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dan_ronan 's review for:
Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog
by John Grogan
It's obvious that John Grogan loved his dog, but at the same time, I got the sense that he wasn't the best master for a dog to have. Obviously the dog had problems that even the best owners couldn't correct or handle, but there were times that I thought Grogan was just being cruel. I'll be honest: I'm not a dog owner, I've never owned one, but I thought that maybe someday when I get married and buy a house I would get a dog. I'm not so sure about that anymore. And not because dogs destroy a bunch of stuff.
There was a point in the book where the Grogan family moves from Florida to Pennsylvania. They get to the airport and somebody tells them that the crate they got for Marley was too small. The crate for transporting a dog must allow the dog to stand up fully, and be able to turn around. They push Marley into the crate where he can barely stand, and obviously can't turn around, but because of a commotion with other animals, Marley was able to squeeze himself around to face the other way. That was good enough for the airport and the Grogan family. They put the dog in a cramped cage in the belly of the plane for a nice 2 hour flight while he howled the entire time.
Then, the last three or four chapters are just a description of how Marley's health was rapidly declining. It was just description after description of how the dog could barely stand, how it could barely hold it's bladder, how it went deaf, how it lost all its teeth, how they would put the dog in a kennel as they go off to Disney World for a nice family vacation, how it's stomach turned up-side-down, and how even though there was a 99% chance that the stomach would turn again and cause him even more suffering, they decided to take that chance and Marley pulled through. The last three years of the dog's life just seemed terrible.
I guess this book made me realize that I don't want to own a dog if it means I'll love it so much I treat it poorly in it's last couple years of life.
There was a point in the book where the Grogan family moves from Florida to Pennsylvania. They get to the airport and somebody tells them that the crate they got for Marley was too small. The crate for transporting a dog must allow the dog to stand up fully, and be able to turn around. They push Marley into the crate where he can barely stand, and obviously can't turn around, but because of a commotion with other animals, Marley was able to squeeze himself around to face the other way. That was good enough for the airport and the Grogan family. They put the dog in a cramped cage in the belly of the plane for a nice 2 hour flight while he howled the entire time.
Then, the last three or four chapters are just a description of how Marley's health was rapidly declining. It was just description after description of how the dog could barely stand, how it could barely hold it's bladder, how it went deaf, how it lost all its teeth, how they would put the dog in a kennel as they go off to Disney World for a nice family vacation, how it's stomach turned up-side-down, and how even though there was a 99% chance that the stomach would turn again and cause him even more suffering, they decided to take that chance and Marley pulled through. The last three years of the dog's life just seemed terrible.
I guess this book made me realize that I don't want to own a dog if it means I'll love it so much I treat it poorly in it's last couple years of life.