Where the Trail Grows Faint: A Year in the Life of a Therapy Dog Team (River Teeth Literary Nonfiction Prize)

"This is Hannah," Lynne Hugo introduces her chocolate Labrador retriever to an aged woman in a wheelchair at the Golden View Nursing Home. "Would you like to pat her?" "I don't know," she responds warily. "Dogs are complicated." So, of course, is life, especially as the years accumulate and the body declines. In fact, the most painful complications are those that Hugo hopes to ease with Hannah, her exuberant therapy dog. What Hugo receives in return, unexpectedly, is an outpouring of stories as the residents respond to Hannah’s antics and affection. As Hugo’s involvement deepens, she begins to see her own life and her care for her elderly parents in a new perspective. Interweaving the elders’ tales—of old loves and ancient dreams, abandonment and loneliness, and the struggle for dignity—with her own family’s story, she creates a richly textured collective portrait of the often-hidden world of the aged. At the same time, she crafts an eloquent meditation on the fundamental human need to nurture and remain connected to other people, to animals, and to the natural world.

“This is Hannah,” Lynne Hugo introduces her chocolate Labrador retriever to an aged woman in a wheelchair at the Golden View Nursing Home. “Would you like to pat her?”

“I don’t know,” the woman responds warily. “Dogs are complicated.”

So, of course, is life, especially as the years accumulate and the body declines. In fact, it is precisely the most painful complications that Hugo hopes to ease with Hannah, her exuberant therapy dog.

Where the Trail Grows Faint is the story of Hugo’s experiences with Hannah and the elderly patients they visit. In return for their visits, Hugo unexpectedly receives an outpouring of stories as the residents respond to Hannah’s antics and affection. As Hugo’s involvement deepens, she begins to see her own life and her care for her elderly parents in a new perspective. Interweaving the elders’ tales—of old loves and ancient dreams, abandonment and loneliness, and the struggle for dignity—with her own family’s story, she creates a richly textured collective portrait of the often-hidden world of the aged. At the same time, she crafts an eloquent meditation on the fundamental human need to nurture and remain connected to other people, to animals, and to the natural world.

CC: Connecticut College Magazine

Where the Trail Grows Faint is not just a book about a woman and her therapy dog, but a story of life, death, hope and the joy and comfort that animals can bring.

— Mary Howard, CC: Connecticut College Magazine

Ostensibly a book about therapy dogs, this thoughtful work also looks at the shortcomings of nursing-home life. Dog lovers will enjoy the antics of Hugo's chocolate Lab, who is a great icebreaker at a home, and will learn that dogs needn't be perfectly behaved to be good in their role (far from it, in this case). Readers also learn that residents too often can be neglected by family, even those who live nearby, and that the effects of this neglect are huge in already severely circumscribed lives. Teens volunteering, or contemplating it, at nursing homes and hospitals, as well as social-studies students, will get a great deal out of this sympathetic volume and will be much more understanding and able to help residents/patients in practical but small ways An exuberant therapy dog returns the joy of living to nursing home residents and the tales of the elders--interwoven with the author's own family story--create a collective portrait of the world of the aged "Hey! Is my husband here?" demands an ancient woman in a wheelchair as I'm searching for the activity coordinator who will orient me as the first animal-assisted therapist in the Golden View Nursing Home.