Angel Dogs with a Mission : Divine Messengers in Service to All Life

"Angel Dogs with a Mission" expands the hugely successful "Angel Animals" series by Allen and Linda Anderson to include stories of "working dogs", dogs who have discovered ways to give back more than sloppy kisses and happy snuggles to the people around them.

These dogs, many of them misused or abandoned animals, have created work that offers much, much more to others than they receive.

Amazingly, many of these dogs were left to die by the side of a road or given to a shelter.

Yet they, in turn, are willing to risk their lives to save the lives of others.

As always, the Andersons tell these stories with eloquence and feeling.

They interview each of the people, digging deep for the type of telling details that make the dogs come alive for readers."Angel Dogs with a Mission" departs from the series in that there are fewer stories but each story is longer and goes more into depth about how the dog came to be a "working" dog.

The stories relate how dogs and people "discovered" hidden talent and then put it to excellent use.

The book demonstrates again and again how dogs act in selfless, helpful ways and will go out of their way to assist the humans in their lives. Whether they are visiting deteriorating elders at care facilities, sniffing cancer before it can be diagnosed any other way, leading the blind or assisting trauma surgeons in Iraq, these animals go beyond the call of duty.

We can all learn from these amazing pooches. Poignant, funny, devastating - the stories of these heroic dogs will entertain readers while they also challenge and inspire.