{"product_id":"2940170006243","title":"The Underdogs: Children, Dogs, and the Power of Unconditional Love","description":"\u003cp\u003eFrom two-time National Book Award nominee Melissa Fay Greene comes a profound and surprising account of dogs on the front lines of rescuing both children and adults from the trenches of grief, emotional, physical, and cognitive disability, and post-traumatic stress disorder.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Underdogs\u003c\/em\u003e tells the story of Karen Shirk, felled at age twenty-four by a neuromuscular disease and facing life as a ventilator-dependent, immobile patient, who was turned down by every service dog agency in the country because she was \"too disabled.\" Her nurse encouraged her to tone down the suicidal thoughts, find a puppy, and raise her own service dog. Karen did this, and Ben, a German shepherd, dragged her back into life. \"How many people are stranded like I was,\" she wondered, \"who would lead productive lives if only they had a dog?\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA thousand state-of-the-art dogs later, Karen Shirk's service dog academy, 4 Paws for Ability, is restoring broken children and their families to life. Long shunned by scientists as a manmade, synthetic species, and oft- referred to as \"Man's Best Friend\" almost patronizingly, dogs are finally paid respectful attention by a new generation of neuroscientists and animal behaviorists. Melissa Fay Greene weaves the latest scientific discoveries about our co-evolution with dogs with Karen's story and a few exquisitely rendered stories of suffering children and their heartbroken families.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWritten with characteristic insight, humanity, humor, and irrepressible joy, what could have been merely touching is a penetrating, compassionate exploration of larger questions: about our attachment to dogs, what constitutes a productive life, and what can be accomplished with unconditional love.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"HarperCollins Publishers","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47162147307760,"sku":"2940170006243","price":27.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940170006243_p0.jpg?v=1763698878","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940170006243","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}