the shelter picked them up for transport to their shelter. Two of the dogs later flew to England with Farthing.

Farthing since his retirement has devoted his life to the street dogs of Afghanistan, heading a charity called Nowzad dogs.
–Debra J. White

There is also a follow up to One Dog at a Time called No Place like Home. I haven't read it yet I'm saving it for my holidays in September if it's anything like the first one I'm realy looking forward to it. And will do a review when i get home after Sheba's told you all about her adventure.