Moments With Baxter: Comfort and Love from the World's Best Therapy Dog

by: Melissa Joseph

Published by: Sage Press

Reviewed by Beth Cummings

Baxter is Melissa Joseph’s 19-year-old golden retriever and chow mix dog. She rescued him when he was two and has been sharing him as a therapy dog in San Diego, California for the past four years.

Baxter is a member of Therapy Dogs International (TDI), a group that certifies dogs that owners/handlers want to share as therapy dogs. It generally requires some training, but in Baxter’s case his life experiences turned into his training and he passed the rigorous TDI test perfectly his first time through. Some of the things that are required are the ability to accept cuddling and patting from strangers who may look and smell different from average people. Baxter works in a hospice setting, so all of his visits are to people in the immediate process of dying. A therapy dog needs the confidence to deal with that. They must also do somewhat normal obedience activities such as sitting and lying down and staying on command.

Moments with Baxter is mostly a series of vignettes involving Baxter’s visits with real people at San Diego Hospice and Pomerado Hospital in San Diego. There are thirty-six stories complete with color photos taken by Melissa Joseph’s husband, Dennis Bussey, plus an introduction that explains how Baxter got started in therapy work and a couple short chapters at the end explaining more about the process of becoming a therapy dog handler.

Because I also own a dog that is certified for therapy work through TDI, I was pleased to be able to review this book. It is quite touching in many places – especially for a dog lover. And, not as a spoiler, Baxter is still alive at the end of the book. I did feel that Melissa Joseph gushed a wee bit much about Baxter’s uncanny ability to really relate to the hospice patients and their family, but not so much as to deter the reader who might chose to pick up this book.

An important note is that all proceeds from the book will be donated to charitable causes.

Armchair Interviews says: A 5-star memoir that will touch your heart.

Author’s Web site: http://www.MomentsWithBaxter.com