Four Paws Up - Reviewing Love at First Bark

Abbey recently made a little book at school about safe and unsafe activities. Her unsafe activity was “running into the street,” which makes sense, because we remind Dylan about that at least eight hundred and eleven times a day. Her safe activity was “petting my pets.”

We don’t have pets.

Love at First Bark, by Julie Klam, might seem like an interesting reading choice for me.

We all love Honey Bear, my furry niece, but the closest we’ve come to opening our home to a pet is a discussion about getting a fish when she turns four. Well, in college, my roommate adopted a cat; he is still the coolest cat I’ve ever met, though I don’t think he remembers all of the time I spent waving his little feather on a stick in front of his face.

Reading Love at First Bark didn’t change my mind about getting a dog (sorry Abbey!) Our house didn’t miraculously grow before I finished the endearing tale about rescuing dogs. I have a tough time asking my parents to watch Abbey and Dylan on the rare occasions we go out of town; I can’t imagine adding another little creature to that request.

What struck me the most in reading Julie’s story is how incredibly fortunate I feel that there are people like her living amongst people like me.

I love snuggling with Honey Bear, but Julie Klam is the type of person who eschews her afternoon plans to figure out what to do with an abandoned dog tied to a post on a New York City street. She’s the type of person who goes out of her way to help the animals in hurricane-ravaged New Orleans.

Love at First Bark speaks repeatedly about the ways caring for animals can help people discover positive things about themselves; she clearly feels that she’s lucky to have encountered the animals in her life.

I can’t speak, or bark I guess, for them, but Love at First Bark makes me think that they must feel the same way about her.

Learn more about Love at First Bark or meet Julie Klam, and join the discussion about adopting rescue animals over at BlogHer Book Club!

I received a copy of Love at First Bark to read and review, as well as compensation for this post, courtesy of BlogHer and Penguin Books. All opinions expressed, as always, are my own.