Rescue Me: My Life with the Battersea Dogs

Melissa Wareham

Jan 2013 · Ebury Digital · Narrated by Melissa Wareham

About this audiobook

Melissa Wareham always wanted to work with dogs. After failing her biology O-level she realised she'd have to start at the bottom, cleaning out kennels at Battersea Dogs Home.

From frail old men looking for a four-legged companion to famous folk who've lost their favourite hound, it seemed that at some point everyone passes through Battersea's doors. Amongst the clamour of thousands of lost pets crying 'Rescue Me!' and the noise of the railway lines above, Melissa found she had come home.

The first dog Melissa fell for was Tulip, a sweet, elderly and somewhat dotty mongrel who decided a solo bus ride into the West End might be fun. Next up was Roscoe: found by the ambulance team with his dead owner, he is rehabilitated with a little help from his master's hat. And then - many, many dogs later - there is Gus. With his owner in jail, Melissa finally finds the dog she is to take home as her own.

Heart-warming and compulsively readable, Rescue Me is Melissa's memoir of her fifteen years at Britain's most-loved dogs' home.

About the author

Melissa Wareham spent fifteen years at Battersea Dogs Home, from February 1988 to September 2004. Her first job was as a kennel maid at the age of eighteen. She went on to become their rehoming manager and - as the BBC discovered the 'power of Battersea' - she became the TV face of the organisation appearing on Pet Rescue, The Big Breakfast, Kilroy, GMTV, Battersea Dogs Home (BBC), Style Challenge, Motormouth, The Generation Game and various interviews for news programs including London Tonight, BBC local news and Sky News.