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Big Lessons on Life, Love and Healing from a Small Pooch
by Dana Jennings
Our dogs come into our lives as "just the family pet," but before we know it they become drinking buddies and fuzzy shrinks, playmates and Cheerios-munching vacuum cleaners, alarm clocks and sleeping partners. And, in their mysterious and muttish ways, our dogs become our teachers.
When Dana Jennings and his son were both seriously ill - Dana with prostate cancer and his son with liver failure - their twelve-year-old miniature poodle Bijou became even more than a pet and teacher. She became a healing presence in their lives. After all, when you’re recovering from radical surgery and your life is uncertain, there’s no better medicine than a twenty-three-pound pooch who lives by the motto that it’s always best to play, even when you're old and creaky, even when you’re sick and frightened.
In telling Bijou's tale in all of its funny, touching, and neurotic glory, Jennings is telling the story of every dog that has ever blessed our lives. The perfect gift for animal lovers, What a Difference a Dog Makes is a narrative ode to our canine guardian angels.
"A poodle named Bijou teaches her cancer-stricken master how to savor his life in this heartfelt gift of a book." - Temple Grandin, author of Animals in Translation and Animals Make Us Human
"[A]n adoring if uneven look at the wisdom and healing powers of his prized miniature poodle, Bijou...It's the rare reader who won't take some pleasure in Jennings's strength." - Publishers Weekly
"This pooch morale-boaster will be a surefire hit with those who love the companionship of pets." - Barnes & Noble
Link
Dana Jennings blogs on "All the Good Dogs You've Loved Before" in the New York Times
This information about What a Difference a Dog Makes was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
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