She embarks on a massive lifestyle shift-embracing a more animal-friendly approach and trying to find her place somewhere between a hippie in a hemp skirt and a hypocrite in leather high heels.
And then she realizes that Seamus wasn't the only beagle who needed rescuing.
This book picks up after The Dog Lived (and So Will I), which I enjoyed, with Teresa, her boyfriend, Chris, and their beagle, Seamus. In that book, Teresa had chronicled her and Seamus' battles and triumphs over cancer.
In order to assure that their cancers didn't return, Teresa turns to a healthier lifestyle. She becomes more aware of and knowledgeable about the cruelty and abuse of animals. This leads her to eventually become vegan and stop using products that test on animals (cleaning products, make-up, etc.) or that an animal died to produce (leather, etc.). Alas, Seamus passes away and Teresa and Chris adopt two rescue beagles, Daphne and Percival, and all doesn't go as peacefully or happily as planned.
As a dog lover, I liked this book. I liked the writing style ... it was funny and sarcastic at times yet honest. I liked learning more about the beagle rescue and the support system they have. In the author's journey to figure out her place in the world as a vegan, she even visited some animal sanctuaries such as the Gentle Barn (I'd read the Gentle Barn's owner, Ellie Laks' memoir in March ... it's an excellent book!).
For the most part, I liked this book. While I applaud the author for becoming a vegan (I love animals but could never become a non-meat eater), I found that she got too extreme in her zealous about it. She's reading a lot of books and watching a lot of documentaries to become better informed ... that's all I needed to know. I know the horrors that happen and didn't need her to give me the graphic and gory details of what she was reading and watching, which is what she did. It's not what I was expecting when reading a book about rescue dogs and I skipped those parts.
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