Sunday, January 24, 2010

Tissue alert


The premise is simple: your dog is the best dog in the world, despite little foibles like eating your furniture; he grows old; you know his time is up; and when you say goodbye, it breaks your heart and you write a tribute to him.

It's a tried and tested dog book formula. And it works. Some work better than others when they become movies and you can cast Jennifer Aniston as the wife.

Some of those books should come with a warning label. It doesn't mean a bad label though. Just that it's so good, so evocative that it will make you cry.

Which meant that riding the bus to work was the worst possible place to read Life with Beau. It took me less than half an hour to read the slim 82-page volume. And a whole lot longer to pull myself together. But oh, how much emotion was packed into that thin book. Marley -- as much as I loved it -- aint got nothing on this.

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