The Tail

March 05, 2013

I’m old enough to be a grandmother, but instead find myself in my later years raising a very active three-year-old named Ruby Joy. She has reddish-brown hair, huge, expressive brown eyes, and a little stump of a tail. Did I mention that she is a cute, annoying, bounce off the walls, hyper, lick-everything-in-sight, boxer? Yes, she has four legs, but she is my baby. My husband and I finally got our last fledgling out of the house and were enjoying a happy empty nest. Then, for Christmas 3 years ago, I was gifted a 4 lb., 6 week old, sickly boxer puppy. Life has never been the same!

I was determined to be the best mom and have the best behaved puppy in the world. Ruby attended puppy obedience at our local Pete & Macs - twice. Just like my two-legged children, I again wound up with trouble in the classroom. Oh the shame! To help both of us with training, I took advantage of MCPL's extensive dog training collection, reading such books as Puppies for Dummies, Imagine Life with a Well-Behaved Dog, How to Raise the Perfect Dog, and others. In addition to these, I've read every book about the boxer breed the Library owns.

Because of my new dog life, I have also been reading several great nonfiction books about dogs like Last Dog on the Hill by Steve Duno and Scent of the Missing by Susannah Charleson. MCPL also has great dog fiction books, such as Dog on It by Spencer Quinn, Rose in a Storm by Jon Katz, and many others. If you are a dog parent, or just a dog lover, try some of these great books!

Nola E.
Boardwalk Branch