The Mountaintop School For Dogs And Other Second Chances - Hardcover

Cooney, Ellen

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1410476219 ISBN 13: 9781410476210

Publisher: Thorndike Press, 2015

Synopsis

"This book will grab your heart and not let go." -- John Grogan, author of "Marley & Me"
"A joyful romp and a wise, engaging meditation on dogs, love, and recovery from pain." -- Lily King, author of "Euphoria"
"Must-read . . . A brilliantly crafted, uplifting book." -- "The Bark"
The Sanctuary. High up on the mountain, the Sanctuary is a home for strays and rescued dogs. Once the indomitable Mrs. Auberchon lets her pass, Evie joins a training program there -- never mind that she doesn't know a thing about animals. But when she's finally on the mountain with staffers, volunteers, and the dogs, Evie learns quickly, finding refuge in the Sanctuary as the dogs do. For, like the racing greyhound who won't move, the golden retriever who returns every time he's adopted, and the Rottweiler failing at search-and-rescue, Evie has a troubled past. A worthy shelf-mate to books by Garth Stein and Carolyn Parkhurst, this is a heartfelt novel about finding in your fellow animals a deeper sense of home, healing, and hope for a fresh future.

About this title

Review:

Ellen Cooney's own dogs served as the inspiration for many of the dog characters in her new novel, The Mountaintop School for Dogs and Other Second Chances. Meet Andy, Skip, and Maxine.

Andy Maxine

Andy

Andy was my go-to guy the whole time I was writing The Mountaintop School for Dogs and Other Second Chances. The dogs who are my characters are in rehab from lives of hurt caused by humans. I’d put my hands on the fur of this guy and look into his eyes and marvel how he has no idea that not all dogs on earth have his peace, his deep sense of self, his awareness that life is a pretty good thing. This dog thinks abuse is when his dinner is ten minutes late (he can tell time precisely, based on feeding times). Of course he doesn’t know, or care, that I’m a writer. But he likes when I read to him to try stuff out. I love what he does when I stop to make a change to a sentence: paws me in a thump to get going again with my voice.

Maxine

She came as a timid, easily frightened, anxious-to-please pup, as if she were saying over and over, “Please don’t send me back to where I was. ” And now? She’s complicated. She’s a dog-in-progress. I love seeing her real self slowly being revealed. I love how she suddenly comes to me to give me a kiss on the side of my mouth with one tiny quick tongue-action. I love how she head-butts my hand to get pats. I love how she looks up to my Golden, Andy, the eldest of my dog-family; she’s always watching him, always adoring him. And Skip? Poor Skip: he’s doing his best. There’s some jealousy. But sometimes he seems to smile at her. I think he’s starting to like her.

Skip

Skip, who has sunlight inside him, is a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever, undersize, runty. I was walking Skippy recently and a car passed with a greyhound in the back seat, its beautiful angular face up close to the window, and I almost waved, saying, “Hi, Alfie,” because of the greyhound who’s a major dog-character in The Mountaintop School for Dogs and Other Second Chances. Skip looked up and gave me an expression of, Hey, don’t you go getting fond-like of strange dogs when you’re with me. I do wish dogs could know things they can’t know—I can’t help it. I wish Skip knew that when he came into my life as a near-feral rescue and I had to educate him, home-school-like, he turned out to inspire this novel.

Skip

Book Description:

HMH hardcover, 2014, previous ISBN 978-0-544-23615-8

About this edition

• Publisher: Thorndike Press
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1410476219
• ISBN 13: 9781410476210
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 467