Rating: 4 out of 5

The whole “from a dog’s perspective” story has been done before but this was well written, and well thought out, and, to some extent, believable. The simplicity of the dog’s thoughts and responses seems authentic and yet you get some form of connection to the character of the dog. It is a bit fairy tale and I did have inner dialogs where my rational side was telling my emotional side to get over itself. Mainly as there were tears rolling down my cheeks.

But enjoyable, simple, easy to read, good switch-brain-off material

Highlighted passages:

One summer night the whole family sat with me in the living room far past normal bedtime and everyone was excited, though Mom and Grandma were also afraid. And then they yelled and cheered and Grandpa cried and I barked, swept up in all the emotions. Humans are so much more complex than dogs, with such a broad range of feelings-though there were many times I missed the Yard, for the most part I was now living a far richer life, even though I often didn’t know what was going on. Ethan took me out into the night and gazed at the sky. “There’s a man on the moon right now, Bailey. See the moon? Someday, I’ll go there, too.” (1496)

My purpose, my whole life, had been to love him and be with him, to make him happy. I didn’t want to cause him any unhappiness now-in that way, I decided it was probably better than he wasn’t here to see this, though I missed him so much at that moment the ache of it was as bad as the strange pains in my belly. (2716)

Originally posted to my Goodreads account