Book ~ "A Girl Called Fred" (2014) Roger Willgoose

From Goodreads ~ "A Girl Called Fred" is the beautifully written tale of Fred, a female Yorkshire terrier, and her first years with a new family. Set in the halcyon days of the seventies, this narrative brings back memories of when the village pub was where good beer and conversation flowed and smoking was allowed inside. Milk was delivered to the doorstep and coal, kept in bunkers, was burnt on open fires where bread and chestnuts could be toasted.

In 1975, at the age of six, Fred joins the Willgoose family and brings love, companionship and joy, mixed with humour and occasional sadness to Jean, Roger and Stephen. To their surprise, Fred betrays her ratting ancestry with most unladylike assaults on various cats, dogs and people who stamp their feet – especially eighteen-stone gentlemen! But her strength of character shows through when she becomes the victim of a road accident which causes great distress to her loving family. Stephen often shows a maturity beyond his years while Roger, with good humour, patience and occasional over-indulgence in the local pub, endures and describes some quite hilarious experiences.

Jean's aunt was looking for a new home for her six-year-old Yorkie.  Jean and her husband, Roger, adopted the dog and Roger renamed her Fred.  These are the stories and adventures of Jean, Roger, Steve (their son), Fred and eventually Charlie (one of Fred's pups), as told by Roger.

I liked the writing style ... it was funny and sarcastic.  The story is set in England so it's a different style than I'm used to and there were terms I wasn't familiar with but I figured it out and found it humorous.  I would recommend this to all dog lovers.

The manuscript for this book was written many years ago.  After Roger died in 2010, his wife found it and had it published.