The Dog Lived (and So Will I) – “Focus on the Cookies”

The Dog Lived (and So Will I)

by Teresa J. Rhyne

Sourcebooks

276 pages, paperback $14.95

This was a very difficult book for me to read for personal reasons. My favorite dog, the Coon Hound Zelda, died unexpectedly of cancer and a few years later I went through treatment for prostate cancer.

And now, through this painfully candid account I come to emotional terms with what had happened to me. Perhaps nothing in my life could be more important, or more challenging.

The author has multiple problems before her dog, Seamus, is diagnosed with cancer.  She is twice divorced and having a relationship with a younger man whose family disapproves of her while she is trying to make it as a lawyer. Oh, and did I mention, her boyfriend doesn’t like dogs.

Once Seamus is successfully treated, she discovers she has breast cancer.

I found myself bursting into tears several times. When should someone read this? Probably when you yourself are passed danger from cancer or if you know someone who has or is going through chemotherapy.

I love how Rhyne puts everything on the table, holding nothing back. Especially when she dresses-down medical personnel who are not attentive as they should be or the “dog-whisperer dog trainer” or her boyfriend when he leaves her (and comes back). Her Beagle is center stage in a very real way. Perhaps a little less “here and now” are the blog excerpts later in the book (but that may be me not wanting things second hand).

And the message of the book―to focus on what you have, not what you could lose―sounds trite but after everything in this book, everything in your own life, may well be the most important thing you ever hear, next to: AAAAARRROOOOO! Must cuddle. NOOOOOOWWWWW!!!

Buy directly from Amazon: The Dog Lived (and So Will I)