Ricochet – More amazing than the regularly amazing pets
This Review will be a bit different than my Usual Review as there won’t be a pros and cons list , there won’t be a What I like and What I don’t section either . Why? Because I have only good things to say for this book .
Book Succinct :
Ride the wave of hope with Ricochet – the only dog in the world who surfs with wounded warriors, people with disabilities, and children with special needs as an assistive aid and SURFice dog.
This tears-to-triumph story takes readers behind the TV and video sensation and shares the true journey that went from promise to disappointment before ultimately finding life’s purpose. The gorgeous golden retriever Ricochet seemed destined to be a service dog from the moment she was born. She approached her training with boundless energy and surpassed every other dog in her Puppy Prodigy training class. Unfortunately, her love for chasing birds could prove dangerous, for those she would assist. Fifteen months into her training, Ricochet was released, leaving a frustrated owner and a dog without a direction. Yet through a twist of fate, Judy realized that flunking out of school wasn’t the end of the world-and in fact, could be the beginning of a new one. Once Judy learned to let go and let Ricochet be who she really was, they found her true calling as a SURFice dog.
– by Judy Fridono
(succinct cut short due to length of the original succinct seen on Goodreads)
Genre: Non-fiction, Inspiration , Pet
Review:
The book features the amazing and inspiring life of Ricochet, A Female Golden Retriever, who is more magical than any Pet I have ever met or heard of. Ricochet was raised by the author in hopes of making her a Service dog so that she can help people with disabilities and yet Ricochet was a free spirit and had a habit of chasing Birds which is a strict “no” for a Service Dog and so with the authors dreams for Ricochet shattered her frustrations grew but in time she learns that Ricochet is destined to be a more relevant conduit for helping people than a Service Dog can ever be.
I first heard about Ricochet and this book thanks to the amazing Anne @ Inkedbrownies when she reviewed the book on her blog, which you should definitely check out. In case you didn’t here’s a video that Anne Posted on her review that truly told me about the story of Ricochet.
The Author manages to play the readers emotional chords by detailing the events that led to Ricochet helping people in her unique ways. Ricochet as the first SURFice dog Surfs with people with various disabilities bringing joy to those with the disabilities and their family member who are also in pain of those disabilities and while doing so She manages to raise funds for them to achieve their dreams with nothing but help of a Surf board and few smiles on sad faces that became Viral on social media and touched hearts of many well intentioned and good natured people around the globe.
It was truly difficult to continue reading this book with a straight face and there may have been tears *
*I think it was due to a bug flying into my eye or something .I didn’t cry!
My Throat at various point felt like it had a Lump*
*must be something I ate. I DIDN’T CRY OKAY!
OKAY maybe I cried.
The book though is much more than just Ricochet , it also details the hardships of the author that She herself felt all her life (and believe me when I say it her life itself was very rough) , there was also tales of another dog the adoptive elder sister of Ricochet – Rina (the pup that truly touched the author instead of Ricochet as she usually does for other people )and also about the tales of the people who were touched by Ricochet’s attempts at bringing them joy and forgetting their fears and about the many truly good human beings who helped the author and Ricochet in achieving what they eventually did . The story of Patrick and Ian in particular were really touching for me.
At Various points the author talks about Destiny, God, fate, and even talks about her somewhat superstitious beliefs in likes of Dog whisperer and she makes a strong case for her beliefs and sure it didn’t necessarily convert me from a skeptic to a believer but it really did make a valid case for you to believe in the mysterious workings of the world we live in.
Towards the end the author has a compilations’ of various images of the events mentioned in the book and the letters from the people who were helped by Ricochet and those were truly something brilliant to witness as you can see the smiles on faces that had maybe even forgotten all about it
Conclusions:
I don’t necessarily prefer reading Non- fiction but this is one book I’m very glad to have read and bought and I can’t stress enough that You should You MUST read this , especially if you are a Dog person like me , Or simply because you are a good human , Or maybe you need to be a good human.
Edited : I forgot to mention this initially , but the book shares a part of the income it generates from the book sale for various charity fund Ricochet is associated with , so one more reason to buy this book
Do share your feelings on my blog and this book if you have read it or intend to read it in future
and while you are at it why don’t give me a follow on Goodreads & twitter
Great review Rash and real men do shed manly tears at times, no shame in that! 😀
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Yep it only happens to the best of us 😁
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Ha! You two are cute. 🙂 Manly tears. lol Like there’s a difference between woman and man tears. 😂
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Of course there is, men don’t cry at the slightest little things! 😂
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I don’t cry when I read books. I must not have “womanly” tears. lol 😂
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Women cry over everything, oh look, I broke a nail, boohoo!😢 Men don’t and if Rash shed a manly tear over a book with a dog then that’s cool, dogs deserve a tear shed over them! 😠
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I do not cry over broken nails. Now you’re just being silly. 😂
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Ok i can see this comment drawing some kind of war now … I’m just gonna sit this one out
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Ah Dr Rash, it’s only me and Princess, it’s just harmless banter! 😂
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Why do i feel like My tears are being made fun of .😟
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We’re not making fun of you. I was giving Drew a hard time because he said manly tears. 😂
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i was just kidding , I know you people won’t make fun of me … right ? RIGHT?
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Haha! Never say never, Doc! But I reserve my special brand of snarky humor to torture Drew, so I think you’re safe for now. 😂 *laughs like the Joker* 😝
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Oh my god, this is beautiful Rash! I’m so glad you liked it as well :). And since you bought the book, you also helped Ricochet’s fundraising activities! The only con I felt for this book were the sometimes overly superstitious beliefs, but then again, what if it isn’t? Like you said, there are mysterious workings of the world we live in and sometimes coincidence just doesn’t cut it. Again, I love that you’ve read this! ❤
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And thank you for the shoutout as well of course! 🙂
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No. Thank YOU ! for making me know about the existence of such a Beautiful book about such an incredible dog
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Awwe ❤ You're very welcome!
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Yep as I said I wasn’t turned into a believer, after all I am both a Man of science and seen my fair share of shit in life to not believe in fate and destiny, but there were some valid arguments made
I love me for reading this
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For SCIENCE!! And destiny. I’m pretty sure they will join hands at one point in the future. You know, when destiny becomes science. Hahaha ❤
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Aww, you cried! 🙂 I’m glad you liked it enough to get choked up. This is not at all what I expected to find on your blog. Nice review, Doc! 🙂
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What an amazing video and what an incredible dog… Thank you for sharing this one, Rash:)
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Bow wow! Thank you for such a nice review.
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the pleasure was all mine,Thank you for writing such an incredible book , I hadn’t known how incredible Rina and Ricochet were before reading this ,now i can’t stop looking at their videos 😀
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