One of my fellow reading and dog loving friends e-mailed me and said I had to read this book and one look at the cover, especially as the owner of a Boston Terrier, well... the title said it all, You Had Me At Woof. I still feared Julie Klam's memoir of the ups and downs of dog ownership would be a bit too cute-sy for my taste, and while it is cute-sy... there were plenty of relate-able laugh-out-loud and near-tears/gut-wrenching moments to make it all pretty forgivable.

A lot of the book is about dog rescue and it's eye-opening. While I would guess it was not Klam's intention, the book only confirmed/re-instilled my reservations about using or becoming involved with a rescue organization (other than financial support). I absolutely applaud/respect that work these volunteers do, but for myself, I would just find it too heartbreaking and (selfishly) adding too much unneeded drama into my life. Also, it brought up all the understandable behavioral issues of rescues, which again made me feel not so bad about starting from scratch with our own Boston (from a breeder, but non-show quality)... while he terrorizes our cats, doesn't really listen to us, hogs the bed, and is generally a spoiled brat... he is a happy, social, non-nipping/biting, and hardly ever barks dog (which I thought was a trait of Bostons, but apparently not so in this book). Finally, it made me think we are pretty darn content with the relative calm and lower stress levels of having just one dog (except the cats, who would be thrilled to get rid of their the Boston Terror). Again, not the take-aways from the book the author would expect... but still in that philosophy of not necessarily getting the dog(s) you want, but the dog(s) you need.

Overall, an entertaining book that any dog lover and owner should love and readable in an "eat the whole bag of chips at once" kind of way.