I can't read books where dogs die

[Mara]

Saw a real sleeper of a film a few weeks ago - “Hachi”, with Richard Gere.
Cried my eyes out. So did my husband.

Gere plays a college professor who finds an Akita puppy at the train station. The puppy “adopts” him, and follows Gere to the station every day, taking up his post in the town square to wait until Gere’s return. One day the professor suffers a fatal heart attack at work. Hachi returns to wait for his master every day for ten years. It’s based on the true story of Hachiko, a dog in Japan in the early 20th century. There is a statue of Hachiko at the train station, in his “spot”.

I held it together until the very end, when old, arthritic Hachi lies down in his place at the station entrance and falls asleep. And then Gere appears through the station doors and greets his friend. . .

Crap, I am tearing up now!

[Foxtrot]

[QUOTE=didgery;5915057]
My husband thinks I’m nuts because I can’t even read a children’s picture book if it has an aged, dying dog in it. I’ve burst into tears more than once during my daughters’ story time when they pick out a “life lesson, pets grow old” type book from the bookmobile.[/QUOTE]

Mine too. He tells me I have Bambi syndrome. Even if it turns out ok, the sappy music and emotions get to me.

[Mara]

Several years ago I had a number of people to tell me I just had to read The Hidden Life Of Dogs, by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas. So I made the mistake of taking the advice.

Less than halfway through (when Thomas let a friend’s dog, whom she was caring for while the friend was out of town, roam around the city at will), I found myself hoping that the author would get hit by a car. By the end of the book (I kept hoping that the byatch author would suddenly realize that her “experiment” was cruel and neglectful), I wanted to drive to New England and waterboard her. If it is possible to truly hate someone you’ve never met, then I really, really hate Elizabeth Marshall Thomas.

If you haven’t read it, don’t. The author purports to be an anthropologist, but as far as I am concerned she’s a self-centered whackjob.

[eponacelt]

Actually, Art of Racing in the Rain is quite good. The dog does die, but that’s actually something that pretty much happens in the first ten pages, and the whole book is quite joyful and uplifting in many ways. I don’t recall feeling horrible pain for chapters and chapters about the tragic ending of a dog. In reality, the dog is just the narrator about his owner’s life and what comes through is how much the dog loves his master. Its actually a book I’ll read again and I’ve recommended it to other friends who swear they’ll never again read a book about a dog.

All that said, I won’t touch Marley and Me with a ten foot pole. And finishing Merle’s Door is one of the most unpleasant reading experiences I think I can remember. I sobbed for about the last 6 chapters which took me several hours to read. I think I went through a whole box of tissues with that one. Horrible. Never again. Which is sad, because there were some interesting parts of that book, but all I remember is the pain at the end!

[whitney159]

I have found my support group!

I was in tears reading this thread, but so happy to know that I don’t suffer from this syndrome alone. Everyone’s story is so much the same as mine! I can’t watch anything remotely sad or with the gratuitous death of a dog (or horse). My husband learned his lesson when he rented the Tim McGraw version of Flicka. There I was at the end of the movie and for thirty minutes after just bawling! My husband says “but the horse didn’t die!” But I thought it did and it almost did and that was enough to start the waterworks. I wouldn’t even watch the Will Smith movie about the virus that turns people into flesh eating zombies, because I heard his dog takes a bite for him and he has to kill her.
And homeward bound, with the two dogs and cat that travel the long distance to their owners, where you think the golden dies (but in the end he makes it), tears tears tears. I just can’t take it.
When I saw “million dollar baby” I began crying during the scene where Hillary Swank tells Clint Eastwood about her dad and his german shepherd who goes downhill and he drives off one day and puts it down, and I didn’t stop crying until after the movie was over and had random strangers offering me assistance in the movie theater lobby because I was that rough looking after that movie. My boyfriend at the time knew he was in trouble for dragging me to that movie that day.
So I"m not the only woman in the world who can’t take it! What a relief!
whitney

[Rbow]

[QUOTE=lovey1121;5912654]
Which books are worth the pain???[/QUOTE]

I think most of the good ones are probably worth the pain. Just like the great dogs in our lives.

You may hate me for this…but read “A Dog’s Purpose”.
He dies like 3 times. But he comes back!

It’s a tough read because it is so well written.

[shea_smom]

I never read books where dogs died, but I did read Ruffian. Holy moly, did I cry, but that book was worth it…
Also, can’t watch ET. too sad, even though he ends up alive.

[Mara]

[QUOTE=shea’smom;5916036]
I never read books where dogs died, but I did read Ruffian. Holy moly, did I cry, but that book was worth it…
Also, can’t watch ET. too sad, even though he ends up alive.[/QUOTE]

When I was eight, my mom checked out Black Gold for me at the library. I’d just been bitten BAD by the horse bug about 6 months prior to that.

I didn’t know anything at all about Black Gold. I’d just watched my first Kentucky Derby earlier that year, and had read most of the other Marguerite Henry books, which all had HAPPY endings.

So I was totally blindsided when Black Gold broke down and had to be destroyed. For a long time after that, I thought a quarter crack was a death sentence!

[Auventera_Two]

@whitney159;5915963

I wouldn’t even watch the Will Smith movie about the virus that turns people into flesh eating zombies, because I heard his dog takes a bite for him and he has to kill her.

That was a good movie, but when he had to kill his own dog I was in shock. And it’s just a stupid fake Hollywood movie. :eek: :no:

[lovey1121]

[QUOTE=Mara;5915838]
Several years ago I had a number of people to tell me I just had to read The Hidden Life Of Dogs, by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas. So I made the mistake of taking the advice.

Less than halfway through (when Thomas let a friend’s dog, whom she was caring for while the friend was out of town, roam around the city at will), I found myself hoping that the author would get hit by a car. [/QUOTE]

:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol: ME TOO!!!:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:

[lovey1121]

[QUOTE=Mara;5915724]
Saw a real sleeper of a film a few weeks ago - when old, arthritic Hachi lies down in his place at the station entrance and falls asleep. And then Gere appears through the station doors and greets his friend. . .

Crap, I am tearing up now![/QUOTE]

Dag, Mara, you just got me leaking:cry:, and I’ve never even heard of the film…

[lovey1121]

[QUOTE=whitney159;5915963]
I was in tears reading this thread, but so happy to know that I don’t suffer from this syndrome alone.
And homeward bound, with the two dogs and cat that travel the long distance to their owners, where you think the golden dies (but in the end he makes it), tears tears tears. I just can’t take it.
So I"m not the only woman in the world who can’t take it! What a relief!
whitney[/QUOTE]

Ah, Homeward Bound…both the 60’s version and the later one killed me with those ending scenes… unabashed noisy bawling throughout the whole scene…

[summerhorse]

I’m glad I’m not the only one who does this. Someone may ask me if I want to go see (some animal movie) and I’m like Noooooo, thanks anyway… I’ll watch them but at home and alone so i can bawl my head off in private. I just have to remember not to answer the phone!! They don’t even have to die.

Jack which is the story of a Belgian sheepdog is another tear jerker. I was so shocked at the end. I finally gave it away even though it is probably the only Belgian novel! And Nob, OMG, I could only read that once, finally had to get rid of that one too. The Magic of Lassie is a REAL tearjerker and that has a HAPPY ending!

[StGermain]

Not a book, but a movie. There’s an old, old movie called The Biscuit Eater (not the 1960’s version, but one from the 40’s). My mother remembered being taken to that movie when she was 8 or 9 years old. Her dad was a Detroit cop who also raised and trained hunting dogs. He sat there in the theatre surrounded by his kids, bawling like a baby.In the story, two little boys raise a cast-off pointer. The dog is an egg-sucker, stealing from the henhouse. The boys train him, breaking his egg-sucking. In a field trial, the boys make the dog break his point, because they’re afraid if the dog wins, the boys’ fathers could loose their jobs. So they talk to the dog, telling him he’s a no-account egg-sucker. They break the dogs heart and spirit and he runs out of the field. My mother watched the movie 60 years later and it still brought her to tears. She called her sister and asked if she remembered the movie, and my aunt started crying without even watching a minute of it.

Mara - I saw (and cryed over) Hachi. Just breaks my heart.

StG

[ohrebecca]

[QUOTE=shea’smom;5916036]
I never read books where dogs died, but I did read Ruffian. Holy moly, did I cry, but that book was worth it…
Also, can’t watch ET. too sad, even though he ends up alive.[/QUOTE]

I can’t even THINK about Ruffian without crying!

An interesting, though tear-jerking book, is Paul Auster’s Timbuktu, told through the eyes of a homeless man’s dog.

[FalseImpression]

I read Marley & Me, cried by eyes out and skipped the sad chapter, but then there is another dog. I have a yellow lab and I also laughed so much!! But, no way, will I watch the movie.
No way would I go and watch/rent Hachi! Just watching the trailer had me in tears…
I enjoyed A Dog Named Christmas… I did not read Racing in the Rain, my husband did and liked it. I won’t.

but then, I am also the one who could not watch Finding Nemo because I was worried about the fish… a cartoon!!! same with Spirit… and Rio. Sigh. I’d hate to admit my age!

[outside_line1]

Worth the pain: Merle’s Door by Ted Kerasote. I cried, but I loved the way he talked about Merle and dealt with his situation. Really a great book - I pick it up and re-read sections from time to time. I think I enjoyed it because it was really resonant with the way I experience my dogs - times of complete joy, amazement, and laughter, even though we all know how stories about dogs always end.

[Kryswyn]

A few years ago I found a paperback Lynn Hall kid’s book, “Soul of the Silver Dog” about a troubled girl and the blind bedlington terrier she gets and trains to win an agility class (back when agility was not the cut throat sport it is now). It was a GREAT story. Chapters alternated between the girl’s story and the dog’s POV.

And then… well let’s just say there’s a reason why I mention that book on this thread. I did learn that Bedlington’s have a problem with copper levels.

Sobbed through the last 2 chapters. Sad not only for the dog but the girl who’s lost so much in her life and now loses her best friend. Fortunately, Ms Hall includes a last chapter where the girl goes back to abandoned yard she trained her dog. Through tears she sees her dog, now clearly with his sight restored fly over the obstacles, happy and whole. After a long last look, he fades away.

Oh god, now I’m crying again.

[1sock]

[QUOTE=lovey1121;5913949]
A couple people mentioned Nop’s Trials. I still shudder thinking about the fur coats made from dog pelts- the dobie turned into a “sealskin” jacket…it was well written and I enjoyed learning about the life of a herding dog, but that slaughter stuff has kept me, an avowed die-hard re-re-re-re(etc)-reader from picking that one up again.

On the other hand, I also loved his book Eminent Dogs Dangerous Men. Great photos, too.

And I still adore James Herriot’s books, because as skillfully as he uses evocative humor, he also carefully describes the pain of loss, and he never was maudlin or gratuitous. I go back to them often despite knowing they’ll pull some tears from me (i still use his famous phrasing for throwing up…-"'E’s wommiting bad, just wommited his dinner…")[/QUOTE]

Speaking of James Herriot, the 2 of his dog stories that stick out most in my mind are the one (actually, many, if I remember correctly) about Tricky-Woo, or some name like that, and the one called “Have a Cigar”, where he has to put the old man’s dog down. Have re-read that in collections many times, and cry every time I read it. I think there was a bad one where a child’s dog had contacted Parvo too.

I don’t think anyone has mentioned “Only One Woof”? Another Herriot story and from memory that ended well…

Nop’s Trials was a good book, and another good one was The Plague Dogs by Richard Adams. Good news is the main character dogs don’t die. Bad news is all of the examples of the dogs in the animal testing lab are based on real experiments.

Not a dog book, but I was given Dewey the Library Cat for Christmas last year. I already knew basically how it was going to end so I can’t say I was surprised, but of course I cried through the end anyway. Dewey was a good kitty.

[bits619]

[QUOTE=Mara;5915724]
Saw a real sleeper of a film a few weeks ago - “Hachi”, with Richard Gere.
Cried my eyes out. So did my husband.

Gere plays a college professor who finds an Akita puppy at the train station. The puppy “adopts” him, and follows Gere to the station every day, taking up his post in the town square to wait until Gere’s return. One day the professor suffers a fatal heart attack at work. Hachi returns to wait for his master every day for ten years. It’s based on the true story of Hachiko, a dog in Japan in the early 20th century. There is a statue of Hachiko at the train station, in his “spot”.

I held it together until the very end, when old, arthritic Hachi lies down in his place at the station entrance and falls asleep. And then Gere appears through the station doors and greets his friend. . .

Crap, I am tearing up now![/QUOTE]
Ya got me all choked up over that now too, and I haven’t seen it before! I almost picked it up in walmart last night but passed

There was a book I read as a kid that tore my heart apart. It is A Dog Called Kitty, and yes he dies in a farming accident. I came across the book in B&N a while ago (in the kids section) and was thisclose to crying amidst the lil young readers! Even just the cover image was enough!