Book Reviews

Book Review - The ANGEL by My Side
By Rue Chagoll, Golden Retriever Rescue of Central NY

The ANGEL by My Side, by Mike Lingenfelter & David Frei *

Prescribed: One Golden Retriever.  Companionship morning, noon and night for treatment of acute clinical depression.

Mike Lingenfelter was despondent, angry at the world.  Psychologically, he beckoned death.  A self-described type-A personality, he’d been forced to abandon a successful professional career by two heart attacks and unstable angina.  He couldn’t work or travel.  He couldn’t even leave the house un-chaperoned. The proud provider had become totally dependent, a burden to his family.

“I was helpless, at the mercy of my weakened heart…the doctors had told me that I wasn’t going to get better…and now they wanted me to get a dog?  Great.”

So Dakota – “Cody,” a rescued Golden Retriever, entered his life.  Initially resenting the intrusion of this “obnoxious” Golden obsessed with a favorite toy frog, Mike grudgingly and gradually accepts him. Thus begins an unimaginable odyssey in which the pair literally save each other’s lives.

Cody works his therapeutic finesse, lifting Mike’s spirits.  Then comes the real magic.  Cody pesters him incessantly, for no apparent reason.  Moments later Mike contorts and collapses with an angina attack.  After repeated similar incidents he begins to suspect Cody is demonstrating powers yet to be understood by medicine or science.  Cody seems able to predict his angina attacks. With such warning, Mike is able to take medication and otherwise limit the severity of these debilitating episodes.  With this newly found safeguard, he recovers some independence.  He and Cody begin making therapy visits.  Eventually Mike starts back to work, Cody accompanying him to the office and on trips.  As their story becomes known, Cody receives numerous honors, including recognition from the Delta Society.  Along the way they meet David Frei, familiar as the expert television commentator for the Westminster Kennel Club show, who co-authors their story.

Then, suddenly, the bubble of happily-ever-after is burst.  Cody is diagnosed with a highly aggressive cancer, accompanied by a prognosis of death within months.  But a now re-energized Mike vows not to relent, journeying cross-country to obtain expert care for his beloved friend.  With a regimen of state-of-the-art treatment from veterinary oncologists, another miracle befalls them – Cody’s cancer is stalled into remission. 

Lingenfelter says he was compelled to record the miracle of his experience with Cody to lend hope and inspiration to others.  In so doing, their story will have you on an emotional roller coaster. At the conclusion, you’ll not know whether to stand up and cheer or sit down and cry, and likely you’ll do both.  But The ANGEL by My Side is much more than a feel-good, tear-jerking diary.  It will endure as a classic testament to the precious and tender spirituality of the canine/human bond. -Rue Chagoll