Scan barcode
A review by laurla
A Big Little Life: A Memoir of a Joyful Dog by Dean Koontz
the ending made me bawl. i gotta stop reading dog stories where the dog always dies in the end.
"dogs' lives are short, too short, but you know that going in. you know the pain is coming, you're going to lose a dog, and there's going to be great anguish, so you live fully in the moment with her, never fail to share her joy or delight in her innocence, because you can't support the illusion that a dog can be your lifelong companion. there's such beauty in the hard honesty of that, in accepting and giving love while always aware it comes with an unbearable price. maybe loving dogs is a way we do penance for all the other illusions we allow ourselves and for the mistakes we make because of those illusions." - i must admit i was never aware of the price of losing a beloved dog when i first fell in love with them. and i've never thought of them as anything less than lifelong companions, though i realize now that's just not possible. and i realize now that i have set myself up for great anguish when puppy and molly pass. but i need them in my life. i need their joy, their enthusiasm, their innocence for however short a time i may have it.
"few human beings give of themselves to another as a dog gives of itself. i also suspect that we cherish dogs because their unblemished souls make us wish - consciously or unconsciously that we were as innocent as they are, and make us yearn for a place where innocence is universal and where the meanness, the betrayals, and the cruelties of this world are unknown." -
"dogs' lives are short, too short, but you know that going in. you know the pain is coming, you're going to lose a dog, and there's going to be great anguish, so you live fully in the moment with her, never fail to share her joy or delight in her innocence, because you can't support the illusion that a dog can be your lifelong companion. there's such beauty in the hard honesty of that, in accepting and giving love while always aware it comes with an unbearable price. maybe loving dogs is a way we do penance for all the other illusions we allow ourselves and for the mistakes we make because of those illusions." - i must admit i was never aware of the price of losing a beloved dog when i first fell in love with them. and i've never thought of them as anything less than lifelong companions, though i realize now that's just not possible. and i realize now that i have set myself up for great anguish when puppy and molly pass. but i need them in my life. i need their joy, their enthusiasm, their innocence for however short a time i may have it.
"few human beings give of themselves to another as a dog gives of itself. i also suspect that we cherish dogs because their unblemished souls make us wish - consciously or unconsciously that we were as innocent as they are, and make us yearn for a place where innocence is universal and where the meanness, the betrayals, and the cruelties of this world are unknown." -