Marley and Me

I got the book for Christmas and read it last week. A cute little tale but the writer's style was a little too cutesy for me. I'd recommend it to anyone who has ever owned a big dog. Marley was quite the handful.

Mrs. Wickerman read it and passed it on to her father who also enjoyed it. She read many parts to me and it was really funny stuff. A little cutesy, it's true, very heartwarming and touching.

curious about my mental state, because I'd be reading and laughing out loud, until the last part when I used 1/2 a box of tissues. For anyone who has had a dog, it's well worth the read.

I did some laughing out loud and in the end I was reaching for the Kleenex. We had a male poodle for 14 years. He was as rambunxious as Marley but not big enough to do as much damage. And spoiled rotten to the core, but greatly loved. He also didn't suffer as Marley did but just fell over dead in the living room one evening. That was 17 years ago and we still him miss mightily. Still have his pictures about the house.

The dog just went down in health as any older dog would and eventually died. But his demise went on and on and on in the book in excruciating detail.

She is diabetic, has Cushings' syndrome, is hypo-thyroid, has lupus, and is blind. Poor girl, first had cataracts from her diabetes and we did cataract surgery in Nov. '04. Eight days later, she had an extreme (10 times normal) pressure spike in her right eye and lost all sight in it again. We had the eye removed and a prosthesis put in a few months later. Then she had sight in one eye and was on 3 very expensive human glaucoma eye drops for her left eye. Well, the glaucoma won and she lost her left eye in Nov. of last year.

I have two adopted boys, American Eskies, I got from a rescue group. I usually have from 3 to 5 dogs, but Criss is eating up a lot of my budget with all her medications. Insulin has gone from $24 to $38 a vial in less than 3 years.

The only insulin I can use for my cat (after Lily discontinued the one he could use that was $30/vial) cost us $95.60 at the vet's less than an hour ago.

like above post, but its kind of cathartic...

I knew the dog would pass when I read it, but its really honest loving portrayal of his memories of his dog.....

made me appreciate that my Wrigley's main faults are only barking and running away (when she rarely gets the chance)

I also have a vhs of the movie Marley appeared in, The Last Home Run. He only appeared briefly, but was definitely as Grogan described him, running across the hall pulling the child behind him, lol! When I saw him alive and well and being Marley I was sad that he was no longer with us but glad to have him in a video.

It's also a story of a remarkable dog, told with the sentamentalism. Kerasote is an outdoor writer who lives in Wyoming. He and some friends were at the start of a river rafting trip and a dog wandered out of the woods and joined them in their journey down the river. Ted took the dog home and the story goes from there. They hunted, skied, hiked, and traveled together. Woven in are some interesting historical and biological facts about dogs and wolves.

I couldn't put it down. Merle was a great dog! He was the town's mayor.

Stickeen by John Muir, available from Applewood Books. It is about a group of people who are sailing on a boat in the Arctic. A skinny little self-reliant dog named Stickeen tags along. While the boat is stopped he follows Muir on a hike through the Arctic and over ice crevasses until the weather changes and it is time to turn back or they will miss the boat. There is a very dangerous crevasse which Muir just makes it over and Stickeen is scared to try, hesitates and hesitates, wails and is in total anguish but finally he does and wins Muir's heart with his joy and happy celebration after making it over successfully.