I'd like to give this 3.5. It's engaging, funny, heartbreaking, and educational. Anyone involved with rescue, or thinking about getting into rescue should probably read it.

But gosh darn it all, I may just hurl the next book I about "a New Yorker who gets a dog and does all the wrong things but who learns and gets better next time" out the window. Can't you people do some research about basic training and obedience? I started training dogs in junior high through 4-H, so maybe I'm a little more sensitive than many, but training is such a basic need that I don't know why people don't automatically do it. We send 3 year olds to pre-school--would one basic training class with your new puppy kill you?

There, rant over. Really, after beating my head against the wall at the beginning, I started thoroughly enjoying the book. Julie explains rescue here, from the hours-long transports to the foster who is too crazy to the owner who shouldn't have a pet rock, let alone a living creature. Rescue is hard, and it always helps to have that publicly acknowledged by someone who can say it more eloquently than I can.