Faithful Shep:

Description

PAPERBACK EDITION

The Story of a Hero Dog and the Nine Texas Rangers Who Saved Him

In a column in the El Paso Herald dated February 3, 1900, George Wythe Baylor, retired captain of Company C, Frontier Battalion, Texas Rangers, wrote of a curious incident that occurred in January 1880: two travelers had their horses stolen by a band of Chief Victorio’s renegades a hundred miles east of El Paso. In the dead of a rainy and cold West Texas winter, the two men walked all the way back to beg the Rangers to return to the scene with them and rescue their dog, Shep, a black German Shepherd whom they had left alone in the desert to stand watch over their property. From this odd footnote in history, Don DeNevi, author of more than thirty published titles, has imagined a gripping tale of heroism, sacrifice, and fidelity that celebrates the best in human nature – and canine nature, as well.

Faithful Shep: The Story of a Hero Dog and the Nine Texas Rangers Who Saved Him is a novel based on true events from the Texas frontier: a time when the young town of El Paso eagerly awaited the coming of the railroads and when the bold and desperate Victorio threatened both sides of the Rio Grande in open defiance of the US Army, the Texas Rangers, and the Mexican territorial militia.

This is the story of a dog named Shep, the two men who loved him, the nine Texas Rangers who rode into danger to save him – and the surprising way in which Shep returned the favor.

About the Author
Don DeNevi has authored more than 30 nonfiction histories and biographies, including his favorite, Junipero Serra – The Franciscan Founder of the California Missions. Faithful Shep is DeNevi’s first work of historical fiction. Having retired from the Criminology Department at San Francisco State University where he taught courses on understanding the criminal mind, he returned to work as Supervisor of Recreation at San Quentin State Prison in Northern California’s Marin County. He also served as the prison historian. He now lives in Pebble Beach, California where he continues to write when he isn’t playing tennis.