Rory Cellan Jones used to be a correspondent for the BBC and appeared on many radio programmes that I have listened to over the years. During Covid and afterwards he tweeted a daily picture of himself on a walk with his elderly dog Cabbage. People would look out for it and comment on it and when Cabbage was stolen by people targeting his dog-walker’s van, there was much on-line anguish before she was recovered safely. When Cabbage died the author took on a rescue dog and Sophie from Romania became the hashtag which was followed over the next year as the author and his wife sought to absorb her into her new family.
This book is the story of that year. It includes many of the tweets and the responses as the author faced up to the particular problems which Sophie brought with her. Although not fully grown, Sophie had only ever been a feral dog, living on the streets. She was captured and brought to England by a group which rescues these dogs and finds them new homes but the author was totally unprepared for the lack of support he would have and the problems which Sophie had. The dog was timid to the extent that it took months before she would emerge from behind the sofa in daylight. She was untrained and deeply afraid of humans. The achievement at the end of the year is that she was finally able to take a walk with her owner.
This book does not deny how deeply frustrating this was. The author had hoped to have a new companion who would force him to take daily exercise but instead he had a very afraid animal and all manner of advice was thrown at him, along with a lot of trolling and abuse. I suspect he came close to giving up on Sophie, on occasions.
This book is also the story of that one year in the life of this little family and the other challenges which life threw at them. The author had just published his previous book which is a biography (see my review here) but he is also battling Parkinson’s disease and his wife has a very busy and successful career as an economist. Giving Sophie the time and attention she needed wasn’t easy.
I am not someone who reads a lot of books about dogs (although see here and here for reviews of two I have read) but I did see most of the tweets about Sophie when they were posted and, like a lot of people, I felt a bit caught up in the overall story. I enjoyed this book a lot because it is uplifting but never sentimental and because the author tells the story as it was rather than romanticising it. It’s a quick but enjoyable read.
Anne Is Reading 