My Life Among the Underdogs

A Memoir

By: Tia Torres

Narrated by: Tia Torres

From one of the most respected figures in the dog rescue community come the harrowing, funny, and inspiring stories of nine incredible dogs that shaped her life.

Tia Torres, beloved underdog advocate and star of Animal Planets hit show Pit Bulls & Parolees, chronicles her roller-coaster life in this heartwarming memoir featuring some of her best-loved dogs. With inimitable honesty and characteristic brashness, Tia captures the spirit and heart of these intelligent and loving canines, while carrying us behind the scenes of her TV show, into the heart of post-Katrina New Orleans, onto the soundstages of Hollywood films, and even to the jungles of Sri Lanka.

Tia has devoted her life to shattering the stereotype that Pit Bulls are dangerous, vicious predators. As the top dog at the Villalobos Rescue Center in New Orleans, the largest Pit Bull rescue in the United States, she and her team have rescued, rehabilitated, and re-homed hundreds of animals that might otherwise have been destroyed. As she puts it, Most of the stories in this book are about animals (and a few humans) that needed someone to believe in them and a purpose in order to show their true nobility.

Each dog Tia writes about here has overcome abuse, trauma, neglect, or just bad luck to become a stalwart, loving companion to Tia and her family. You'll meet Duke, whose intelligence and matinee-idol looks made him a star in movies and music videos; Junkyard Joe, whose singleminded passion for tennis balls was channeled into expertise as a drug-sniffing dog; Bluie, the unswerving protector of Tia's daughter Tania; and a host of other unforgettable canines.

My Life Among the Underdogs is above all a love story one that is sure to grip the heart of anyone who has ever owned or been owned by a dog.

Tia Torres and a life in dog rescue

I think it's fair to say Tia Torres, founder and head of Villalobos Rescue Center, has lived a varied and interesting life. She has, especially, known a lot of wonderful, challenging, and interesting dogs.

She tells her story organized around those dogs--Cougar, Duke, Moose, Lucky, and others, in California and in Louisiana. The rescue started as a wolf and wolf mix rescue, and the shift to pit bulls was gradual and almost accidental. Working with wolves and, as a trainer for the entertainment industry, with a variety of large and dangerous animals, she developed a confidence and an awareness of body language that helped her both to work with dogs, and to establish her reputation with the rescue community.

Her more chaotic and unreliable relationships with her fellow human beings also helped to focus her attentions and efforts on dogs.

Torres is a great storyteller, and in both the writing and the reading she makes her experiences compelling and absorbing. Yet she's also a very private person, and there are a lot of things I'd be interested to know more about, that she simply passes over. She respects her own privacy, and doesn't share what she doesn't want to share. Nor is she overly concerned about linear storytelling. Each of the chapters is orderly in itself, but the arrangement of them is more a flowing from theme to theme, than starting at the beginning of her story and continuing on to the present time. Sometimes this means we get two different perspectives on the same incident, how it seemed at the time, and how it seemed later, after more reflection and/or more information.

Because this is a book about Tia Torres' lifetime in animal rescue, it unavoidably involves some dogs, some dogs very important to her and to her four children, dying. There's no avoiding it in telling her story properly, but for some people, who would otherwise love the book, that will be a deal-breaker. That's unfortunate, but neither do I want to trick anyone into starting a book that they won't be able to enjoy and finish.

It's an excellent book, though, and highly recommended.

I bought this audiobook.

We need more

This heart rendering memoir left me hungry for more. The story of a very exceptional woman and her family living extraordinary lives. Thank you Tia for sharing. We love you..

loooooved this book!!

I am a huge fan of the show, of Tia and her family and most importantly of the dogs! This book made me cry due to the fact that I am so close with my own fur babies. The book gave a lot of insight on the joy and pain of having a dog rescue. I was hooked the second I started listening! Great job Tia!

Stayed up all night listening to this💙💜

Thank you Tia 🥰. I could listen to your stories forever!!!! Great author read book.

was looking forward to this book and it was great!

I really felt the emotions while Tia was reading her words. I just wish it was longer.