Anyone who has ever known a dog, in the sense of having one as part of the family, knows that dogs are weird. Within the sweetest, calmest, most well adjusted dog there is a snarling, drooling lunatic just waiting for the opportunity to come out. For some, anyone making a delivery will bring out the ferocious monster. What’s weird is that same dog — at times when it would be most advantageous to have a snarling, snapping, drooling beast at your beck and call — is all kissy and nice to complete strangers (who are trying to sell you carpet cleaning or a change of religion). What’s with that?
Human members of a dog’s family intuit that the dog leads a secret emotional and intellectual life which he or she has no intention of sharing. Everyone knows that the biggest brute of a dog wants to be puppied, and the tiniest scrap of a dog wants to be feared, but we also know that there’s more going on. Just look in a dog’s eyes. Really look. After a few seconds, the dog gets a little evasive. Dogs don’t want people to know what’s going on in their souls, especially not the people with whom they live.
Bo Hoefinger is unique. He is a literary dog who doesn’t run with the pack when it comes to keeping secrets. He’s written a blog, and now a book, Bad to the Bone – Memoir of a Rebel Doggie Blogger. My dog, Charity Marie, read Bad to the Bone and immediately hid it. That’s how I knew this was a book that screamed to be read.
Bad to the Bone contains a wealth of information about the inner feelings of dogs. We all know our dogs are thinking something; Bad to the Bone tells us what that something is. Bo shares his history, from the time he was sprung from a “boarding house” by a couple with questionable motives (revenge, anyone?) to the present. His encounters with squirrels, pizza cutters, woodpeckers, cats, and a variety of other objects, animate or otherwise, and his philosophies fill the pages of his book. Readers will alternate between laughter and “Aha! I knew it!” when they recognize behaviors of dogs they have known.
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