Cracker!
By Cynthia Kadohata
Summary
This good book is about a dog with a normal life that gets sent to Vietnam for the war. She supposed to sniff bombs and weapon caches and even enemies. Rick is a town boy whose parents own a hardware store. He wants to show everyone he can "whip the world". Rick signs up to be a dog handler in Vietnam. So in training Rick gets partnered with Cracker. She doesn't really like anyone but Rick because he keeps giving her hot dogs. They train and they train until one day When they go to Vietnam. Their first task is to fill sandbags. but Cracker saved many lives during a top secret mission and search and destroy missions. One day they get assigned to emptying a village but are under fire. When Rick gets hit in the leg with shrapnel, Cracker is off chasing a rat. While Rick is getting his leg fixed in surgery Cracker had someone capture her, escaped, got so thirsty she thought she might die, and found the camp where Rick and his buddies were at but it was so dark and gloomy and these weren't the people like rick these people took over the camp. While rick gets sent stateside for rehab he is determined to find Cracker, Even if that means going back to Vietnam. Cracker finds another camp where Ricks friend Cody sees her. ( This is during the end of the war so so many dogs are being put down and only few are getting sent back to the States.) So Cody (Also a dog handler.)
gets his dog, Bruno checked out and he is being put down. Cracker also gets checked out by the vet and she gets to go home! Cody calls Rick to tell him and what plane she is on. so the next day cracker is in her pet taxi when she goes through the airport. So Rick calls the former owner of the dog, Willie who is just a kid used to own Cracker.
and the boy and Rick have an emotional moment then Rick is carrying cracker because she is still disoriented with the meds the doc gave her and Willie is carrying her pet taxi.
They get to Ricks car and Cracker is riding shotgun and Rick is driving and the car breaks down so he pops the hood fixes it and they drive off.
Why Someone Should Read It.
If you like historical fiction about war and love dogs then i suggest this book.
A German Shepard Dog
A K9 Unit
Above is a K9 unit Going down on ropes from a helicopter.