Stephen Foster (5) (1962–)

This is a lovely memoir. The author, Stephen Foster, a sports writer, is greatly challenged by Ollie. (The dog formerly known as Ernie.) The puppy in question is a rescued lurcher. A lurcher is a dog that is half greyhound and half something else. In Ollie’s case his non-greyhound half is saluki, also a sight hound. The lurcher breed was developed in Britain due to the fact that only the nobility were permitted to own greyhounds. Lurchers were and probably still are the poacher’s breed show more of choice. Ollie is adopted from the animal-welfare home at Snetterton in Norfolk.

Ollie proves to be a nervous pup who seemed to spend a great deal of time running around and looking worried. Walking him proves to be a major challenge as he wants only (naturally enough) to play with other dogs, to chase and be chased. And as is typical of his breed and sight hounds in general he does not come when he is called, very poor recall. The author calculates the time he spends walking Ollie, chasing Ollie, at about five hours a day. He had imagined that dog walking would be a contemplative activity that would allow him to think about his writing. Instead he must endure the scorn of other dog walkers (mostly Lab owners) who proclaim Ollie “out of control”.

The harrowing walks with Ollie are only half the problem; the dog is terrified of him. He cringes and runs from the room at the sight of his owner. He will not accept affection from him but he will take food bribes. A scene is described in which Ollie is finally apprehended after one of his “walks” because the other has laid a trail of cheese cubes. Out of control barely covers it. There is a heart stopping chase down a motorway at night which both dog and owner miraculously survive. But there is a break through that follows Ollie running amok in the midst of a fishing competition (you can imagine) that marks a turning point for both of them. Ollie actually begins to listen to his owner. “Patience is the only technique I can pass on, if you can call patience a technique-so far as rescue animal husbandry is concerned, I feel pretty certain that you can. Patience is an aspect of love. We started to love each other.”

Of course the road was not smooth nor the course straight. There were more struggles ahead but I won’t spoil the book by telling all. It is, as I said at the outset, a lovely memoir. Humorous, touching, and very frank this book is a testament of the dedication that one individual can have to one dog. show less

The British Marley. I didn't find this book as enchanting as Marley and Me, but that may have been partially because of the cultural divide between American and English dog owners (prior to reading this book I didn't realize there was one). Author Foster goes on and on about the importance of letting dogs off leash to play with other dogs and to run free, and then his frustration as he spends hours trying to catch the dog. Hours. Every time they walk. At least where I live, it's not legal to show more have your dog off leash unless you are on your own property or at a dog park, and the nearest dog park is a 2 hour round trip. Which might not matter to Foster, with the amount of time he's out with Ollie - luckily he writes from home, and it doesn't seem to bother him that he's not actually doing much work (at one point he admits to spending most of his daylight hours walking Ollie). So there might be a financial divide too. Still, the book did have some amusing parts, and Ollie does have his charm, particularly in his love of running and all other dogs, and readers will root for Ollie to come out of his shell. show less

Any dog owner who reads this will thank their lucky stars they dont own 'Ollie'!
Good fun read but slight and ends rather abruptly.

This is a fine example of how to do a season diary. The author is a very good writer, he is a very good observer, and he extends the scope of his book to his life in general in such a way that you'd have to be pretty football-mad not to care about him holistically.