dog

dog

What are you reading these days? The book I’m reading makes me clutch my heart…

First, let me say: Most of my life, I haven’t been a dog person. I’ve always been a little scared and skittish. Even the tiniest ones always seem like they might, at any moment, just turn and bite me. This probably sounds nuts, but there you go.

However! The new book of essays I recently picked up — The Particulars of Peter by Kelly Conaboy — makes my heart swell for all things canine. Kelly writes about her rescue dog, Peter, and all his lovable quirks.

For example, she writes about life before him:

What did I do before Peter? I’m trying to remember. I have to imagine there were things. I did computer, I guess. Typed. Sat alone. Shuffled around the apartment in stockinged feet. Made dinner and ate it while doing, what? Looking at the wall? And who did I feed a noodle to? No one? It’s almost too gruesome to recall.

She writes about his personality:

When he walks down the stairs, at his moderately paced gentleman’s trot, you can tell he’s a bit bowlegged. He has the heart of an angel and the soul of a poet, and there’s a hint of sadness to him that makes you want to protect him against all the world’s harshness… He will sit his big, fat butt on your lap like he’s tiny, when he actually weighs twenty-seven pounds. He’s affectionate, but not needy. ‘He’s just so…kind,’ is how a cousin of mine once described him, and it’s true: he’s just so kind. Also he loves to burrow under the covers, and he loves to sleep with his head on a pillow like a tiny little man.

She writes about buying him gifts:

Now that I know him, my yearnings for what I’d like to provide for him have gotten more precise. I still buy him chew toys, and stuffed things, and beds, and everything else, but I’d really like to buy him something big. Something life-changing. What I’d really like to buy Peter is a laptop. I’ll give you a moment to imagine it. Doesn’t that sounds like the kind of gift he deserves? Expensive, solid, able to compute things. A laptop is a statement gift, a real ‘leveling-up’ sort of purchase. It’s fun, but useful — you can surf the internet, or put together a spreadsheet. It would be an investment in his future. I think about how much I’d like to buy him a laptop with what one might deem an alarming frequency.

How sweet is that? The Particulars of Peter is the perfect pandemic read — a funny, warmhearted, cuddly love story. I’d highly recommend it — even if, like me, you weren’t (until now) a dog person.

What are you reading these days? I’d love to hear…

P.S. What are your top three books, and what’s the most beautiful thing you’ve ever read?

(Top photo by J. Danielle Wehunt/Stocksy.)

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