Go Find

My Journey to Find the Lost – and Myself

By Sue Purvis

Genre: Nonfiction – Memoir/Outdoor Adventure/Dog

Blackstone Publishing, 2019

Pages: 344

Via: Library

Go Find is about being lost. The memoir tells the true story of how Sue and her avalanche dog, a black Lab named Tasha, search for missing people in the high country of Colorado and elsewhere from about 1995 to 2007. 

We had high hopes for this book. But it gets lost in Soap Opera Land, with too many side trips into Tedium, Tiresome and Blurrysville. Ditto the countless detours into life with the author’s allegedly petulant, controlling husband, Sir Pouts-a-Lot. 

“Decomp”

We eventually learn that the vast majority of Tasha’s deployments are “decomp” missions to locate human remains. A live find is rare. Sue and Tasha are often deployed as “last resorts” – long after any decent chance of locating a live missing person has flown the coop. Too often egos, petty politics and jealousies within the SAR community as well as weather, terrain, logistical details and a lot of other stuff mitigate against a live find. It’s depressing and frustrating.

Yo!

We felt like hollering: Yo, SAR types and others! You may not be able to do much about weather, terrain, snow conditions and the like. But egos and fat heads? Seriously? When people’s lives are on the line? Get. Over. Yourselves. (Hopefully this has changed since this book came out.)

Detailed, meticulous and comprehensive, this book is also about how badly uncertified, unvalidated “search dog” teams can mess up a search Big Time. They can also trash the reputations of other dog search teams who actually know what they’re doing and have put in hundreds and thousands of hours to get certified. It also notes that when seconds count and minutes matter, the need for a national database of certified search dog teams is dire– and what happens without same. It details how petty politics, infighting, parochialism, egos and “boys club” mentalities within the SAR community get in the way of saving lives (Hi, “Stink Face,” Sue’s SAR team leader. What a jerk.).

Redundant

Yes, Go Find is thorough. But there’s thorough and then there’s as dull as the well-worn, yellowed grinding teeth of an older-than-dirt Bactrian camel. The endless details required for different certifications gets old after a while. And redundant. And old. And redundant. Did I mention redundant? Zzzzzzzz….

Example: Tasha’s wilderness alert. Tasha’s water alert. Tasha’s cadaver alert. Tasha’ avalanche alert. Here a lert, there a lert. Everywhere a lert, lert… It’s basically the same thing over and over and over… Scent cones. Permission protocols. Doug being a jerk. Tasha’s schlong. Doug being a jerk. Tasha over-eating. Doug being a jerk. Stink Face. Doug pitching another temper tantrum. Tasha finding another dead body.

It’s exhausting.

Quick Summary

“Six years of allowing Tasha to dominate me. Seems like my role in my family is subsidiary to my alphas – Tasha and Doug.”

There. Just saved you about 300 pages.

We really wanted to like this book. And it has its moments. But unless you’re an SAR volunteer or a meteorologist, it doesn’t take long to get buried beneath an avalanche of minutia about different types of weather, snow, scent trails and other details. It’s like the author tried to cram every training tip, technique or event she ever learned into 344 pages. If that’s not enough, she’s constantly jerking the reader back to the Dominican Republic on gold mining jaunts with her erstwhile hubby, Doug. Let’s just say Douggie doesn’t seem like a warm and fuzzy kinda guy.

Newsflash: We picked up this book to read about a search and rescue handler and her dog, Tasha. We don’t really care about the author’s deteriorating marriage. Or the other multitudinous bunny trails that pop up like the White Rabbit disappearing down a hole into Wonderland. 

Reactions

Once finished, we had two basic reactions to Go Find: 1) It’s educational, insightful, and inspiring. 2) It too often reads like a soap opera. It left us wondering how a grown woman could be so clueless. For so long. She doesn’t seem to learn from her errors or be able to communicate effectively with anyone – SAR team members, her partner at the medical clinic, her husband, or her dog. The author eventually figures out how to communicate with Tasha. But the rest? Go fish. (Pun intended).

Thou Shalt Not…

Other issues clocked in dangerously close to the dreaded Thou Shalt Not Ticketh Offeth The Mometh category. (Kimber: You so don’t want to go there. Bad idea! Red alert! Red alert! Bail out now!)

Clueless in Colorado

One of the big issues we had with this book is how totally clueless the author is regarding basic dog training. She makes the same mistakes over and over and doesn’t seem to learn anything. 

This is perhaps best epitomized early on when:

• The author decides to get a dog on the spur of the moment.
• With pretty much zero prep, planning, or thought, she brings a 40 day old black Lab puppy home to her condo.

That’s no way to get a dog. Getting a dog is a lifelong commitment. Don’t make me explain this. 

• Forty days old is way too young for a puppy to be taken from its mama. Geez.
• She buys Tasha from a scuzzy, unscrupulous puppy mill dude.
• A Lab. In a condo? Are you nuts?!
• The author bails out of Colorado constantly, leaving Tasha behind in the care (?) of friends – for weeks at a time or longer. Then Sue can’t figure out why Tasha is unhappy when she finally sashays home. Duh?

We won’t even mention the author allowing her dog to scarf down chocolate M&Ms! Will not. Will not. Will NOT!

Kimber: Hang on for a min. I gotta revive Mom from her fainting spell over allowing a dog to scarf up chocolate, okay? Chocolate can be deadly to dogs, in case ya didn’t know. That Clueless Wonder thing again.

Okay. A min’s up. Better now. Deep breaths. Where were we?

Disappointing

Oh yeah. We expected better from this book.” And while Go Find shines in places, in others it’s just disappointing. Especially when you find out that Tasha and all this SAR dog training stuff and the like took place years ago. And Tasha is long gone. (Mom hated the ending. Just sayin’.)

We also found the author’s ignorance of basic dog training not only mind-boggling but also irritating, especially when the author ignores the advice of other seasoned dog handlers over and over.  This seems not only counter-productive but also galactically irresponsible considering her chosen field.

And (via Amazon reviews):

So while there’s some good information and inspiration here, the narrative loses focus and wanders into the woods too many times for us mere mortals. It would’ve been so much better if it stayed on track and didn’t get lost in Saturday Night at the Soaps.

We won’t be rating this book out of respect for Tasha. RIP “Black Dog.”