Book Review: Rescued Me
Rescued Me. Nestor “The Boss” Gomez, Tortoise Books Chicago, November 2025, paperback and e-book, 137 pages.
Reviewed by Amy Purcell.
Nestor Gomez has a pelo en la sopa, a Spanish phrase meaning there’s a problem in a situation. Translated, the phrase means “hair in the soup.” In the case of Gomez’s humorous and heartfelt memoir, Rescued Me, there’s not only hair in the soup, but also hair in his bed, apartment, clothing and generally all over. Those hairs come from the 70-pound pit bull that Gomez is terrified of yet must learn to love if he wants to maintain a relationship with his girlfriend who eventually becomes his wife.
Bitten by a dog as a child when he was growing up in Guatemala, Gomez is now smitten with a dog-loving woman whom he meets at salsa dancing lessons in Chicago.
As their relationship deepens, Gomez tries his best to make friends with her dog. Any dog lover knows that food can be the way to a dog’s heart, so Gomez begins sharing tiny morsels of his lunch. Next thing he knows, he’s buying an entire sandwich for this pal. Gomez shares poignant and comical stories that trace his transition from being fearful of dogs to bonding with man’s best friend—so much so that he and his girlfriend-turned-wife adopt another dog that becomes “his dog.” Along the way, Gomez also changes from someone who had fallen on some hard emotional times to someone who finds hope and beauty in his relationships with his animal and human companions. Gomez shows readers that, as much as humans teach and train dogs, the dogs also teach their humans valuable lessons.
Gomez also touches on the differences in attitudes toward pets in the United States and Latin America. In the U.S. dogs are treated as family—and quite often spoiled rotten—which isn’t always the case in other countries. He also shares a few personal stories about encountering racism from neighbors. These moments broaden the memoir beyond a simple pet story, suggesting that “rescue” operates on multiple levels—through love, community, and the act of being truly seen in a new country.
Animal lovers, in particular, will enjoy following Gomez through the trials and tribulations of pet ownership (including what to do with all that dog hair), his years with his girlfriend’s “evil” cat, sharing the bed with pets, fights with radiator covers, and apartment hunting when you have two four-legged gentle giants in the family.
As a devoted dog mom, the chapters on navigating the emotions that come with caring for a senior pup, tugged at my heart. I shed more than one tear during the chapter titled “Go To Sleep Little Doggy.”
This book comes with a warning on the first page: “This book might cause the reader to feel an uncontrollable urge to adopt a dog or cat.” I can say, without a doubt, that the thought crossed my mind, although adding a third dog to our pack would definitely triple the pelo en la sopa—a risk Gomez would likely argue is well worth taking.
Gomez was born in Guatemala and traveled to Chicago in the mid 1980s. He was undocumented, stuttered, and didn’t know English. Today Gomez is an American citizen, speaks fluent English and has become a storyteller, winning nearly a hundred Moth Slams. He is the creator, producer, curator and host of 80 Minutes Around the World, a storytelling show that features the stories of immigrants, their descendants and allies. Rescued Me is his second book.
