He decided to get her a Pomeranian puppy but tragically the dog died within days of the young couple welcoming him into their home, with Molly- Mae tearfully revealing that the dog, who they called Mr Chai - passed away due to his skull not being fully developed. In a previous job, I actually selected all the books that went into both PetSmart and Petco for three years. At that time I didn't actually have a pet, which made me somewhat unbiased. But honestly, I am biased towards cats, even when I haven't owned one. Yet most books published are about dogs. (Yes, you can argue there are more dog owners, but there are more cats as pets as cat owners more often have multiples. We have two.) So when I saw my company was publishing yet another dog book, at first I nearly scrolled right by it, but the subtitle caught my eye. Wait--what? This is a book about a dog who finds cats? Yep! She had just started to find her feet in our home, a loving, caring home where she was adored, where she had company and care, food and peace, where she could have had another 10 wonderful years of learning that life can be good and that not every human she comes across is a bad person.” To each their own, these are real people who have every right to happiness in their relationship, etc. but I don't want to read about this particular relationship dynamic, especially when it involves someone being a jerk to a precious dog. Doubly so, this annoys me when excuse after excuse is made and praise heaped upon Sarah for ultimately accepting Molly. Wow, congrats, she reached the baseline of not being mean to an innocent dog anymore. Someone give her a cookie! 🙄 Every mention of Sarah just dragged the book down for me, perhaps because she made such a sour first impression that I just couldn't care less about the 'progress' she made. Nor could I understand why Butcher would put up with her nonsense when they were clearly very differently aligned on the dog lover vs. dog hater spectrum. Colin’s passion for writing started as a child in Singapore. When at the age of seven his school essay on the field study of Fire Ants received the award for best story and most improved handwriting. ”I strutted around my school as if I had won the Nobel Prize in Literature as opposed to a hand writing competition” he has said. "It really was a pivotal moment for me, having my work recognised at such a young age had such a big impact, from then on I recorded field notes on all the interesting adventures I had with my brother and read every book I could get my hands on.”

Thanks to NetGalley and Celadon Books for the advanced copy of Molly, a fascinating and heartwarming book in return for an honest review.An amphibious kid with a heart of gold and a propensity for silliness. She can fly and can move stuff with her brain. I am so excited to find another book worthy of going in my dogs-favorite-books shelf. This will be the sixty-first one I have added to that category out of the 493 dog books I have read so far. Molly is a great book whether you are a cat or a dog fan. Some books only have one big climax where the animal is reunited with its owners. Here there are multiple peaks to enjoy crossing over. You also get to hear about many cases of missing animals. Not all of them have happy endings so beware. I also didn't know that in England dog theft is a big criminal activity to the point where the author's agency doesn't get involved much anymore after all the credible death threats they have received.

She appears later in the book, being taught adverbs alongside her siblings. She helps Li'l Petey, 80-HD, and her siblings draw on Munchy and scare him away. She subsequently saves Dog Man, Chief, Sarah, and Zuzu along with Flippy. But for a long time, Colin was the only one who believed in the idea. It took him years to find anyone who thought it was possible to train a dog in such a way, and even longer to find anyone with the ability to train a dog in cat detection. But he didn’t give up. He found the right trainers, and then, eventually, they found the right dog. If my cat EMMA is ever lost, I will be flying Pet Detective duo Colin Butcher, and his rescue dog, Molly, FIRST CLASS , to Gilbert, AZ to find her! There were also far too many moments where the author painted former clients in a rather negative light or used wording I found a bit abrasive and unsettling. It would've been perfectly acceptable in fiction, but left me uncomfortable thinking about how these real people might feel to see themselves discussed in such a way. Most of them were paying clients, some of them the family thereof, and I felt it weighed the book down to see such caricatures of actual people rather than either more nuanced (or more favourable yet vague) descriptions.

Molly : The True Story of the Amazing Dog Who Rescues Cats tells the heartwarming story of the man-and-dog team behind the United Kingdom Pet Detective Agency—how Colin, in need of a new lease on life, rescues Molly the dog, and how Molly in turn rescues many more beloved lost pets. Unsurprisingly, the atmosphere around the breakfast table that morning was fraught. A teary Lindsey was inconsolable—“How can I carry on without Simba?” she kept repeating—and both parents, sitting on either side of their daughter, tried their utmost to reassure her.’ I was unaware that anything like the United Kingdom Pet Detective Agency (UKPD) actually exists. Had this been a work of fiction I would think that the idea of a dog trained to find lost cats to be intriguing but far fetched and unbelievable. This is an interesting and informative true story.