3.4 out of 4 stars.
Happy tears!
The book follows a dog’s spirit through reincarnation. He lives the lives of Toby, Fellah, Bailey, Ellie, Bear, and Buddy. The spirit believes it keeps becoming reborn because it has a specific purpose in that particular dog body.
This particular book spent 49 weeks as the top seller on The New York Times. This just reiterates what this blog has taught me – This world LOVES dogs. For anyone that adores animals and specifically pups then this is a must read.
With keeping within the theme of finding a dog’s purpose, this dog was lucky enough to have obvious lessons. For example, his life as Bailey helped saved his person’s life by pulling him and his family out of their house that was burning down. Also, as Ellie he becomes a German Shepherd that is part of the K9 unit to help find missing people. However, it is when he finds his original owner as an older man (after going through several reincarnations) that it really hits home for most of us.
As a dog owner myself, I brought Sadie into my family for the dog’s purpose of keeping me company, enriching my life with happiness, and showing me how each day can have such simple pleasures. Right now all Sadie has to do is try and stay awake with me when I can’t sleep in the middle of the night, wag her tail when I say her name, and greet me when I come home from a long day of work. If she is able to do all these things then she is accomplishing her mission (purpose) for my life. I hope she doesn’t have to physically be saving my life anytime soon but you never know!
If you have a dog or any type of animal really I would recommend reading this book. It reminds you of why you took the fluff ball into your home in the first place. This is sometimes a nice reminder when the pooch is peeing on the floors, eating your shoes, and barking when they hear the wind blow.
The only other book that I read that was similar to this theme was “The Art of Racing in the Rain” by Garth Stein. If you enjoyed that book then you will love this and vice versa.
