Go Find

By: Susan Purvis

Narrated by: Susan Purvis

Somewhere between hunting for gold in Latin America as a geologist and getting married to a new husband, 33-year-old Susan Purvis loses her way.

Susan comes to believe that a puppy and working on ski patrol at the last great ski town in Colorado will improve her life. When she learns about avalanches that bury people without warning, she challenges herself: "What if I teach a dog to save lives?" This quest propels her to train the best possible search dog, vowing to never leave anyone behind.

With no clue how to care for a houseplant, let alone a dog, she chooses a five-week-old Labrador retriever, Tasha. With the face of a baby bear and the temperament of an NFL linebacker, Tasha constantly tests Susan's determination to transform her into a rescue dog. Susan and Tasha jockey for alpha position as they pursue certification in avalanche, water, and wilderness recovery. Susan eventually learns to truly communicate with Tasha by seeing the world through her dog's nose.

As the first female team in a male-dominated search-and-rescue community, they face resistance at every turn. They won't get paid even a bag of kibble for their efforts, yet they launch dozens of missions to rescue the missing or recover the remains of victims of nature and crime.

Training with Tasha in the field to find, recover, and rescue the lost became Susan's passion. But it was also her circumstance - she was in many ways as lost as anyone she ever pulled out of an avalanche or found huddled in the woods. "Lostness" doesn't only apply to losing the trail. People can get lost in a relationship, a business, or a life. Susan was convinced that only happened to other people, until Tasha and a life in the mountains taught her otherwise.

An Outside Bozeman magazine pick.

©2018 Susan Purvis (P)2018 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

I loved loved loved the book!

I loved loved loved the book! I’m a dog owner and lover. What courage and connection these two have.

The honesty

I loved the story of the bond between dog and handler. As a SAR person it was so true.

Annoying narration

The story is interesting but the author for some reason decided to narrate and her tongue seems to twist around words in a bumbling way which I found incredibly annoying.

High Country Drama

Fantastic book! Well read and easy to listen to. The descriptive wording puts you right in the middle of the story. Five stars!!

Dog is great; handler not so much

This book was fascinating, but not for the reasons I would have anticipated. Listening to the remembrances of someone who demonstrates such a low EQ and lack of self-awareness is interesting. Time after time she seems puzzled by her own search and rescue team's contempt for her as if never once realizing that they just plain can't stand her. I found myself siding with Doug in my frustration at her refusal to properly obedience train her dog or even keep her safe by leashing her when appropriate. I realize she is admitting her mistakes in retrospect, but as someone who works in dog rescue and deals with the consequences of this uneducated approach to dog handling, it was a little infuriating to read. She did Tasha a disservice over and over again and failed to listen to the people who were trying to teach her how to do better. She also trashes a lot of people in this book, some for behavior that she herself admits to engaging in as well (e.g., conducting searches for which they were not certified). The narration by the author is not great, with an awkward cadence and misplaced pauses. Tasha, of course, is a rock star, so it's still a worthwhile listen for dog lovers and anyone interested in SAR.