I can't read books where dogs die

[lovey1121]

I apologize, author. You pour your heart out describing in exquisite detail your relationship with your once-in-a-lifetime dog. Your experiences are familiar, heartwarming, revelatory, inspiring, interesting.

Then your dog gets sick.

Rut roh.

I can’t, I just CANNOT read further. I’ve been through it TOO MANY TIMES to read how you face the shock, denial, bargaining, and acceptance of losing your beloved friend.

To my friends, please do not be offended if I refuse your offer of Marley or Dancing in The Rain (Racing With The Moon?–its got a sweet Golden on the cover).

I. Just. Can’t.

That said…you wanna hear some dog stories???

Is it just me?

Which books are worth the pain???

[ohrebecca]

Until Tuesday was a GREAT dog book where the dog doesn’t die - author has PSTD from being a war vet, and Tuesday (dog) becomes his service dog. Really great story. Jon Katz writes great books about his border collies (and others), but sometimes they do die/go to live in other homes. If you like pit bulls, the book about the Vick dogs - The Lost Dogs - is REALLY good, and I think only one dog gets euthed, and a few die at the end of natural causes - but, there are pretty graphic descriptions of the abuse and neglect they suffered. A Big Little Life, about Dean Koontz’ dog Trixie is also very good - sad, but worth the (minimal) pain to read about her sweetness

(and the book with the Golden on the cover is the Art of Racing in the Rain )

I’m sure I’ll think of more

[bits619]

I read the flap and the first paragraph or two of The Art of Racing in the Rain in barnes and noble… And started getting SO choked up and teary eyed!! I had to put it back and walk away before I felt like a lunatic!

And i know- i know!- the book would be a good one and I would love it. I would probably love to WRITE one of those types of books, especially with all our rescue work/fostering. We certainly are collecting stories here. But good gaaaawd i can’t read those books! The whole dog-memoir section is a no-fly zone for me. Nope, can’t do it!!

[lovey1121]

[QUOTE=bits619;5912784]
I read the flap and the first paragraph or two of The Art of Racing in the Rain in barnes and noble… And started getting SO choked up and teary eyed!! I had to put it back and walk away before I felt like a lunatic!

And i know- i know!- the book would be a good one and I would love it. I would probably love to WRITE one of those types of books, especially with all our rescue work/fostering. We certainly are collecting stories here. But good gaaaawd i can’t read those books! The whole dog-memoir section is a no-fly zone for me. Nope, can’t do it!![/QUOTE]

THATS THE BOOK! I see it on everyone’s coffee table…walk away, just…walk away.

Bits, my friends who enjoy my animal stories tell me to write them down. I bet you hear that, too. It is cathartic to recount the singular life of an amazing animal, so I appreciate Katz et. al. Havent been able to open Koontz’s book…couldn’t get past the photo of what’s gotta be the world’s sweetest old lady Golden on the back jacket.:sadsmile:
I’ve a friend with whom I swap books. She knows now not to offer me books where our intrepid canine is diagnosed with some awful terminal disease, or dies in some awful sudden manner, or (most common) slowly and gracefully yet exorably and painfully winds down until Beloved Dog crosses the bridge.

Once in a great while, friend will recommend to me a book about a dog, and she says the majic words-“The dog doesnt die in this one!”

[lovey1121]

[QUOTE=ohrebecca;5912674]
Until Tuesday was a GREAT dog book where the dog doesn’t die -
I’m sure I’ll think of more :)[/QUOTE]

Big sigh of relief…will check out Until Tuesday…, thanks!

[MunchkinsMom]

Give this one a try:

http://www.horsesofproudspirit.com/Dog%20Book.html

I don’t recall any Kleenex moments in this one - I did cry a bit at her first two books about the horses of the sanctuary.

[Raymundo]

I read my kids Sounder, Old Yeller, and Where the Red Fern Grows.

Do NOT read them without Kleenex…:eek:

[dressagetraks]

Just to point something out here, you say you quit when the dog gets sick.

Um, sometimes they don’t die. Sometimes the writing on the wall isn’t the message folks thought it was.

Switching from dog to people, I was just recently reading 50 Acres and a Poodle, an excellent nonfiction book in which the poodle doesn’t die, although he does have an encounter with the UPS truck in the middle of his joy circles around it that dazes him for a bit. But going through this excellent read, I was enjoying her style thoroughly when I ran into the fact that the man, whom I really liked, discovered that he had a colon mass. Very large, near obstructing. In for colon surgery and resection. Docs almost positive it’s cancer even before final pathology is back. Several depressing moments and scenes describing the narrator’s thoughts as she faces her man having cancer, the shock, denial, unfairness, etc., etc. I hate cancer books myself and don’t like reading about people’s struggles with it. I did consider stopping reading several times, but I kicked on, as this one had been so good until he got cancer. And then . . .

It’s benign. This HUGE mass which has been the subject of 30 pages of angst is benign. The docs were flabbergasted; it had looked unquestionably malignant. The scene in which they get the report is one of the most wonderful in the book, all full of joy and ladybugs (literally full of ladybugs :)).

I’m very glad that I didn’t stop reading. And it wasn’t a cancer book after all. I would have missed the ending of a wonderful, uplifting story.

Your choice not to read dog death books, of course, but you might ask around and make absolutely sure they are before you quit on one.

P.S. Warning in the interests of full disclosure: Her cat is sick, declines, and is finally euthed.

[SarahandSam]

I’m in the same boat; people keep telling me to read “Marley and Me,” and I would rather shoot myself, I think…

I sob just thinking about “Where The Red Fern Grows.”

A really funny, cute, non-death-ending dog book is “The Ugly Dachshund”… about a Great Dane who thinks he’s a dachshund. Made into a Disney movie during the '60s, which was cute, but the book is much wittier and funnier.

[tallyho392]

nop’s trials…donald mccaig is the author…about a working border collie…has a few hairy moments, but good prevails…

really OLD one is “prince tom”…about a cocker spaniel, field champ.everyone pooh poohed because he was the runt…

another old one is “thumper of walden”…family raises champ labs, daughter falls for the meathead of the litter and he turns out to be the best…told from daughter’s perspective…it is pretty funny…she gets in BIG trouble at school ,when they are asked what the family pets are, and her response is ,“3 dogs and 7 bitches”…

[ohrebecca]

[QUOTE=tallyho392;5913111]
nop’s trials…donald mccaig is the author…about a working border collie…has a few hairy moments, but good prevails…

really OLD one is “prince tom”…about a cocker spaniel, field champ.everyone pooh poohed because he was the runt…

another old one is “thumper of walden”…family raises champ labs, daughter falls for the meathead of the litter and he turns out to be the best…told from daughter’s perspective…it is pretty funny…she gets in BIG trouble at school ,when they are asked what the family pets are, and her response is ,“3 dogs and 7 bitches”…[/QUOTE]

I LOVED Prince Tom as a kid!! It made me want a cocker for soooooo long.

[Foxtrot]

I’m really not into any book that uses death as an emotional trigger. So, I often avoid animal books.

[wendy]

nop’s trials…donald mccaig is the author…about a working border collie…has a few hairy moments, but good prevails…

DO NOT read this one. Yeah, Nop doesn’t die, but there’s a lot of other dogs that suffer and die enroute to Nop’s happy ending.

[LauraKY]

I tried to read The Art of Racing in the Rain. Twice. I lost two dogs in less than 9 months last year and I just. couldn’t. read. it.

[Burbank]

one of my favorite books is Where the Red Fren Grows, love it and I cry every single time

[iechris]

[QUOTE=wendy;5913351]
DO NOT read this one. Yeah, Nop doesn’t die, but there’s a lot of other dogs that suffer and die enroute to Nop’s happy ending.[/QUOTE]

I agree with this, that book STILL haunts/upsets me. Sure Nop survives but he goes through hell to get there. Read Eminent Dogs, Dangerous Men instead! Nop’s Hope was not nearly upsetting, but still prefer the nonfiction book.

I enjoyed Scent of the Missing by Susannah Charleson, about training a search and rescue dog.

Read one Jon Katz where he promised no dogs died, the donkey (or mule??) died instead. I did like 50 Acres and a Poodle. Refused to read Art of Racing in the Rain. Dead dog PLUS dead favorite racecar driver (Senna)= NO THANKS. And no thanks to all the “enlightenment from my dying dog” memoirs.

I work in a library and highly DO NOT recommend: Old Yeller, Where the Red Fern Grows, Sounder, etc.

No More Dead Dogs by Gordon Korman is a must read for all of us who hate “the dog dies” books.

[libgrrl]

I can’t either.

I have a whole library of books – gifts from family members – that I’ve never read, and never will read – including Marley, Art of Racing in the Rain, etc. I’m sure I’ll receive more this holiday season Unfortunately, friends and family know that I love dogs, and love to read, therefore…

[evntr5218]

i cant read books or watch movies with anything doing with animals. when i do its waterworks everytime.

[RacetrackReject]

I am mostly like this as well, even with movies. My boyfriend will recommend a movie that I just HAVE to watch, so I will get it, turn it on, and boom, first scene and there is a dog involved. I call the bf and say “does the dog die?”. He says “It’s a very good movie, just watch.”. I say “Tell me NOW if the dog dies”. He says, “yes, but it’s very heroic.”. Movie goes back in the box.

I will say that I did read Marley and Me and I liked it. I have not watched the movie and I would never read it again, but it was good.

[Mara]

I read “Three Junes” a few years back, and all I remember were the dogs (well, mostly). It wasn’t even a dog-centered book. The mother raised champion border collies, and there’s a scene early on where she DROWNS two just-whelped puppies because their tails aren’t right. Can’t say I was too disappointed when Mom died a rather slow and not very nice death later.