Pet Memoir

In 2008, 26-year-old Tik Maynard faced a crossroads not unlike that of other young adults. A university graduate and modern pentathlete, he suffered both a career-ending injury and a painful breakup, leaving him suddenly adrift. The son of prominent Canadian equestrians, Maynard decided to spend the next year as a "working student." In the horse industry, working students aspire to become professional riders or trainers, and willingly trade labor for hands-on education.

In the snow country of Japan during World War II, we meet Morie Sawataishi, a fierce individualist who has chosen to break the law by keeping an Akita dog hidden in a shed on his property. By the time of the Japanese surrender in 1945, there are only sixteen Akitas left in the country. The survival of the breed becomes Morie's passion and life. Devoted to the dogs, Morie is forever changed.

In beautiful prose that is a joy to read, Sherrill opens up the world of the Dog Man and his wife, providing a profound look at what it is to be an individualist in a culture that reveres conformity, and what it means to live.

Two dozen Navy SEALs descended on Osama bin Laden’s compound in May 2011. After the mission, only one name was made public: Cairo, a Belgian Malinois and military working dog. This is Cairo's story, and that of his handler, Will Chesney, a SEAL Team Operator whose life would be irrevocably tied to Cairo's.

In a profound, funny, and beautifully rendered portrait of a beloved companion, bestselling novelist Dean Koontz remembers the golden retriever who changed his life. A retired service dog, Trixie was three when Dean and his wife, Gerda, welcomed her into their home. She was superbly trained, but her greatest gifts couldn’t be taught: her keen intelligence, her innate joy, and an uncanny knack for living in the moment.

Dewey's story starts in the worst possible way. Only a few weeks old, on the coldest night of the year, he was stuffed into the returned book slot at the Spencer Public Library. He was found the next morning by library director, Vicki Myron, a single mother who had survived the loss of her family farm, a breast cancer scare, and an alcoholic husband. Dewey won her heart, and the hearts of the staff, by pulling himself up and hobbling on frostbitten feet to nudge each of them in a gesture of thanks and love. For the next 19 years, he never stopped charming the people of Spencer....

Caleb Carr has had special relationships with cats since he was a young boy in a turbulent household, famously peopled by the founding members of the Beat Generation, where his steadiest companions were the adopted cats that lived with him both in the city and the country. As an adult, he has had many close feline companions, with relationships that have outlasted most of his human ones. But only after building a three-story home in rural, upstate New York did he enter into the most extraordinary of all of his cat pairings: Masha, a Siberian Forest cat who had been abandoned as a kitten.

First came the boom - the loud, deep, unapologetic bellow that seemed to erupt from the very core of the Earth. Eerily, the majestic high-rise slowly leaned to the south. On the 78th floor of the World Trade Center's north tower, no alarms sounded, and no one had information about what had happened at 8:46 a.m. on September 11, 2001. Blind since birth, Michael couldn't see a thing, but he could hear the sounds of shattering glass, falling debris, and terrified people flooding around him and his guide dog, Roselle.

Escape from Xanadu is a gripping admixture of Huckleberry Finn, The Great Santini, and Penrod. Read how Donnie gets shot, discovers a Nazi spy hideout, barely avoids being trampled by a war horse, and almost bronco-busts a five-hundred-and-fifty pound hog. It's a rollicking, poignant, defiant, great adventure.

What happens when a clever, rule-bending, meatloaf-loving pup decides to keep a daily journal of his misadventures? You get Confessions of a Naughty Dog—a hilarious, heart-tugging, and occasionally slobber-covered memoir told entirely from the paws of Nugget, a stubborn pit bull with a nose for trouble and a heart of gold. From epic escapes under the fence to surprise garden stakeouts, Nugget’s “letters to Dogery” capture a year’s worth of laugh-out-loud antics, wild backyard operations, and a noble quest for snacks, justice, and maybe—just maybe—graduating obedience school. ...

In her New York Times opinion column, Jennifer Finney Boylan wrote about her relationship with her beloved dog Indigo, and her wise, funny, heartbreaking piece went viral. In Good Boy, Boylan explores what should be the simplest topic in the world, but never is: Finding and giving love. Good Boy is a universal account of a remarkable story: Showing how a young boy became a middle-aged woman - accompanied at seven crucial moments of growth and transformation by seven memorable dogs. "Everything I know about love," she writes, "I learned from dogs."

New York Times best-selling author Nick Trout has captivated audiences with his books that take us behind the scenes into the heartwarming - and sometimes heartrending - world of veterinary medicine. In a perfect follow-up to his first two books, he turns his lens inward and offers a funny, moving, and thoughtful, memoir about the animals he's had all his life. Nostalgic, warm, and insightful, Ever By My Side is about the power of animals to shape our lives....

What happens when the Zusaks open their family home to three big, wild, pound-hardened dogs – Reuben, a wolf at your door with a hacksaw; Archer, blond, beautiful, deadly; and the rancorously smiling Frosty, who walks like a rolling thunderstorm? The answer can only be chaos: there are street fights, park fights, public shamings, property trashing, bodily injuries, stomach pumping, purest comedy, shocking tragedy, and carnage that needs to be seen to be believed . . . not to mention the odd police visit at some ungodly hour of the morning.

In the midst of World War II, James is training for the Royal Air Force, while going home to Yorkshire whenever possible to see his very pregnant wife, Helen. Musing on past adventures through the dales, visiting with old friends, and introducing scores of new and amusing characters—animal and human alike—Herriot enthralls with his uncanny ability to spin a most engaging and heartfelt yarn.

There are no monsters anymore, or so the children in the city of Lucille are taught. Jam and her best friend, Redemption, have grown up with this lesson all their life. But when Jam meets Pet, a creature made of horns and colors 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.

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.

Prolific and widely renowned, Eileen Myles is a trailblazer whose decades of literary and artistic work "set a bar for openness, frankness, and variability few lives could ever match" ( New York Review of Books). This newest book paints a kaleidoscopic portrait of a beloved confidant: the pit bull called Rosie.

David Rosenfelt's loyal followers of the Andy Carpenter series are familiar with Tara, the Golden Retriever sidekick. Many also got to know Tara from Dogtripping, David's tales about becoming a slightly nutty dog rescuer and the dog that started it all. Here, finally, is a book all about the inspirational canine who taught David everything he knows. Well, he did know how to tie his shoes before he met and came to love Tara, but that's about it.

"A genuine, heartfelt memoir." –Becky Monroe, author of Bark Until Heard "Readers will undoubtedly enjoy Race's passionate and inquisitive nature." –Kirkus Reviews Staunch and rooted to her childhood values, Peggy engages in a battle to overcome a failed marriage, the sudden, heartrending loss of her second husband and her own self-doubts. While sandwiched between each layer of uncertainty, Peggy fights her way forward through the love of her dogs. Amid personal tragedy, Peggy's life takes an unexpected turn when she meets Desiree, a rescued Hurricane Katrina dog. Fueled by the ...

"He believed the dog was immortal." So begins Susan Orlean’s sweeping, powerfully moving story of Rin Tin Tin’s journey from orphaned puppy to movie star and international icon. From the moment in 1918 when Corporal Lee Duncan discovers Rin Tin Tin on a World War I battlefield, he recognizes something in the pup that he needs to share with the world. Rin Tin Tin’s improbable introduction to Hollywood leads to the dog’s first blockbuster film and, over time, the many radio programs, movies, and television shows that follow.

Hutton has now written a fascinating full biography of Sergeant Reckless, who earned two Purple Hearts for her heroic efforts, among other military decorations. Hutton has spoken with the marines who fought alongside Reckless and tells the complete and captivating tale of how a would-be Korean racehorse became one of the greatest Marine Corps wartime heroes. Sgt. Reckless brings the legend back to life more than half a century later.