BOOKCLUB: A review~Marley & Me by John Grogan

Today I finished reading Marley and Me, it was a lovely biography of
one dogs life and his role in his family. You knew where the book
would lead to with his death and I must say I had a knot in my throat
reading about it, you came to love this crazy dog just as his owners
had.

This quote is the best way to describe this dog and the whole mood of
the book..."Marley was a funny, bigger-than-life pain in the ass who
never quite got the hang of the whole chain-of-command thing.
Honestly, he might well have been the world's worst-behaved dog. Yet
he intuitively grasped from the start what it meant to be man's best
friend."

The book made me remember the dogs that I grew up with, "Muchie" the
first dog I remember, a short and stocky corgie. Then "Lillie" the
gracious x-Collie named after my grandmother, who had the same
beautiful temperament and sensitive look in her eyes. "Sambo" was our
crazy Marley like dog, full of spirit and no matter how many times we
tried to walk him would surge ahead choking his way on the lead. There
was little "Pee-wee" who little life just ended to quickly and our
stray miniature Doberman pincher "Hank".

These were the dogs my family had, I must say myself I have not had
much luck with dogs as pets, our first dog whilst were were still
going out was "Nelson", big beautifully shiny coated Border Collie, we
didn't think when we bought him and when we decided to travel OS he
was left behind and in his curious nature bitten by a funnel web
spider and no longer here on our return. Then when we moved into our
first rental, M decided to get a pre-loved Staffie called "Bronte" we
quickly realised why she was pre-loved and soon she also was a
post-love and handed onto a friend (story tell us that she bite their
child and was sent off to become a guard dog, most likely a good job
for her!)

Our last dog and the reason I am likely not to get another dog in the
near future was "Molly" our cute Jack Russell terrier. Molly was our
first little baby, before we had the boys, she was a house dog and
watch TV with us on the couch, then when I fell pregnant and forced to
stay in hospital as I was ill she fretted and ran away. Using her
ancestral skills she dug her way to freedom. Thankfully her microchip
scanned at the local vet and she was returned to us only to escape
again. I was still in hospital, M was working late nights and no time
to secure the yard to ensure she didn't run away again, so off to
Pop's she went and there she stayed. She returned to us in 2005 due to
an incident with another dog at Pop's house. We thought she was happy
with us, we were happy with her, but she missed her other dog friend
(even though they had a little disagreement where she ended up at the
vets) and one day whilst i was out taking the kids to swimming lesson,
she once again dug her way to freedom and out of out lives. Come home
Molly the boys miss you!

So anyway, "Marley & Me" was a great book, not to light not to heavy,
if you a lover of dogs I think you'll enjoy it.

My latest book on reserve has arrived and now I move onto "Past
Secrets" by Cathy Kelly, will find a synopsis and put it up soon.