Family Dog

Penny's story is the fourth in Brian L. Porter's award-winning Family of Rescue Dogs series. It features a tiny terrier, abandoned in a particularly cruel manner and her subsequent adoption and life with the author and his family. From being attacked and needing emergency surgery to days out at the coast chasing seagulls and living in stately homes, Penny's life in Brian's pack of rescue dogs has never been anything but interesting and eventful.

Maggie Allen hates being a delivery driver, but she can't leave her small town to find a better job; her father's too sick to take care of himself, her younger brother Jake can't stay out of trouble, and her nagging aunt won't stop meddling in their lives. The last thing she needs is a dog to take care of. Especially one that's spend most of his life chained up by neglectful owners. But when Dad goes behind her back to adopt a pit bull named Cappuccino, she has to admit that the dog is good for the family.

Eliza Jacobson has always been the black sheep of her mega-successful family, who runs the HealthNut Corporation. She’s not as pretty, talented, or business-savvy as her older sister, but she loves volunteering to work with the dogs at Pretty Paws, especially Athena, a Great Dane whose high-anxiety habits make her nearly unadoptable. After her last-chance opportunity to become a vet tech collapses, she takes a job at the call center of HealthNut’s competitor, Thetalife Supplements, where she meets the dashing, charming, sweep-you-off-your-feet CEO, Tony Costos.

Abused and abandoned by her former owners, the unadoptable boxer, Baker, finds a safe haven at Pretty Paws, the only no-kill shelter in town. But when she's scared, she can't help defending herself, even from the people who want to help her. Dumped by her cheating fiancé and mourning the loss of her mother to cancer, Maeve dreams of opening a bakery. But the only way she can afford that is to win a baking contest. Too bad her high school nemesis has entered, too, and is using her rich daddy's money to stack the deck against Maeve.

The title says it all: what we have and where we are. This travel memoir, the sequel to Glass Half Full: Our Australian Adventure, follows our French exploits as we endeavor to rebuild our lives in another new country, after spending four and half years in Australia. Our goal, or hope for the immediate future, is to focus positively on the present so that we can start a new, optimistic future back in Europe. Our main aim is to be nearer to the children, leaving the dark clouds of the challenges we faced in Australia as a distant memory. Journey with us as we arrive in rural South West France; enjoy my reflections, thoughts, and observations about my family, our new surroundings, and our lifestyle. Follow the journey of my writing career and how we start our renovation project while managing our convoluted family life. Once again, we will laugh, cry, and enjoy life to the fullest with a generous helping of positive spin thrown in for good measure.

Not yet 16, Bellamy Larson - or Beam, as she'd rather be called - remembers everything. Truthfully, there's a lot she'd just rather forget. Beam never knew her father and doesn't ever want to. Her little brother died while saving her. And her mother self-medicates, leaving Beam to fend for herself. She doesn't need friends. She just needs to get away. Buzz Donovan is on a journey across America. Luckily for him, he has a friend - a dog named Hush. It's because of Hush, though, that Buzz is homeless. But that's his choice, because if it weren't for Hush, he'd be dead.

In this fourth installment of the poignant stories of the McCray family and their lovable canines in rural Kansas, matriarch Mary Ann McCray is determined to shake up Christmas by accepting the role as Crossing Trail's first woman Santa Claus. Mary Ann, always a bit of a rebel, is looking to offer a more progressive voice in the staunchly conservative town at Christmastime and has a few ideas up her red velvet sleeves.

Earnest. It's the perfect name for a sweet, eager-to-please yellow Labrador retriever. Anna and her boyfriend Jeff fall for him the minute they see those guileless eyes gazing up from behind his gate at Seattle's Best Friends Shelter. In no time at all, they're a pack of three, with Earnest happily romping in their condo on Gamble Island. During the day, Earnest keeps Anna company in her flower shop, located in a historic gingerbread Victorian on the island's main street.

Addie Andrews is living a life interrupted. Tragedy sent her fleeing from Chicago to the shelter of an unexpected inheritance - her beloved aunt's somewhat dilapidated home in Eunice, Arkansas, population very tiny. There she reconnects with some of her most cherished childhood memories. If only they didn't make her feel so much!

Although my dog Scamp is the lead actor in this book, it is not a book about dogs. Children are the real focus, and the content is addressed to their grown-up handlers — the parents and teachers who guide them out of their blissful state of infant irresponsibility, through the challenges of childhood, and into their own unique, self-determined biographies. Mothers, fathers, grandparents, aunts, uncles, teachers, caregivers, or anyone working with children, I thought, might want to partake of lessons Scamp taught me.

When Todd’s father passes away, he feels no sadness. He feels free, for the first time in his life, to tell those he loves who he really is, a secret he has kept hidden since he was a teen out of necessity. That sense of freedom is quickly extinguished when he’s asked to eulogize the man who tortured him and his family for a lifetime. Forced to dig through his past looking for fond memories of a war hero, he quickly realizes there aren’t any to be had. As the day of the funeral looms, Todd seeks the assistance of his brothers, whose own experiences only create more problems.

Rusty Williams shares the ups and downs, but most importantly, the love, of fostering dogs to save them from euthanasia in this tell-all account. Laugh with him, cry with him, but most of all, learn the true gift of love and a new life as he details the sacrifices, the gut-wrenching, and the moments that made everything worthwhile. If you’ve ever considered fostering, this book will help you learn if you have what it takes. If you love dogs or are in need of inspiration to make positive change in the world, then this is your must-listen story of the year.

For anyone who ever loved All Creatures Great and Small, Annie England Noblin’s newest novel—about a big city vet transplanted to a small Wisconsin town—is pure delight as we meet aging alpacas, stump-tailed cats, goats in tutus, a vagabond border collie named Kevin, and the people who think they own them. And through it all, Goldie McKenzie, DVM, navigating the small town of Blue Dog, Wisconsin.

A delightful holiday romance about a small-town single dad and an animal rescue owner as they try to find forever homes for a dozen lovable pups before Christmas.

Random House presents the audiobook edition of A Farmer and His Dog by Adam Henson, read by Nicky Henson. 'For me, the bond I have with Peg, my Border Collie sheepdog, is priceless. I know how very lucky I and thousands of other shepherds and farmers are to have these extraordinarily bright, enthusiastic dogs at our sides. But we who work the land and our flocks are not the only beneficiaries of the extraordinary relationship between man and dog....'

Bad Dogs Have More Fun is an unforgettable collection of more that 75 newspaper columns by John Grogan, the number-one New York Times best-selling author of Marley & Me. Combining humor, wit, poignancy and affection, these columns provide insight into the intriguing and wonderful world we live in.

As our world changes and our lives get more complicated, the one thing every family can count on is a friendly welcome home and a warm snuggle with furry friends. Follow the Walsh family as they lead you through the incredible and inspirational tales of their favorite family relatives. Curl up with these engaging stories of miracles, joy, and life's struggles, as Bob, Samantha, and Kevin Walsh share their truly amazing journey. Whether it's the Walshes or your own family, you know the family dog is part of your life.

Toby is a beagle who doesn't seem to have a purpose. While all of his littermates are adopted right away, Toby is left behind because he's not as energetic as they are. But because he is so quiet, he is adopted by a girl named Mona and her mother, who works at a nursing home. As Toby comforts the residents of the home, he discovers that his purpose may be the most important of all!

Ever since Cosmo became a big brother to Max 10 years ago, he's known what his job was: to protect his boy and make him happy. Through many good years marked by tennis balls and pilfered turkey, torn-up toilet paper, and fragrant goose poop, Cosmo has doggedly kept his vow. Until recently, his biggest problems were the evil tutu-wearing sheepdog he met on Halloween and the arthritis in his own joints. But now, with Dad-scented blankets appearing on the couch and arguing voices getting louder, Cosmo senses a tougher challenge ahead.

Since as far back as Ben can remember, it’s been him, his devoted dad, and Sunshine - Ben’s little dog, who rarely leaves Ben’s side. It was Mom who did the leaving, and Ben’s about to spend a whole week with his suddenly present mother in the wilds of northern Minnesota. On the remote island she calls home, Ben will learn to camp, canoe, weather the elements, and weigh a burning question: When will she come back to where she belongs?