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Leash Your Fitness now has a Book Club and our first read is The Lost Dogs by Jim Gorant. You should be able to pick this book up at your local library or used book store. The following is a review of the book. It will make for a very interesting topic of discussion on our first meeting in July. If you want to take part, please sign up on our EVENTS page. It is FREE to attend.
The Lost Dogs, is a very, very good, clear, concise, well-written account of the events leading up to, and including, the most publicized dog-fighting case in the country. The author manages to excellently weave a compassionate tale of humanity, garnering one’s interest for the dogs as well as for the humans determined to free them from such a terrible situation.
If everybody in the country could read this book, or at least the court’s findings (particularly those of eyewitnesses and the forensic evidence that corroborates those statements), nobody would look twice at a certain “popular” athlete ever again. The forensic descriptions of the dogs’ injuries and how they received them was very eye-opening. Things most people cannot even fathom thinking of, let alone doing, and yet they come so easily to others.
It is absolutely unbelievable the number of crimes that were covered up early on. Instances where persons in positions of authority looked the other way later on, when “somebody famous” was involved, etc…
There’s no excuse for poor choices a person makes with his life. We are all given the same “Good or bad” options. When we choose selfishly or poorly, there is no-one to blame but ourselves. Not our background. Not the color of our skin. Not how we were or weren’t raised or what we had to deal with growing up.
I’m glad somebody had the guts to tell this story, and that so many people had the guts to “be a man” and stand up. I really love reading the follow up stories in the news now and then, from those at Best Friends Animal Society, and others, of survivors like Hector, Johnny Justice, Lance… and some of which are no longer with us, but all of which at least have been able to love, and be loved, and find kindness in a world where they are accepted and given every opportunity for success.
–Jennifer Casula, a group fitness instructor with 20 years’ experience, lives in Texas with her husband, three dogs, three cats, and two turtles. Jennifer occasionally fosters puppies for Texas Cattle Dog Rescue and often answers emails for the rescue from people with training and behavior questions about their dogs.
