Rescue Road: One Man, Thirty Thousand Dogs, and a Million Miles on the Last Hope Highway

In 2014, journalist Zheutlin profiled Greg Mahle's Rescue Road Trips, which bring dogs from Southern shelters and rescue organizations to Northern adopters, for Parade magazine. The response was overwhelmingly positive, including hundreds of Facebook posts from adopters of the animals. Along with Mahle, who has dedicated his life to helping dogs, readers meet the many others who also commit countless hours and funds to this lifesaving work. The author deftly gets to the heart of animal rescue: it's a hard, dirty, expensive endeavor; saving one dog's life can take a handful of people; and volunteers often struggle with both the public and municipal leaders in trying to accomplish this task. With a casually informative style, Zheutlin bluntly presents the gruesome conditions in which many of these dogs live (and die). He applies the same treatment to the positive stories of the dogs that head north and the people who help them get there.