My husband and I purchased the book as a gift for our son to read on our vacation to Marthas Vineyard. It is a loving tribute to Mr. Shields golden retriver Bear and his mother Honeybear. It highlights the darkest days of September 11,2001 but it also speaks to the loving bond between a man and his dog. This is a story for the whole family. I have now purchased several more copies to donate to our school and our library.

It is obvious that Nancy West is a very clever and talented writer. Her ability to infuse Scott Shield's story with pathos and make a heart-rendering portrait of Bear is impressive. Too bad the character she chose to write about has turned out to be so much less than her words and book suggest. Her central character Shields has turned out to be a teller of tall talls in real life, and uses this book to misrepresent himself as a "great hero" of 911. Mr. Shields should stick to the facts of Ms. West's book and stop inventing stories such as "commanding" search teams at Ground Zero, calling himself a "Captain",saying that his dog made live finds and saved the most victims at 9/11.(Good grief even this book says he was only there for 3 days!) This guy even introduces his current untrained dog, Theodore, as Bear's son and parades him around in a search vest. Mr. Shields should try reading his author, Ms. West's, "notes to the reader" on this page so he can learn the facts of his own story. Please, Mr. Shields, stop trying to deceive the public with your tall tales. I give Ms. West's writing "2" stars. Shields character "0"

This is a great book about Bear (and Scott Shields) and how they happened to be at the WTC site shortly after the 9/11 attack. The work they did for some time. People that have their doubts about this book should first of all read it from cover to cover and than check the many references this books gives. I strongly doubt that any of the "nay sayers" have actually done so. Unfortunately there is a lot of "hash-wash" going around the Internet about 9/11. This book is a great account of somebody that has been at the sence and wrote about it. Confirmed by other people that were there and sacrified their time and as many of them have learned later, their health...

What a heartwarming story of the love between a man and his dog! This book will make you smile....and make you teary - eyed. I look forward to Scott Shield's next book(hopefully) starring Theodore(able)!

When I read this book, I had a hard time understanding why Mr. Shields was considered to be such a hero. He subjected his elderly, untrained, 11-year old dog to the one of the worst disaster sites in history. It is sadly ironic that Shields essentially killed his trusting old dog in order to find dead people (who would have been located at some point anyhow during the recovery process). Additionally, as a search and rescue professional myself, I know untrained responders are a liability in any search, regardless of the size and situation. Not only might they become "victims" themselves, they run the risk of putting trained rescuers in danger. I feel this book encourages this type of response, and at the same time represents someone as a hero who clearly is not. If you are interested in reading a book about real search and rescue dogs and their efforts at the WTC, do not consider purchasing this one.