Cassius was a truly exceptional police dog whose career became the stuff of legend and the gold standard for all dogs coming after. In just five years he scored a century of arrests, saved lives, bit half a dozen policemen, and gave his handler, PC Joe Sleightholm, the most exciting, exhilarating, and nerve-wracking times of his life. Things did not go according to plan in Sleightholm's first years as a police dog handler. The difficulties of finding and keeping the right dog were so great that he was ready to give up. Then Cass came along. The two of them quickly formed a bond, graduated as stars from the training school, and became an outstandingly effective working partnership. Cass became part of the Sleightholm family, too. Car thieves, armed robbers, drug dealers, murderers, burglars--Cassius learned to find them, contain them, intimidate, and attack if he had to. Sometimes it was dangerous for him. Usually it was more dangerous for the criminal. The story of Cassius is by turns thrilling, funny, and moving, and always a fascinating insight into the freemasonry of police dog training.
Hertfordshire, October 5th 2016. At around 2 a.m., PC Dave Wardell and his dog, PD Finn, were trying to apprehend a robbery suspect when he turned around and attacked them. Finn was stabbed with a ten-inch-bladed knife, both through his chest, via his armpit and then - the knife bound for Dave - through the top of his head. Finn no doubt saved Dave's life, but the race was on to try and save Finn's. Dave Wardell's heartfelt memoir charts an incredible journey of friendship and loyalty. It is a celebration of the bond between one man and his dog, from when Dave collected Finn from his kennels at just nine months old, all the way through to Finn's recent and hard-earned retirement. The book charts the career of a highly trained, highly decorated dog. In his time on the job Finn tracked offenders of all kinds; found missing children; tackled armed offenders; saved lives. But Finn isn't just a police dog - he's also a cherished family pet and this is his remarkable, life-affirming story.
"With some dogs you share a boil in the bag breakfast and maybe a blanket on a cold desert floor. Some you wouldn't leave in charge of your Grandma unless you wanted to find out just how fast the old girl could run. But, if you're very, very lucky there will be the one dog you would lay down your life for – and for me that dog is Buster." Buster, an English springer spaniel who has served his comrades and his country with unstinting devotion, has saved thousands of lives. This is the story of his partnership with RAF Police Sergeant Will Barrow, told by Will himself, describing how each came to save the other's life. It is a relationship that produced some heroic feats—including sniffing out explosive vests that led to the arrests of two suicide bombers—in the dust and desert heat of Afghanistan and beyond. Buster, uniquely, has served five tours of duty in three theatres of war (Bosnia, Iraq, and Afghanistan)—more than any other military dog. He also won the prestigious Crufts Friends for Life Award in 2012, and has gone on to become the official lifetime mascot of the RAF Police, the only dog in history to have been honored in that manner. A best friend in dog's clothing, an RAF dog with his mossy feet firmly on the ground, Buster is truly a dog in a million.
The author relates his work with dogs in mountain search and rescue, drowned victim recovery, collapsed structure searching, and optical disc and drug detection situations over the past 40 years in Ireland, the UK, and elsewhere.
Dog Heroes of September 11th -- A Tribute to America's Search and Rescue Dogs, now in its Tenth Anniversary second edition, is the first and only major publication to salute the canines that served our nation in the recovery missions following the terrorists' strikes on America. In his foreword to this edition, former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani says, "No American could be unmoved by the stories and images of these dogs and their handlers....Their journeys, as told in these pages, reinforce our resolve to persevere, rebuild and keep our nation safe and strong." A testament to man's best friend and his most critical role in American history, Dog Heroes of September 11th pays tribute to 79 canine heroes and their handlers, retelling their heart-stirring stories and photographically capturing many defining moments of the days that followed September 11, 2001. This oversized gift book features over 400 color photographs, many never seen except in this publication. Nona Kilgore Bauer, who has won multiple awards for her books on dogs, interviewed each of the handlers who participated in the recovery efforts at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, Shanksville, Penn., and the Fresh Kills landfill, the site to which remains from the fallen towers were transported, and lovingly retells their stories of heroism and bravery. In its first edition (released in 2006), Dog Heroes of September 11th won numerous awards, including book of the year from the Dog Writers Association of America, Book-of-the-Month Club, and the Independent Book Publishers Association. The second edition, expanded with over 100 new pages and over 150 new full-color photographs, presents chapters on military working dogs in Iraq and Afghanistan, the therapy dogs who worked at Ground Zero, the SDF's new National Training Center, and post-9/11 rescue missions at home and abroad. A special section, written by selected 9/11 handlers, pays tributes to their canine partners who passed away after their recovery missions. In addition to paying tribute to the dog-and-handler teams that were deployed after the attacks, this I-5 Press book supports the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation (SDF) in its mission to produce certified search and rescue teams to protect our whole nation. A portion of the proceeds of Dog Heroes of September 11th benefits the SDF.
Two heavy-hitters in children's literature deliver a critically acclaimed, bestselling biographical novel of cultural icon Muhammad Ali. "This utterly delightful story about Ali's childhood is a smash hit."—School Library Journal (starred review) Before he was a household name, Cassius Clay was a kid with struggles like any other. Kwame Alexander and James Patterson join forces to vividly depict his life up to age seventeen in both prose and verse, including his childhood friends, struggles in school, the racism he faced, and his discovery of boxing. Readers will learn about Cassius' family and neighbors in Louisville, Kentucky, and how, after a thief stole his bike, Cassius began training as an amateur boxer at age twelve. Before long, he won his first Golden Gloves bout and began his transformation into the unrivaled Muhammad Ali. Fully authorized by and written in cooperation with the Muhammad Ali estate, and vividly brought to life by Dawud Anyabwile's dynamic artwork, Becoming Muhammad Ali captures the budding charisma and youthful personality of one of the greatest sports heroes of all time. Longlisted for the 2022-2023 Indiana Young Hoosier Book Award, and nominated for the 2021-2022 Black Eyed Susan Book Award!
In 1943, there was no thought of good times for two battalions of Scottish soldiers. For them, India meant a new and unimaginably arduous kind of training. Some of the Black Watch boys had seen action in Somaliland, Crete, and Tobruk. Some of the Cameronians had fought the Japanese in the Burma retreat. Even for these, such training was trial by ordeal. Many more of the Jocks were new, just shipped out from Scotland, but all of them were ordinary men, men from the towns and villages who'd taken the King's shilling in their country's peril. These were first-class British infantry, but not the super-selected special forces types that we know today. Nevertheless, it was a special-forces job they were supposed to do and that is what they were called, Special Force. The challenge in Madhya Pradesh was to turn themselves into jungle fighters as good as the Japanese. They had a few short months to become Chindits. The two brigades they joined numbered 7,677 officers and men going into the jungle, of whom 531 were killed, captured or missing, and around 1,600 were wounded. By the end, some 3,800 were too sick to fight. Only 1,754 could be classified as 'effective' when they came out and, in truth, half of those were fit for no more than a hospital bed. It was a miracle anybody survived at all. And that was just two of the five brigades that went in. Was this the greatest medical disaster of World War Two? Who caused it? This new book has the answers.
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