Cormac: The Tale of a Dog Gone Missing is every dog guardians’ nightmare. A beloved family member, Cormac, goes missing and the trail leads to the local animal shelter. That should be the end of the story but the shelter workers deny ever having seen Cormac.

I won’t give any more away except to tell you that the hunt for Cormac leads Brewer far beyond his southern Alabama home.

As I read through Sonny Brewer’s telling of his emotional rollercoaster I kept thinking how sadly disjointed the animal control situation is in so many areas. While there are MANY excellent, dedicated animal control workers who do the job many of us (including me) could not do, Cormac shines a light on those shelters manned by people who are not concerned with the dogs and their families. And before you bark in at me to protest that is not fair, remember I said there are MANY great animal control folks. But having a former animal control officer in the family, I also know the seamy side of some of the people entrusted with caring for our furfriends.

Cormac reminded me of how far we have to go in educating some people as to the best care for dogs, as well as how much dogs mean to many of us. I cringed as I read some of Brewer’s friends’ comments about dogs and their supposed interchangeability. So while Cormac is ultimately a positive story, the undercurrent of how dogs are seen as almost home and truck accessories was very depressing.

In general, Cormac is an excellent cautionary tale of how beloved dogs can disappear into a spotty system.