Book Review: The Dogs of Christmas (Colorado, family, giving, puppies)

The Dogs of Christmas: A Novel, by W. Bruce Cameron (Tom Doherty Associates, 2013, 238 pages, $15.99)

“The Phone Rang.”

And so begins one of the best books of 2017 (even if it was written in 2013).  DogEvalswonders why it has not been made into a movie yet, like author W. Bruce Cameron’s A Dog’s Purpose* (see below).

When The Dogs does become a movie, it will appeal to whole families in their entirety – from sentimental mothers to the guys they married to their little girls and even their young boys.

Although Christmas appears in the title and in the book, The Dogs of Christmas is an autumn book that needn’t be saved for December unless you want to read it at least twice, like I ended up doing!

Almost A+

Every once in a while – like once a year – this reviewer stays up all night to savor and finish a grand reading experience. The Dogs of Christmas was this year’s winner and it took until December to find.

What’s it All About?

First of all, The Dogs of Christmas seems so real that you have to come back down to Earth and think twice to realize it’s a novel: from the daily changing fall weather in Colorado you remember from growing up in the West, to the love interest-relationship (on-again, off-again) that everyone is constantly rooting for but realize ‘that’s life,’ to friends’ setting Josh up with one gorgeous blind date after another to the twists and turns of the futures of the dogs and puppies - and family and love – and giving up and receiving more than what was given – such a hard lesson for a computer guy.

Our Josh, a computer nerd living in his childhood home on a hilltop in Colorado is a dumpee – the reluctant recipient of a very pregnant dog - just a couple of days before the puppies are due: Josh who has never even had a dog in his life is now faced with several, including some very new and small dependent lives.

Josh researches everything on the internet: from cooking Thanksgiving dinner (a fiasco) to taking the temperature of his new and very pregnant dog.

Being a novice, he enlists the ‘help’ of a veterinarian and the more empathetic tutelage of puppy-lover and shelter-worker Kerri, the latter of whom is wise and wonderful – and vulnerable, too.

Five Puppies Later

Fortunately, five puppies with very different personalities (and names)(and even futures) came to land in the back of Josh’ pick-up and, fortunately again, Josh loses his job so he has the time to be entranced by the five little deaf and blind critters that he can’t keep his eyes off – and to learn “all about puppies” (thanks to the internet and Kerri).

Ah, what is better than to spend one’s days watching puppies sleep - and smelling that enchanting, intoxicating puppy breath.

Our Protagonist Proceeds to Fall in Love with . . . . Seven!

Five puppies, Lucy the dog, and Kerri the wise and wonderful dog-person. Enter Amanda, the former girl friend. . . . and Kerri must convince Josh to give the puppies up for adoption to good homes and then Lucy-the-dog’s owner turns up and . . . .

A Realistic Tear-Jerker You Will Want to Read Again the Next Day!

I did!

But, there is nothing sad about The Dogs of Christmas or, at least, should I say that everything has such a believable yet unforeseen happy twist that you will smile and keep reading through your tears.

Merry Christmas everyone – from The Dogs of Christmas! Enjoy the read - you may just become a better person for it.

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*See DogEvals’ review of Ellie’s Story here.

Sterling quotes:

Page 86 “Why hadn’t anyone told him about this, about having a dog? That it made every moment more important, that it somehow brought the best stuff to the surface of the day?”

Page 95 “Lucy [dog] forgave him though – that seemed to be what dogs did, they immediately cancelled any grudges, forgave any offense just because it was so much more fun to be friends.”

Page 180 about puppies coming in from playing in the snow: “. . .feet leaving tiny puddles of melt water that glittered on the floor like jewels.”

Page 207 about separating litters of puppies when adopting them out from a shelter: “We’re not breaking families. We’re making families.” and “. . .being with us is a dog’s purpose,” because “living away from humans. . . is unnatural for them. They aren’t happy.”