Pet Memoir

When Nancy Balbirer learns her beloved eleven-year-old beagle has kidney failure, she’s devastated. She and her husband had gotten Ira as a puppy - a wedding gift to each other, and their first foray into “parenthood.” Now, her dog is terminal, her marriage is on life support, and Nancy is desperate to save them both (whether they want it or not). In a single year, she loses her two best friends, but Nancy’s life is about to take yet another unexpected turn. With humor and heart, Nancy Balbirer shares her story of relationships, loss, and canine friendship in this illuminating memoir.

Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais are the creators of some of British television's most beloved comedies. Essex-born Clement teamed up with Geordie insurance salesman La Frenais in the early 1960s and scripted a series about two young pals from Newcastle, The Likely Lads, which became one of BBC Two's first hits. The duo went on to create the classic sitcoms Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?, Porridge starring Ronnie Barker, and Auf Wiedersehen, Pet.

Amit Patel is working as a trauma doctor when a rare condition causes him to lose his sight within 36 hours. Totally dependent on others and terrified of stepping outside with a white cane after he's assaulted, he hits rock bottom. He refuses to leave home on his own for three months. With the support of his wife, Seema, he slowly adapts to his new situation, but how could life ever be the way it was? Then his guide dog, Kika, comes along....

What do sandcastles, road trips, and penguins have in common? They’re just a few of the many topics in this collection of entertaining and reflective short stories from six years of Steve’s life. As a data management professional, Steve has been consulting, training, and writing about data since 1990. For over 20 years, Steve has been sending out a monthly newsletter with currently more than 25,000 subscribers. The newsletter covers technology and ends with Steve sharing a personal story. After years of requests from newsletter subscribers, Steve has turned six years of stories (2019 to...

In January 2022, the Cellan-Jones-Coyle family said goodbye to their beloved elderly Collie cross, Cabbage. She and Rory had become inseparable during daily pandemic walks, which alleviated his Parkinson’s symptoms. After a grief-stricken year, Rory and his wife Diane come across a listing for ‘a kind girl who loves everybody and is just looking for her forever home’.

Physicians used to make house calls. Today, a few veterinarians still do. Duncan MacVean, DVM, is one such vet. His patients range from cats and dogs to pigs and lizard - each of them a unique personality. Every animal and every home is different, but every owner is the same in their affection for their companions. Without warning, MacVean finds himself in odd situations: stepping into a basement full of free-flying bats or struck speechless by a pig who loves opera so much that she falls into a trance.

Stephen Kuusisto was born legally blind - but he was also raised in the 1950s and taught to deny his blindness in order to "pass" as sighted. Stephen attended public school, rode a bike, and read books pressed right up against his nose. As an adult, he coped with his limited vision by becoming a professor in a small college town, memorizing routes for all of the places he needed to be. Then, at the age of 38, he was laid off. With no other job opportunities in his vicinity, he would have to travel to find work.

There are no more monsters anymore, or so the children in the city of Lucille are taught. With doting parents and a best friend named Redemption, Jam has grown up with this lesson all her life. But when she meets Pet, a creature made of horns and colours and claws, who emerges from one of her mother's paintings and a drop of Jam's blood, she must reconsider what she's been told. Pet has come to hunt a monster, and the shadow of something grim lurks in Redemption's house. Jam must fight not only to protect her best friend but also to uncover the truth.

My name is Pet. My story is going to break your heart. The first thing you should know about me is that I'm a good girl. I follow directions. I bend at the waist. I do anything and everything my King tells me to. But King is demanding. King is dangerous. He wants to hurt me. And there is only one person who can help me run away from King.... Except I don't know if I want to leave him. I don't know if I can. Good pets always obey their master...but what if I want to have two?

In A Dog's Gift, award-winning journalist and author Bob Drury movingly captures the story of a year in the life of Paws4people and the broken bodies and souls the organization mends. The audiobook follows the journey of pups bred by the organization, from their loving if rigorous early training to an emotional event that Terry and Kyria have christened "the bump", where each individual service dog chooses its new owner through an almost mystical connection that ignites the healing process.

Penny the basset shows up at the Borlands' Connecticut farmhouse on a cold, snowy day-head held high, tail wagging, as if she were a long-awaited guest. Hal and Barbara Borland were no strangers to strays. Pat, the rabbit hound thousands of people came to know in The Dog Who Came to Stay, had also appeared one winter, staying to become the family's dear companion. Now, Pat is gone, and Hal and Barbara are bereft without canine company. They fall in love with Penny—and she seems to fit right in.

Pancho Humps The Mayor: When Good Dogs Make Bad Decisions The hilarious third installment in the Pancho series! Just when the Henderson family thought they'd gotten Pancho's embarrassing behaviors under control, their infamous Chihuahua finds a new way to mortify them in public. After conquering his digestive issues and defeating the dreaded flying fart-can, Pancho develops an uncontrollable passion for all things velvet, most unfortunately, the mayor's expensive blazer during the town parade. From emergency "behavioral management garments" (dog pants) to an unexpected career as the town's ...

People around the world have fallen in love with Penguin the Magpie, a global social media sensation, and her adventures with her human family. But there is far more to Penguin's story than meets the eye. It all begins when Sam, Cameron Bloom's wife, suffers a near fatal fall that leaves her paralyzed and deeply depressed. One of their three sons, reeling from the tragic accident, discovers an injured magpie chick abandoned after she had fallen from her nest. The boys name the bird Penguin, for her black-and-white plumage.

Meet Simba II, a playful white Labrador puppy brought home by accident. As he grows into an enormous ninety-pound dog with a huge personality, Simba cements the bond between two families and enriches their lives in countless ways. When the family moves from San Francisco to New York, the author is charged with the ultimate animal rescue−bringing Simba to the family’s new home. He and his best friend, Erick, load Simba into the back of a station wagon and set out on a 3,300-mile once-in-a-lifetime road trip across America.

In December 2012, something happened that would turn Hannah Russell's world upside down. A promising young rider with two horses of her own, Hannah recently had been given the devastating news that she would never ride again. That morning in December, local Shetland pony breeder pulled up and asked Hannah if she wanted another horse. The woman said she had a six-month-old Shetland pony she couldn't keep. Without a moment's thought, Hannah said yes.

From birth, my life has been a series of wrong turns and dead ends. Only one person truly loved me, and I walked away from them. Now, they're unavailable. I have a dark soul. That's what I've always been told. Makes me good at my work, though. It's kept me alive, even when I haven't cared if I lived or died. Even when I welcomed death, and it still eluded me. Makes it easy not to get attached. I guess I'm lucky. Until an unexpected reversal of fortune thrusts me into an unwinnable situation. Now, I'm not so sure I want to die.

In It's Okay to Miss the Bed on the First Jump, a charming and hilarious book about the enduring wisdom of dogs, John O'Hurley brings his love for dogs to listeners, exploring with his characteristic wit and warmth personal yet universal lessons learned from a life lived with canine companions.

Animals bond people and transcend class, financial and cultural barriers. Pets matter to people more than anything, but what happens to those people who can't afford pet insurance or vet's bills? Animal Matters is a diary of real-life cases written during a year of Charlotte's career working as a veterinary surgeon in a 24-hour inner-city London animal charity hospital. The audiobook provides listeners with a revealing, honest, emotional experience, with deeply sad moments followed by amusing and unimaginable ones.

Soulmate Dog tells the brave, moving story of Michelle Slater’s extraordinary relationship with her German Shepherd, Brady. Narrated by Alison Larkin in an easy-to-listen-to, conversational style, it “charts the nature of love and the inevitability of loss that accompanies it,” while showcasing the telepathic language that can exist between dogs and humans.

During their daily walks, new puppy Dea pulls her human, Alison, by the leash into making connections, handling crippling loss, and coping with the challenges of life. What might have been tragic through Alison’s eyes finds wider perspective and resonance through Dea’s as she tolerates Alison’s pathetic attempts at meditation and online dating, sees her through a second bout of cancer, and finally steers Alison toward appreciating life’s daily wonders that are a puppy’s birthright.