Inspired by Fifteen Legs

Fifteen Legs: When all that stands between death and freedom is a ride… by Bonnie Silva (Riverbank Press). “It was a clammy day in August when I read Eve Haslam’s article ‘Godspeed to All Those in Transport’ and within a few minutes, I had soaked the newsprint with tears,” writes author and filmmaker, Bonnie Silva. “There was a dog, a black Lab, who needed to get from her foster home in Georgia to her adoptive home in Vermont. She was put on a “transport” and handed off to different volunteer drivers, fifteen in all, until finally she arrived where her new family was waiting—the dog’s ‘forever home,’ as the animal-people called it.”

So begins Fifteen Legs, a superbly-written book brimming with tales of furry passengers who are shuttled—sometimes by car, sometimes by plane—to new homes in new cities by a network of kindhearted, lifesaving volunteers. I was so inspired by Fifteen Legs that I read it in one evening, but I suggest you take your time and savor each heartwarming and heart-wrenching story. Who knows, you might even decide to become an animal transporter in your spare time!