Book Review -- "Sit, Stay, Heal "

     Before I start the book review, there are two things that I want to mention.  First of all, I am feeling a lot better.  I was able to go to work everyday last week, and I am not coughing much anymore.  Thank you all for your prayers in this matter.  Also, I just wanted to mention that today is the 6 year anniversary of this blog.  I want to thank the Lord for the privilege of allowing me to post sermons, verses and many other items.  I would also like to thank all of you for reading the blog for these past years.

     Today, I am reviewing a book entitled "Sit, Stay, Heal" written by Mel C. Miskimen.  As this book begins, the author's family is dealing with the fact that the author's mother is in a state of rapidly deteriorating health.  Shortly after a procedure  is performed to help the mother, the author's mother passes away.  Of course, this leads to much grief for the family.
     The author begins to worry about her father living by himself.  She decides that she needs to spend more time with her dad.  Her dad is an avid bird hunter, and the author has a Labrador named Seamus that could use some training.  Over the the course of the next year, father and daughter and Seamus meet about once a week to work on developing Seamus' ability as a retriever.
     During this time, the author and her father grow closer, and those in the family deal in each in their own way with their grief.
     I enjoyed reading this book overall.  When I read about the author's mother and the problems she faced it reminded me somewhat of what my dad and I faced with my mom when she was suffering from dementia and Parkinson's disease.  I thought Seamus was an interesting dog, and I enjoyed reading about the author's family life.
    There are two things that I did not like about the book.  The author and her father use a shock collar to train Seamus at one point in the book.  I am sure that Seamus wasn't hurt by this, but I do not approve of this training method.  One other incident in the book that troubled me was when Seamus had to be taken in to the emergency vet.  The author left with Seamus before he was truly diagnosed because she didn't want to pay for the surgery recommended.  Everything turns out OK, but this bothered me.
     As I said, this was a good book overall.  If I were to use a 4-star rating system, I would give this book two and one-half stars.