David Frei’s Angel on a Leash is a very joyful read.
As part of our Dog-Eared Reads series of book reviews, today Dog O’Day is looking at Angel on a Leash, written by David Frei and published by Bowtie Press in 2011.
The book’s full title is Angel on a Leash: Therapy Dogs and the Lives They Touch, and that’s an accurate summary of the contents.
Written in first person, much of the book is comprised of short anecdotes from Frei’s therapy dog visits with patients in various hospitals around New York City and around the country.
Frei was the longtime voice of the extremely prestigious Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, in addition to the yearly Thanksgiving tradition of the National Dog Show and the springtime-set Beverly Hills Dog Show.
Frei opens the book by introducing his background in professional football and public relations, and how he met his wife Cheri and her Brittany dogs Teigh and Belle in the late 1990s. Cheri was studying for a theology degree at the time, and so they moved from Seattle to New York City because of work (she as a Catholic chaplain at various hospitals, he as a PR person for Westminster and the AKC).
He also goes to great lengths to explain the rigorous training and certification that therapy dog teams go through, and then the challenges involved in getting hospitals to begin therapy dog programs.
Angel on a Leash is also the name of a foundation begun by the Westminster Kennel Club (now its own independent entity), which of course gets a lot of airtime as well.
Uno the Beagle (officially Ch K-Run’s Put Me in First), the 2008 Westminster Best in Show, went on plenty of adventures as a therapy dog that get covered here, including kickstarting a therapy dog program at the Ronald McDonald House Milwaukee, and throwing out the first pitch at a St Louis Cardinals game.
There is a chapter focusing on the therapy dog experience with children at the Ronald McDonald House (primarily an NYC location), and another on the experiences with cancer patients at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and in lighter news, how the National Dog Show came into existence thanks to a Christopher Guest mockumentary titled Best in Show.
It details the passing of the torch as the now-elderly Teigh and Belle both ran into health troubles in 2009 and crossing the rainbow bridge within six months of each other, as Angel the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and Grace the Brittany didn’t replace them (beloved pets are never truly replaced), but moved into their roles. (Angel passed away earlier this year in January.)
The book ends with a tribute to his dad, Jerry Frei, head coach of the Oregon Ducks from 1967 to 1971, and the way David met Bill Wynne while guest-hosting a TV show called Pet News in the 1990s. Bill Wynne worked with Jerry during World War II, in addition to being the owner of Sparky, possibly the world’s first therapy dog.
Reading through Angel on a Leash, it’s hard not to be gobsmacked by the emotional toll David, Cheri and the dogs experience along with various patients, but equally hard not to feel joyful and want to help out your own community upon finishing.