How Could I Forget? To Live is to Love, to Love is to Weep

How could I forget the single most heart-wrenching book of my 2011? This year, I read A Dog's Purpose: A Novel for Humans by W. Bruce Cameron.

My darling Scott started reading this book to me at night in the late summer. Scott employed a perfectly-honed voice for the puppy narrator, all mischief and wonder, unabashed love and learning. I was starting to fall in love with the story until - well, I won't give away what the major plot device of this book is, but let's just say until.

I cried uncontrollably. I pressed my face into my pillow and wept. Scott tried to comfort me, laying his Braille Reader down and placing a hand on my shoulder. "Carleigh," he whispered, "it's all right." But it wasn't all right. I insisted he never read another word from that book to me again. I couldn't take it. I asked for Bailey (who usually runs away immediately at the sound of my oncoming tears) and Scott dutifully retrieved him. I hugged my dog to me and cried some more. I love that dog. We did not return to the book.

Then, Scott and I holidayed in New England this fall. We were driving between Boston and Maine and I needed to be read to to stay awake while driving after a red eye. I inhaled and made my request. I wanted to try again. I wanted to hear A Dog's Purpose. So Scott read. And I cried. And he read more that night, and again the next day between Maine and New Hampshire, between Concord and Montpelier. We finished that beautiful book in Providence, late at night, and again I wept. Scott held me close for a long time. We laughed and talked about Bailey. I cried a little more. And then we slept.

Having a dog (and a dog having you, truth be told) is one of the great joys of life. Loving Bailey has opened my heart in ways I never knew it could be opened. I am a better person because of him and I am an even better person for having read A Dog's Purpose.

We've got to choose our dog books carefully. (Where the Red Fern Grows? Yes. The Art of Racing in the Rain? No.) I recommend this book to anyone who needs a shot of emotion straight to the heart, or needs to be reminded that there are always second (and third, and fourth) chances to get things right.