Book ~ "You Had Me at Woof: How Dogs Taught Me the Secrets of Happiness" (2010) Julie Klam

From Goodreads ~ Julie Klam was thirty, single and working as a part-time clerk in an insurance company, wondering if she would ever meet the man she could spend the rest of her life with. And then it happened. She met the irresistible Otto, her first in a long line of Boston terriers, and fell instantly in love.

"You Had Me at Woof" is the often hilarious and always sincere story of how one woman discovered life's most important lessons from her relationships with her canine companions. From Otto, Julie realized what it might feel like to find "the one." She learned to share her home, her heart and her limited resources with another, and she found an authentic friend in the process. But that was just the beginning. 

Over the years her brood has grown to one husband, one daughter and several Boston terriers. And although she had much to learn about how to care for them-walks at 2 a.m., vet visits, behavior problems - she was surprised and delighted to find that her dogs had more wisdom to convey to her than she had ever dreamed. And caring for them has made her a better person - and completely and utterly opened her heart. 

I love reading stories about animals and that's why this book caught my eye.

The book starts when Julie is almost 30 and single.  She figures that a dog would fill the gap in her life and adopts Otto, a Boston terrier.  And that starts her love of this breed. She goes on to get married and have a daughter.  She gets involved with a Boston terrier rescue and becomes a foster mom.

Though the book bounced around a bit (one minute she's lonely and single and the next she's married with a child), I enjoyed the writing style.  As a head's up, there is some adult language.  The highlight of this book for me was that I learned a lot about animal rescues and realize how truly dedicated the volunteers and the lengths they will go to help animals. 

Despite her obvious love of dogs, I didn't warm up to the author.  When she got Otto, it seemed like she had a weird unnatural relationship with him.  I've had dogs and have cats and yes, I do consider them to be part of my family, but Klam was over obsessed with Otto and couldn't bear to be apart from him (BTW, he was dead by the third chapter).  While I applaud her enthusiasm when she got involved with the rescue, it seemed like she let her heart not common sense lead her actions.  Though she had no car, a two bedroom apartment, a husband, a daughter and a dog, she kept taking in foster dogs ... some flew through the air and bit her daughter, fought with her dog, peed in her bed, got hit by a car (so sad to read about that dog), etc.  At one point, she took in a pregnant dog and ended up keeping her and her two pups ... so that meant she had four dogs, which sounded like madness!