In The Dogs Who Grew Me, Ann Pregosin recounts the invaluable life's lessons she learned from living with five distinct breeds of dogs, from a lively little American Cocker Spaniel to a majestic Bernese Mountain Dog. Moppet is the sweet little spaniel from her childhood who taught her about love. Della is the sleek black Great Dane who taught her devotion. Timber is the wolf-hybrid whose extraordinary beauty inside and out taught her grace. Boo, her iron-willed Rottweiler, is the dog who taught her that no one is exempt from the bad things in life that can and will find us, no matter who we are. Daisy, her chocolate American Cocker Spaniel, is the Master Instructor of the merits of "creature comforts." And Tyler, her Bernese Mountain Dog, is the "Joy of Living Dog" who is teaching her like no dog before him how essential it is to really live this gift of life.
The other lessons taught by these six dogs that "grew" Pregosin as a person are as seemingly simple, but maybe ultimately profound, as the unfettered joy of a walk in the park. They are also lessons about perseverance, the foibles of excessive rigidity and self-defeating aggression, developing patience, welcoming joy, birth and motherhood, the gift of good health, the adjustments to be made as youth gives way to age, how death must be accepted as part of life, and how essential it is to really live the life that came before.
A memoir of a life gloriously lived with dogs, this book also educates as Pregosin provides the "Breed Standard" for each of these purebred dogs as set forth by The American Kennel Club, and then recounts how each respective dog conformed to this "standard" and where, to her delight or chagrin, he departed to be his "own dog." Liberally included throughout are myriad dog issues that will resonate with fellow dog owners, such as visits to the veterinarian — where sometimes it's the merry pandemonium in the waiting room that is the story, trips to boarding facilities, the great flea and tick issue, and the merits of leather versus nylon leashes.
