Saving Zasha

Saving Zasha
by Randi Barrow
5/5 stars
Reviewer: Roberta

Summary:

This is the story of a close-knit family, the Tarkovs consisting of Mrs. Tarkov, sons Mikhail and Nikolai, and daughter Rina, who live on a farm in Soviet Russia at the end of World War II.  Mr. Tarkov went off to fight the war and has not been heard from in two years.  The family hopes that he is still alive.

One day, the two boys find a dying man and his dog, a beautiful German shepherd named Zasha.  It is dangerous to have anything German after the war, so after the man dies and Mrs. Tarkov is persuaded to let the boys keep the dog, but she must be in hiding so that no one finds her and turns the family in for having a “German” dog.  The boys fix up hiding places for Zasha and successfully hide her from dog thieves and drunken soldiers returning home from the war.  They spend a lot of time training her so that she is a faithful and well-trained dog. Even a noisy Katia, daughter of the village’s newspaper owner, who suspects the Tarkovs have a dog is kept away from Zasha.

 But there is news to deal with.  First, Zasha is having puppies.  Second, the wife of the dying man they found is coming to the village and Mrs. Tarkov says that Zasha belongs to her. Will Mikhail and his family be able to keep Zasha and her puppies? Find out in this riviting story that you won;t be able to put down!

Review:This was a heart-warming story about a family overcoming adversity.  The book moved along nicely and was never boring.  Historically, it gave you a good view of post WWII Soviet Russia.  The post script gave the interesting truth about dogs in post WWII Soviet Union.  There were almost no dogs left alive.  Starvation, abandonment, illness and injury plus service in the military left the Soviets with hardly any dogs left.  The Soviet government did establish a program to create a new Russian dog.  This task was given to a soldier and a biologist.  Over a hundred dogs were used in seventeen breeds to finally produce “the black pearl of Russia”- the Black Russian terrier.  First introduced to the public in 1955, the American Kennel Club finally recognized the dog as a new breed in the working class in 2004.