Growing up from a dysfunctional childhood (she called herself a very feral child) in which she loved many animals but did not know how to properly care for them, the author latched onto a dog that she adopted intending as a gift for her boyfriend, but it turned out one of his parents objected. She convinced her own parents to let her keep the dog, but it had issues. Barking, resenting being touched, fighting with other dogs, fearful of men and children, the list goes on. Eventually the parents got so fed up with the dog that the author moved out to live with her then-boyfriend in a crummy apartment they could barely pay for. The relationship didn’t last, but her close tie with the dog continued for the rest of its life. Many ups and downs, struggling to make ends meet, dealing with a continual rotation of roommates and boarders, friends renewed and dropped again, realizing she was bi, attempting new skills, struggling to make her art and find her voice, and so on. It was not at all the kind of growing up experience I had, but in a very familiar location (Portland, OR- I didn’t live there but kinda nearby in the Pacific Northwest region, so the vibe felt familiar). Very gritty, down-to-earth, full of sadness and bittersweet comforts too. She deals with loving this anxious, ill-behaved dog while feeling anxious and sad herself, and finally getting help for that. Strange interactions with a woman who was a pet psychic and tried to train her to be the same, but she wasn’t quite into it. Lots of funny and also alarming scenarios. Long-lasting trauma from a car accident which hit a little close to home for me. Her commitment to this dog that is odd-looking (head too big for her body) might seem a bit over-the-top to some, but it was the one steady thing through all those rough years of being just past a teenager but not quite a fully stable adult yet. Lots of growth. And I have to give fair warning: the dog dies in the end. Her handling of that was also very heartfelt and a bit difficult for me to read, because we recently lost a cat at the end of a long life, and also had a backyard burial . . . so this book may induce, along with some astonishment and shaking of the head, tears in the final pages.
Borrowed from the public library. Completed on 5/4/24.
