Dogtripping: 25 Rescues, 11 Volunteers, and 3 RVs on Our Canine Cross-Country Adventure Paperback – July 22, 2014

Who would be mad enough to live with 25 rescue dogs? David Rosenfelt, author of the wonderful Andy Carpenter novels, and his wife Debbie. This book describes their trip across the country with their canine family when they moved from California to Maine — with the help of some adventurous volunteers.Alternating with the story of the trip are stories about individual noteworthy dogs — and lots of opinions from Rosenfelt on bad shelters and people who abandon or mistreat dogs.Rosenfelt is a very good writer and makes his narrative funny and engaging. I love the Andy Carpenter novels, which made it all the more interesting to get a glimpse of Rosenfelt’s nutty dog-centered lifestyle.

I read this book while recovering from Covid. It made me laugh out loud. This is not a "dog dies at the end book." It is a lively, funny, moving description of moving a dog rescue across the country. I've given a copy to other dog lovers. Its a good book and an engrossing story.

It's truly rare to see a dog hoarder not only get away with it, but to actually praise them for the fact! These folks are totally nuts. And, most probably spending themselves into the poorhouse. Why & How? Well, that's the story! They work to rescue Golden Retrievers (and also end up with a zillion other mixed breed dogs in the mix). And, they are total suckers for older dogs that the City Pounds (mis-named Rescues) would snuff as either inconvenient, too old, not likable, or just plain been there too long.The book is basically about moving cross-country from Southern California to Maine in three RVs. It's an adventure (and, to some degree a sufferfest)! ... His final goal? Maybe get down to 15, or so, dogs. (My thought, just enough for a Sled Team with a few to ride along)!All-in-all, a great book and well worth the money!Disclaimer: I have three Rescue dogs. All are Australian Kelpies found through Petfinder_dot_com. Two came in as strays & the third was an Owner turn in. One is active & the other two are now getting on in years and are retired. I donate to a Rescue in Oklahoma: Rainbow Bridge Can Wait AR (a 503c).

Loved this book so much. I wish there were more people like David Rosenfelt, his wife and all the volunteers who helped him. He’s a great author with so much humor. Just a fun read. Hated to finish it!

Love this author and this book was so good!

This is a wonderfully told humorous road trip story about a couple, the author David Rosenfelt and his wife Debbie, plus 11 true friends who helped them moved their 25 rescued dogs of various lineages from Orange County, CA to near Damariscotta Lake, Maine using three rented RVs in 2011.As the author says early in the story on page 4, "[T]he difference between an ordeal and an adventure is attitude. That's how I knew I was in for an ordeal."In self-deprecating and humble style the author states that 25 is probably the smallest number of dogs they had at any one time in the ten years prior to their cross country adventure, with 42 being the maximum number and 31/32 being about the average. He also gives full credit to the other males in his party as being real men, while he generally portrays himself as a bit of a nebbish in the vein of Woody Allen.The author and Debbie started a non-profit dog rescue called the TARA Foundation in honor of Debbie's best dog of all time, a golden she still longs for. David and Debbie keep Tara alive by writing her into his Andy Carpenter series in which Tara started off as a 7yo Golden and elven years later has only aged to 9yo. The author says she will never get serous sick or hurt in his novels, nor will she ever die, but she may miraculously get younger if it suits him. :)An idea of the clean type of humor told throughout the book is the experience the author had in trying to book some rooms outside Salt Lake City prior to the move back East. When the motel clerk told him there would be a 50.00/pet cleaning deposit for each dog under 30 pounds and 75.00 for each dog over 30 pounds he said, "I hadn't done the math, but I was pretty sure we would be traveling with over a ton of dog, so the cleaning deposit would probably be the GDP of a third world country." [p64]I personally liked the chapter in which Charleston Heston adopts Willie, a chow mix from the author, as I also rescued a chow/golden mix as a puppy, I named Leo, and who is now 12+yo. As with all animal lovers, a picture of Leo is visible on my profile page.This is simply a heartwarming story of love and caring for animals told with insight and humor sure to warm the hearts of all dog/animal lovers and well worth the read.

Excellent read couldn't put it down. This author is the whole package. He is interesting, funny and he tells a great story of a true event in his life

This book was much more than I had anticipated... in a good way. Much of the story was actually about this couples life rescueing dogs, something which I find HIGHLY commendable. So they were heros in my eyes from the get go. The story of their trip across counrty was quite cute... My ONLY negative comment which is nothing really, I would have preferred the book split into 2 sections. First about their trip, then about all the dogs they have rescued. Or vice versa...The author interspersed one with the other, which is ok, but tends to break up the continuity. In the end, I skipped some chapters and just read about their cross country trip. Then went back and read about the dogs and their rescue. Worked for me. All in all, worth picking up. Made me wish I too could rescue dogs like these folks did. My 3 dachshunds will have to do !! This is for Lola, Ava and Stella. They 'rescue' me on a daily basis.

Excellent author

This is the best non fiction book I have read in ages, along with Lessons From Tara. What a great writer and person!

As an animal lover, I enjoyed reading about this couple's efforts to save dogs. Different times the writer touches on the sad fact that there are so many more dogs waiting for homes than people to adopt them; so many of these are finally put down. The Rosenfelts often chose dogs that were in need of special care and gave them a happy ending.Though the book is about the move to Maine, the writer spends a lot of time on the buildup, hopping back and forth between arranging their move and describing the dogs they've rescue, their home setup, the people and rescue groups he's met along the way, the special folks volunteering to make the trip with them. It gets long but I'm fine with this. I found it all interesting, though not "intriguing" or "compelling" reading.For the most part his self-depreciating humor and metaphors are amusing but I feel his wise-cracks about his helplessness are overdone; it sounds like everyone else worked and he staggered along behind -- likely not true. I'm glad to read that the actual move came off so smoothly, without the disasters he was anticipating. Their move to ME will bring tears to the animal shelter workers in CA, though.