Good Dog. Stay. by Anna Quindlen

Synopsis: Heartening and bittersweet, Good Dog. Stay. honors the life of a cherished and loyal friend and offers us a valuable lesson on our four-legged family members: Sometimes an old dog can teach us new tricks.

This was the first non-fiction book that came in from my January NYT BSL. It was a short and quick read. I read the entire thing in about 30 minutes. It flowed more like an essay that happened to have pictures interspersed through out. While I don’t have a dog (I am owned by a cat) I found myself agreeing with the thoughts that Quindlen put forth. I empathized with her as she described Beau’s last moments. And I cried.

While perhaps not on the same scale I was reminded of how I felt when my husband and I made the decision to have my Budgie, Skyler, put down. He had developed a tumor in his leg and while I couldn’t bare to see him in pain I couldn’t tell the vet to proceed so it fell to my husband. Skyler was 6 years old.