Review: Great Pyranees to the Rescue
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 11 13, 2013
My dearest Lucie, a Great Pyranees, is still in my heart like she was sleeping at my feet today, and she died 15 years ago. I got her from the local Humane Shelter ( a crazy woman told her vet to put her down because the woman's collie "didn't get along with" the Great Pyr) I had Lucie for 11 years, and every page of "Noel" made me think of her. Noble, warm, sweet, She rescued 2 kids from falling off a bridge, another one from walking into a huge walk-in fireplace at a winter lodge in the northwoods. She had no "rescue" training, and like Noel, had only the instinct to protect sheep or other farm animals in her care, and sh was never on a farm to even meet, smell, or touch such animals! Yet, like Noel, she sensed trouble, especially in these 2 instances when there were children in danger, and she blocked the kids' access to the bridge, and in the other, she head-butted the little boy, causing him to sit down, and then she sat on his feet, until his negligent mother suddenly heard the boy crying and she came running. It took several witnesses' explanations to convince her that Lucie did not "attack" her son, but had, rather, saved his life! I love Noel, too! She saved this young mother and her baby with no "rescue" training, only the instinct to guard her animals, primarily sheep, who are often introduced in the actual Pyrranees Mountains to Great Pyrs when the pups are not even fully weaned. The pups are (or were, 25 years ago) nursed by a mother sheep along with her lamb, making the dog/sheep bond even closer. Yet my Lucie, just like Noel, sensed a frail human in danger, in extraordinary circumstances, and left the farm animals and saved 2 human lives. Too bad "Noel" wasn't a 300-page book full of Noel stories! The writing style was sort of folksy, but the subject went well with that. I loved it.