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My Life in Dog Years by Gary Paulsen


Stars: ***
This book is for the Four-Legged Friends challenge.
I won this book from Dewey a few months ago but didn’t have time to read it till the new year. It’s a collection of stories by Gary Paulsen all about different dogs he has had in his life. It’s written for a younger crowd, I’d say 8 and up. The stories were fun to read even as an adult although obviously as an adult, I found them a little short. I would have liked to know more about the dogs. I think Paulsen should create an adult version, sort of like John Grogan made a kid’s version of Marley and Me that was shorter.

At the start of each chapter is a small sketch of the dog being talked about by C.E. Mitchell. Although the sketches are cute, I’d prefer a photograph of them. My favourite story was about Caesar, the Great Dane.

Here are some of my favourite quotes from the book:

“ ’You have him with the sheep?’ I asked Olaf. He nodded. ‘Last Year I lost forty-three to coyotes,’ he said. ‘This year not a one. He likes to guard things, doesn’t he?’ I thought of Dirk chasing Happy down the street, and later spitting out bits of his pants and I smiled. ‘Yeah, he sure does.’” – pg 53

“And so this man brought Caesar, who looked more like a Tyrannosaurus Rex than a dog, into our small cottage.” – pg. 69

“…Caesar licked his face – an experience which I think could be duplicated by sticking your head in a car wash – but the effects were the same as if he’d attacked. The package went up in the air and crashed to the ground with a sound of breaking rockery…. The delivery man wet his pants and in a cloud of dog spit and dust clawed his way free, ran back to the truck and was gone before I knew exactly what had happened. Soon after, we received a polite note saying that that particular
company would no longer deliver packages to us.” – pg 84

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