Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    Walking Ollie
    Unavailable
    Walking Ollie
    Unavailable
    Walking Ollie
    Ebook135 pages2 hours

    Walking Ollie

    By Stephen Foster

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    One winter's afternoon, Stephen Foster walked into a dog re-homing centre with the intention of picking up a retired greyhound. Instead, he acquired an abandoned lurcher pup. Foster's knowledge of dogs was so vague that he had to look up 'lurcher' in key reference work The Giant Book of the Dog, to find out what sort of animal was coming to join the family. His research counted for little: the new arrival did not conform to any known breed standard, or indeed any standard whatsoever that might be considered dog-normal Walking Ollie is a hilarious - and often heartrending - account of one man's attempt to turn a psychotic wild animal into something resembling a domestic pet.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherShort Books Ltd
    Release dateJan 1, 2010
    ISBN9781907595240
    Unavailable
    Walking Ollie
    Author

    Stephen Foster

    Stephen Foster, Presidential Research Professor of history at Northern Illinois University, is author of Their Solitary Way: The Puritan Social Ethic in the First Century of Settlement in New England and Notes from the Caroline Underground: Alexander Leighton, the Puritan Triumvirate, and the Laudian Reaction to Nonconformity.

    Read more from Stephen Foster

    Related to Walking Ollie

    Related ebooks

    Biography & Memoir For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Just Do Your Best

      Mar 26, 2020

      “Hello, I’d like to make an appointment for one of our dogs to see one of your vets this morning, please,” I said. “Certainly, which dog is it?” enquired the receptionist. “Moss,” I replied. “Aww Mossy,” she beamed. “We love Mossy.” Moss has his fans

      5 min read

    • Article

      What Was It All About, Dear Alfie?

      Dec 3, 2019

      I had walked the big lad that morning as usual and he was his old mischievous self, bounding around with Molly, our chocolate lab. A few hours later Eddy, an old stalking friend, who had spent many an outing in Alfie’s company, called to stay for a f

      4 min read

    • Article

      My Lost Dog Heartbreak

      Oct 14, 2019

      My Lost Dog Heartbreak
      4 min read

    • Article

      Wonderful-world!

      Feb 17, 2022

      Wonderful-world!
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Much Maligned Elephant

      Aug 12, 2019

      The Much Maligned Elephant
      3 min read

    • Article

      Allison Pearson

      Aug 29, 2019

      Fifteen years ago this month, I fell in love. My husband knew all about it although he did warn me not to get involved. I didn’t listen, I was a woman possessed. I drove to Luton to meet him. The first time he saw me, he jumped up and licked my ear.

      3 min read

    • Article

      My Loyal Companion

      Mar 16, 2020

      Fifteen years ago, I fell in love. My husband knew all about it, although he did warn me not to get involved. I didn’t listen, I was a woman possessed. I drove to a nearby town to meet him. The first time he saw me, he jumped up and licked my ear. Wh

      3 min read

    • Article

      Celeb Spot!

      Jun 16, 2022

      Celeb Spot!
      4 min read

    • Article

      When It’s Time To Say Goodbye

      May 24, 2023

      I bought a black labrador puppy in 2010. Having grown up in a house full of dogs, I knew what to expect from a four-legged friend, but this was the first dog that ever truly belonged to me. She gave me endless fun for all of 13 years, and she passed

      4 min read

    • Article

      I Can Speak Cat!

      Jan 30, 2020

      I Can Speak Cat!
      2 min read

    • Article

      Pocket-sized Dynamite

      Jun 1, 2021

      Pocket-sized Dynamite
      3 min read

    • Article

      Closure

      Jan 20, 2020

      Closure
      8 min read

    • Article

      Happy birthday, Darling

      Dec 30, 2020

      DARLING, our English pointer, turns 127 (in dog years) this week. I am proud to report that she can still manage a definite, if slightly shaky, point. Moreover, my response, as I don’t shoot, still annoys her. She will stand, one paw raised, nose dir

      2 min read

    • Article

      The Naughtiest Dog

      Nov 14, 2019

      The Naughtiest Dog
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Alpaca EXPERIENCE

      May 25, 2021

      The Alpaca EXPERIENCE
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Shy One

      Aug 18, 2022

      The Shy One
      3 min read

    • Article

      Dog Days

      Jan 23, 2022

      Dog Days
      8 min read

    • Article

      Cat’s Whispers

      Jul 7, 2022

      Cat’s Whispers
      6 min read

    • Article

      Hear Meowt

      Feb 20, 2020

      There’s nothing harder than bidding your four-legged friend farewell and sending them to the rainbow bridge. The end of our pets’ lives is unfortunately something that most of us deal with at least once throughout our lives. So, what if we could clon

      2 min read

    • Article

      Molly

      Mar 27, 2018

      It must have been 2006. Molly was the last pup left of the litter, all on her own, barking madly in a soundproof glass case in a god-awful pet barn on the Gold Coast, when deliverance appeared in the form of my stepdaughter Adrianna. Ana reckons the

      3 min read

    • Article

      Animal House

      Dec 18, 2020

      I NOTICED, WHEN OUR CHILDREN were babies, that my husband developed an under-documented condition called ‘chronic night-related deafness’. This meant that as soon as daylight disappeared, so did his hearing. He was utterly unable tohear anything othe

      3 min read

    • Article

      When DOGS GRIEVE

      Oct 4, 2022

      When DOGS GRIEVE
      4 min read

    • Article

      Start Of The Season

      Mar 5, 2020

      Start Of The Season
      4 min read

    • Article

      What Is a Dog?

      Mar 5, 2018

      What Is a Dog?
      16 min read

    • Article

      Paul Is Always With Me

      May 4, 2021

      Paul Is Always With Me
      4 min read

    • Article

      Nature’s Gentle Giants

      Jun 12, 2020

      ‘I CAN’T hear anything.” “Nothing at all?” “Honestly, just feedback. Wasn’t his last point here?” “Oh, but that point was very early this morning. Let’s look for him.” I sighed and took the radio receiver from my ear. I was tracking a male elephant n

      8 min read

    • Article

      Sexual Tension

      Jun 5, 2023

      Sexual Tension
      13 min read

    • Article

      Trust The Deer Dog

      Mar 7, 2023

      Trust The Deer Dog
      5 min read

    Reviews for Walking Ollie

    3.5/5

    28 ratings5 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 2/5
      Dumb, loveable dog, stupid dog owner, boring book! Don't bother with it - there are too many good stories out there waiting to be read.
    • 3/5
      his book documents the first couple of years of Stephen Foster's adoption of Ollie, who was a lurcher pup he and his partner picked up from The Dogs Trust.What struck a chord with me, when reading, was that it was emphatically not all plain sailing for the Fosters - Ollie obviously had some real issues to deal with, and unfortunately Stephen Foster clearly seemed to remind the poor dog of some unpleasant incident with males early on in his life.Having said that the book struck a chord with me, and pausing to applaud Foster's openly self-mocking wit, there are times when I don't necessarily agree with the author's philosophy on life/dogs and such. But for the most part this is an amazingly honest book, and his recounting of the dark, dark days when Ollie was at his most troublesome certainly rang true to me.One point of note - the book is published by 'Short Books', and believe me, they're not kidding. It's less than 200 pages of medium type with generous margins - hey, sometimes less is, indeed, more, but for the asking price, it's kinda pushing it.Rather oddly for a 'man meets dog' book, this doesn't chart the full history of Ollie's life - when the book's postscript update closes, Ollie's still there, and obviously much more adjusted to life chez Foster than he was at the start.
    • 3/5
      The British Marley. I didn't find this book as enchanting as Marley and Me, but that may have been partially because of the cultural divide between American and English dog owners (prior to reading this book I didn't realize there was one). Author Foster goes on and on about the importance of letting dogs off leash to play with other dogs and to run free, and then his frustration as he spends hours trying to catch the dog. Hours. Every time they walk. At least where I live, it's not legal to have your dog off leash unless you are on your own property or at a dog park, and the nearest dog park is a 2 hour round trip. Which might not matter to Foster, with the amount of time he's out with Ollie - luckily he writes from home, and it doesn't seem to bother him that he's not actually doing much work (at one point he admits to spending most of his daylight hours walking Ollie). So there might be a financial divide too. Still, the book did have some amusing parts, and Ollie does have his charm, particularly in his love of running and all other dogs, and readers will root for Ollie to come out of his shell.
    • 5/5
      A beautiful story about a rescued puppy with a few little problems. Heartwarming and funny all the way through, not to mention that Ollie is absolutely beautiful.
    • 3/5
      Any dog owner who reads this will thank their lucky stars they dont own 'Ollie'!Good fun read but slight and ends rather abruptly.