The Possibility Dogs

What a Handful of 'Unadoptables' Taught Me about Service, Hope, and Healing

Written and Narrated By: Susannah Charleson

Length: 11 hrs and 18 mins

AWEsome combo of Research and Heart!

I have to admit it, however. Though I loved Susannah Charleson’s voice and am glad she narrated her own work herself, I, the Listener of All Things at x1.25 Speed, had to jack the speed up to x1.75. Seriously, she spoke thaaaat slowly. At least to me she did. Other than that, I thought she brought a lot to the table—After all, she’s the one who knows when she wants to make a point, when she wants to highlight something distressing, when she wants to bring up animal abuse and to stab that knife in your heart, turn it slowly.

And there’s plENty of heartbreaking stuff in this audiobook. It starts with her work as part of a Search and Rescue team (With her dog, Puzzle). While out doing fieldwork, she (And she’s witnessed some pretty gruesome and horrific stuff) comes across a compound out in the woods that’s filled with dead dogs. Not just that, but she can tell that on top of horrible, horrible, lives, these animals suffered mightily at the end. Starved, beaten, broken, some burned. Susannah puts it out of her mind thinking, as most of us would: I’ve seen worse happen to humans; shouldn’t I not think so very much about animals? (Well, okay, I would be traumatized outta my gourd).

But she’s a haunted woman from that point on. She starts exhibiting Obsessive Compulsive behaviors, getting hit especially hard by offhand misery she comes across. A little dog lost/taken during a home burglary causes her to start panicking that the very same thing can happen to her, and she starts checking the locks on her doors. Over. And over. And over.

At the same time, she loses two of her little pack of dogs, and she’s left feeling lost and adrift. NATurally, the Universe sends her a very sick little puppy who will go on to become a shining light in her life.

And it’s this dog, Jake Piper, a pit bull mix, that starts her training him as a therapy dog. First it’s as a Psych Dog—perhaps he can help her, or others like her, who have OCD issues; later, as her peripheral neuropathy becomes more severe, she begins training him as a Support Dog for her balance and stability issues. It’s through her work with the irrepressible Jake that she comes to know people whose lives have been greatly enhanced by their support dogs. Whether it’s an older woman who feels out of control by violence in the world and begins pacing, pacing, pacing, or it’s a teen-aged girl fraught with angst and piercings who suddenly has “episodes” where she just zones out and can’t figure out where she is—all the people Susannah comes across have found major healing, major comfort, major companionship through the animals assigned to them.

There’s plenty of science and research in the book, all of which is interesting. But the whole lot becomes a gem of a book due to the tales of resilience and love that shine through. Susannah is a strong woman of great heart, and it was wonderful to listen to just over 11 hours of good things that can follow rough starts. I too have found myself bogged down by just how little can be done for the many, many, MANY animals in need (Totally crippled by rescue work at one point), so it was soooo nice to hear one woman’s moments in time when she simply stopped and said Yes to what she could manage to do.

That she found wonderful, wonderful love and companionship each and every time she did it?

Well, that’s just what makes The Possibility Dogs so great: Ya never really know who’s saving whom!