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    Good Dog. Stay.
    Good Dog. Stay.
    Good Dog. Stay.
    Audiobook44 minutes

    Good Dog. Stay.

    Written by Anna Quindlen

    Narrated by Anna Quindlen

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    "The life of a good dog is like the life of a good person, only shorter and more compressed."

    So writes Pulitzer Prize-winning author Anna Quindlen about her beloved black Labrador retriever, Beau. With her trademark wisdom and humor, Quindlen reflects on how her life has unfolded in tandem with Beau's, and on the lessons she's learned by watching him: to roll with the punches, to take things as they come, to measure herself not in terms of the past or the future but of the present, to raise her nose in the air from time to time and, at least metaphorically, holler, "I smell bacon!"

    Of the dog that once possessed a catcher's mitt of a mouth, Quindlen reminisces, "There came a time when a scrap thrown in his direction usually bounced unseen off his head. Yet put a pork roast in the oven, and the guy still breathed as audibly as an obscene caller. The eyes and ears may have gone, but the nose was eternal. And the tail. The tail still wagged, albeit at half-staff. When it stops, I thought more than once, then we'll know."

    Heartening and bittersweet, Good Dog. Stay. honors the life of a cherished and loyal friend and offers us a valuable lesson on our four-legged family members: Sometimes an old dog can teach us new tricks.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateNov 20, 2007
    ISBN9780743572002
    Good Dog. Stay.
    Author

    Anna Quindlen

    Anna Marie Quindlen is an author, journalist, and opinion columnist. Her New York Times column, Public and Private, won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 1992.

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    Reviews for Good Dog. Stay.

    3.5/5

    121 ratings12 reviews

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    • 5/5
      By the end of this slice of real life in a dog-loving family, I found myself tearing up. The evolution of a dog's life is so very short and this story reminds us that each and every day with our dogs is precious. Lovely story and the author reading the story conveys the real depth of her emotions and experiences. Highly recommend this story to all dog lovers.
    • 5/5
      Good dog! Great story! Enjoyed every wonderful moment of it.
    • 4/5
      Reading a book by this author is always a delight. She captures so much with a small amount of words. Naturally when finding a book about a special dog, logically, I know that somewhere in the pages, the dog dies. I've loved and lost a number of very uniquely wonderful pets, and each one holds a special place, and I can easily cry when thinking of them. My idea of heaven is that all those furry pets who sustained me through love and life, grief and sadness, joy and sorrow, will be there when I cross over. They will be different sized, but all will be healthy. With shining coats, and eyes of love, I'll cry at the sheer delight of one more chance to embrace and thank them.Quindlen's book is heart warming as she tells the story of Beau, her very special black Labrador retriever. The book begins with Beau in his final stages of life. The eyes that no longer see, the fur that is peppered with grey, the medications needed, are all visible signs that the days are quickening faster toward the inevitability of parting.Rather than elicit tears, the author provided a framework of celebration, of Beau .... of all wonderful companions.Beau lived longer than the statistical charts. Each day was a blessing. The true testimony that pets impart is that while we cannot replace one with another, the special bond of manifold blessings is that despite the limitation of their days, we embrace a new pet, knowing the gain outweighs the pain.As Quindlen notes, "The life of a good dog is like the life of a good person, only shorter and more compressed."Highly recommended.
    • 3/5
      This was a very brief unabridged audiobook (45 minutes) that was an extended eulogy for Quindlen's beloved black Labrador retriever, Beau, and an essay on mortality. I especially liked the end, where Quindlen summarizes (with some quavering in her voice) the lessons she learned from Beau's long life: "to roll with the punches, ...to take things as they come, to measure myself not in terms of the past or the future but of the present." Otherwise, though, the shortness of this book probably makes it most appropriate for someone grieving the loss of a dog.
    • 3/5
      In hindsight, this probably wasn't the best choice of reads at the time, having just put down our family dog the week before I popped this in the CD player. This didn't cause me to break down into tears or anything, but it hit home in a way it might not have at any other given time, and made me slightly more emotional than I would typically be when reading a book like this. It's short, and talks more about saying goodbye to a good dog/friend as opposed to a series of anecdotal stories. A decent story & nice for a quick commute, but there are better ones out there if you want a good story about man's best friend.
    • 4/5
      A very brief, poignant eulogy of the life of a family Labrador Retriever. Bo led a long and proseperous life. The book however, is way too to short.
    • 4/5
      Having lost a dog that I had as long as Ms. Quindlen had her dog, I appreciated and related to every word she wrote. The bond between a dog and his people is so special that rarely have I been able to find the words to descibe it. I'm so glad that the author did find the words and was then generous enough to share them with the rest of us.
    • 4/5
      A nice short story about a dog (in particular) and dogs (in general). Wonderful photographs throughout. Yes, the dog dies, but not in the tear-jerking way of many dog books. This is more a celebration of life--not just the dogs, but ours too.
    • 3/5
      A very fast read. It's a good book if you are a dog lover. In fact I think you must have had a dog as part of your family to really connect with the book. The focus is on a dog named Beau and his failing health. Having owned a dog myself and gone thru the process of "putting her down," was a very tragic and overwhelming experience. I don't understand why people are so drawn to reading about it. Perhaps it's just a way of sharing the pain. If you enjoy dog stories and some quick wit I would recommend reading this book
    • 4/5
      The life of a good dog is like the life of a good person, only shorter and more compressed," writes Pulitzer-winning author Quindlen about her beloved black Labrador retriever, Beau. With her trademark wisdom and humor, Quindlen reflects on how her life has unfolded in tandem with Beau's, and on the lessons she's learned by watching him: to roll with the punches, to take things as they come, to measure herself not in terms of the past or the future but of the present. Heartening and bittersweet, this book honors the life of a cherished and loyal friend and offers listeners a valuable lesson: Sometimes an old dog can teach a person new tricks.
    • 4/5
      A touching, oftentimes humorous and -- in the end -- enlightening book. Quidlen's wonderfully written tome is lean on words but packed with insights about coping with grief and our own mortality. Animal lovers will relate with every turn of the page. The author's delightful tribute to her black lab will spur pet owners to relive their own fond memories and undoubtedly shed a few tears.
    • 3/5
      Good Dog. Stay. is basically a long eulogy of Beau, a great black lab. Anna Quindelen has apparently won writing awards, but I have not previously read any of her writing, or even heard of her (oops!). I am glad that I picked this book up despite the fact I had no previous knowledge of this person. Just on a side note, I don't always have to have heard of, or read a book by an author, but I often have heard of well known authors and was surprised to have not known this one.I finished this book in about an hour I think. It is filled with adorable pictures of all kinds of dogs and moves quickly. My favorite thing about the book was the way Anna Quindelen generalized the lessons she learned from Beau to apply to all dogs, in all stages of life. I only read this book a day or so ago and already forget the particulars of Beau's life, but I do remember the day they put Beau down. It was a family event and all were crushed because of the effect this animal had on their lives. That part will stay with me.If you enjoy reading about the relationships between animals and their families then you will enjoy this really quick read. There have been other dogs in Anna Quendelen's life and I beleive she wrote about this dog in particular for a reason.I will leave you with my favorite quotes from this book:"For children, the point of having a dog is something like the point of having a mother and father. Our job is not to do but to be, not to act but to exist.""Dogs make messes, it's true, but they clean them up as well."And my favorite: "In a world that seems so uncertain, in lives that seem sometimes to ricochet from challenge to upheaval and back again, a dog can be counted on in a way that's true of little else."