Saving Cinnamon

The Amazing True Story of a Missing Military Puppy

By: Christine Sullivan

Narrated by: Laural Merlington

Length: 7 hrs and 49 mins

Publisher's summary

Set against the backdrop of the war in Afghanistan, Saving Cinnamon chronicles the love story of Navy Reservist Mark Feffer and a stray puppy he bonded with while stationed outside of Kandahar. When Mark is about to return stateside, he decides to adopt Cinnamon and sets up her transport back to the United States. But the unthinkable happens: Cinnamon is abandoned by the dog handler who was supposed to bring her home and disappears without a trace.

Mark and his family start a desperate search for the puppy that lasts 44 days and ends dramatically when Mark and Cinnamon are finally reunited. This is a touching memoir told by Mark's sister, who initiated the rescue efforts.

©2010 Christine Sullivan (P)2009 Tantor

Critic reviews

"The heartwarming story of a soldier and his dog.... Animal lovers may get their hearts broken several times over the course of the story." ( Publishers Weekly)

Relocating Cinnamon

In 2005, Cinnamon was brought to Camp Shirzai in Kandahar by an American soldier, as a stray puppy. There, Cinnamon was loved by all the military personnel stationed at Camp Shirzai. She was showered with affection, fed, adored by all. In return, Cinnamon gave the military personnel a sense of home. A sense of "normal". She reminded them of pets waiting overseas for their people to return. She brought happiness to all who adored her in return.

Then, here comes Navy Reservist Mark Feffer, serving a six month deployment. He decides, "cute dog, imma take her home." He's an officer and apparently used to getting what he wants without question, so he orchestrates some under the table maneuvers to get her transported to the US.

When the individual who agreed to transport Cinnamon runs into complications at the airport, he leaves her. A caring man named Katib rescues Cinnamon from the airport and takes her home to his family. At this point, Cinnamon is happy and well cared for. This should have been the end of the story.

Christine Sullivan has different plans though. She leads people to believe that her brother was rescuing Cinnamon and that it is vitally important that this dog be found and sent to the US.

It's really difficult to review this book without providing spoilers, but I would have liked to have known a few facts before I committed myself to reading this book. Here is what I found:

1. The wrong person wrote this book. Christine was the sister of the person having the direct relationship with Cinnamon. Without understanding WHY Mark felt like he had to relocate Cinnamon, I have to assume what I wrote above, "cute dog, imma take her home". Christine's motivation became clear; she had nothing else going on in her life, was seeking attention, and thus fixates on this mission.

2. This book is poorly written. Lots of tedious facts about emails and phone calls, melodrama, and self promotion by the author. LOTS of self promotion. I'm not even sure she had her brother proof it before she had it published. How many times did she refer to her Navy brother as a soldier? Surely he would mention that Soldiers are Soldiers, Marines are Marines, Airmen are Airmen, and Sailors are Sailors. Or possibly he didn't realize this only being a reservist?

3. It should not have been titled "Saving Cinnamon". At best, it was "Relocating Cinnamon". Or at worst, "Saving Cinnamon from What My Brother Subjected Her To". When you look at the pictures of Cinnamon before this ordeal, she looks so happy, well fed and healthy. Then in the pictures of her after her horrible journey, she is skinny and lacking the spirit that she had in Camp Shirzai. My heart absolutely broke reading what these selfish people put her through.

4. The author took advantage of so many people, monetarily, resources, time and through prayer requests. The prayer part rubbed me the wrong way because instead of maybe praying for Cinnamon to be safe, and for God's will to be done, the prayer request was specific....bring Cinnamon "home". Cinnamon was fine in Camp Shirzai. Cinnamon was fine with Katib. Cinnamon was fine at the second base after she was taken from Katib. It looked like prayers had been answered over and over again. But it wasn't the answer Christine wanted.

I just hated this book on so many levels I can't even put it into words. It's terrible that they put this dog through everything they did. It's terrible that this self absorbed woman kept pressing and pressing for the relocation to happen. It's terrible that she benefits in any way from this book. I do not recommend this book to anyone. The one star rating is for the pictures of Cinnamon...such a beautiful dog. A real gift to the military personnel stationed with her. So sad they were robbed of her.

If you want to read a book about how very much a dog means to military personnel serving abroad, I suggest "Judy: The Unforgettable Story of the Dog Who Went to War and Became a True Hero".

If you want to read a book about a woman who really saved a dog in Turkey (many dogs) I highly suggest "Saving Lucy: A girl, a bike, a street dog."

As for the narrator, she did a fabulous job portraying a meddlesome, self absorbed woman completely full of herself.