Pretzel, Houdini & Olive: Essays On the Dogs of My Life

Told from the perspective of a self-identified crazy dog lady, these eleven interconnected essays follow one womans relations with five different dogs. Together, they travel over terrain spanning her husbands battle with cancer, his death, her grieving process, and her rejoining the living as her dogs lead her forward from the other end of their leashes. Alongside her personal story, she considers such cultural issues as Americans unhealthy relationships with the natural world, ageism across species, poverty and privilege, hoarding, and the meaning of happiness. This is not a sentimental who-rescued-whom? book about the healing power of animals. Instead, it explores one representative humans relationships with dogs, with all their joys but also their frustrations, neuroses, and downright craziness.