Exclusive interview with author Pen Farthing and a review of his new inspiring true story about saving the stray dogs in Afghanistan
Rating: 4 stars
By Gabrielle Pantera
“Everything I wrote about actually happened to me while I was there,” says One Dog at a Time author Pen Farthing. “I can still visualize events like it was yesterday. Especially the bad times, we did not all come home. I kept a diary during the tour of duty just for something to do during our limited downtime.”
In a remote compound during his tour of duty in Afghanistan in 2007, Farthing was adopted by Nowzad, an earless dog that had been used for dog-fighting. “I was totally at a loss as to how there was any hope I could ever give him a loving home in the West with me,” says Farthing. “I thought he was destined to fight again or starve when nobody was interested in him anymore.”
Miracles began to happen. A way was found to smuggle Nowzad across Afghanistan. “I still had no idea how it would end.” Would Nowzad make it safely to Farthing’s home in the UK?
Farthing shares insights into the harsh realities of war and the living conditions for soldiers trying to survive in a combat zone. You may shed a tear or two, especially over the brutal reality of life for the fighting dogs in this book. Hopefully, the changes for the better in the lives of these dogs can show the people in the Helmand Province that life can change for them too.
As a British Royal Marine deployed in war-torn Afghanistan, Pen Farthing’s main focus is to survive. It isn’t an easy place to rescue stray animals. Farthing and other members of his 20-man Marine platoon risk their lives to save dogs that have suffered a cruel life. This intervention saves dogs from dogfights and other challenges they face to stay alive in the war-torn country.
Pen Farthing is a retired Royal Marine. He recently finished writing No Place like Home, the sequel to One Dog at a Time. Farthing says he’s focused on the charity Nowzad Dogs and developing a humane trap and neuter release program to implement in Afghanistan this year. Farthing’s next adventure is working as a mountaineering instructor. “Later this year I am going to combine my climbing passion with the Nowzad charity.”
No Place Like Home came out in trade paperback in the UK February 2011.
Farthing lives in southwest England, near Plymouth. He was born in Harwich, a small port town on the south east coast of England. “Sadly it is flat farmland, no mountains and I love mountains,” says Farthing. “So, I don’t go back much.”
One Dog at a Time: Saving the Strays of Afghanistan by Pen Farthing. Hardback, 320 pages, Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books; 1 edition (August 3, 2010). Language: English ISBN-13: 978-0312607746
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