Running Free

by Barb Bland

When animal shelter volunteer Barb Bland chose to work with Lab-Border Collie mix Pikachu at the WAIF minimal-kill facility, little did she know she was about to dedicate the next four action-packed years to the hard work of love in order to transform him into a confident, loyal house pet. Smart and sweet, Pikachu, (whose litter was named for Pokemon characters) was untrained and unsocialized, shy and fearful – a throwaway dog, an escape artist and a runner. Within twenty-four hours after his first adoption, he jumped the fence and escaped into the deep forests of Whidbey Island, Washington, where he spent the next five months of his first year on his own. Though terrified of people, Piki loved and trusted other dogs. And that trust was largely the key to Barb finally catching Piki in the wild. But catching him was only half the battle! While Piki languished once again at the animal shelter, hiding from prospective adopters, Barb had to reconcile upsetting her other pets and her husband, (whom Piki feared, as he feared all men), and their peaceful family life before she could introduce Piki to her home. It took the next three years of frequently funny ups-and-downs to teach Piki how to successfully conform to human expectations. The difficult dilemmas of problem solving gradually yielded to the rewards of a special lifelong love. Barb also relates the development of Whidbey Animals’ Improvement Foundation (WAIF), one of the first minimal-kill animal shelters in North America,in which she participated in personally. If Whidbey’s animal shelter had still been a typical “five days and out” shelter – many of which still exist – Piki and his littermates would have been killed within a week of their surrender as puppies. But because of WAIF’s ground-breaking efforts, Piki was able to stay at this safe haven as long as it took to find his first owner and again after his capture until Barb took him into her home. Anyone who values the unbreakable bond between dog and caretaker will find enjoyable reading in this dog’s story that changed both Piki and Barb’s lives. Barb plans to contribute proceeds from the sale of Running Free to the construction and support of WAIF’s new animal shelter being built now.

277 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 16, 2013

Reviews

[Ron Kerrigan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has a personal attachment for me: I was also a shelter volunteer while Pikachu (and his siblings Bulbasaur, Starmie, et al) were at the shelter. I also participated in searching for him just south of Ledgewood while he lived in the woods and was spotted numerous times by construction crews building a home in the area. I would bring one of my own dogs with me to entice him to come to me (but he never would.) This book outlines how devotion to another living creature can itself be very rewarding and is an uplifting tale in a time when we need one.

[Sonja · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the stories and I think I picked up a few things to work on with my own furry family members.

[Lenita Sheridan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This Book is a Keeper

This book is a must-read for lovers of dogs of any size. It is the story of the challenges of training a rescue dog. Anyone who has adopted a rescue dog knows how difficult those challenges can be. It is also the story of WAIF, the animal shelter at which the author volunteered. The author gives a history of the organization in the back of the book, but tells much about WAIF in the first part of the book.

After reading this book, I realized that not only did the author go to the trouble of writing the book, but, since it is a true story, she went to the trouble of training this amazing dog, whom she calls "Piki."