I heard an interview with the author on NPR and because I really liked "Orchid Thief" (and the movie version "Adaptation"), I decided to get this one. I was intrigued by the story of how Lee Duncan originally found the puppy in WWI. I remember watching the TV series as a child, but I did not realize that the original Rin Tin Tin made his (and Duncan's) reputation in silent films. While not as dramatic a story (sort of a thriller) as the "Orchid Thief, I really enjoyed the story of the many Rin Tin Tins and Orlean's personal story of how she came to know about Rin Tin Tin. There is a lot of really interesting movie and TV history, including the many years of legal battles for Rin Tin Tin as intellectual property. Just as in the "Orchid Thief", she weaves in a lot of interesting peripheral information, in this case such topics as the use of dogs in the military, the beginning of formalized dog training and the change in our perception of dogs from working dog to family pet.