Walking In Circles Before Lying Down

I generally love dogs better than most people. My own dogs have been anthropomorphized to within an inch of their lives. Even so, they still don't actually talk. If they did, though, I think they would converse on pretty much the same level as the dogs in Walking in Circles Before Lying Down. Chuck, a pit-mix from the pound is owned by a woman who has terrible taste in men and is surrounded by her female relatives that have the same issue and varying neuroses. Her sister actually dated Scott Peterson after the unfortunate murder thing. And lives in a Winnebago that was formerly a Baywatch makeup trailer. And she's a Life Coach. Great character building.
Chuck's owner has just been dumped by her useless, great-in-bed and crappy out of it boyfriend and Chuck is thrilled. He is a fairly good judge of character and is a pretty entertaining dog. In a conversation about how often dogs pee, he tells his owner, "Well, there's two kinds of peeing. There's regular peeing because you have to pee. And then there's auxiliary competitive peeing. For acquiring an empire. I'm all about the real estate."
Merrill Markoe gets lot of things right in this book, including how it feels to lose a beloved pet and then find that you can actually fall in love in a whole different way with a different pet. Her characters are funny and sympathetic and at times downright pathetic. She also gets the family dynamics between difficult people right on target. It's a quick read and well worth every minute spent devouring it.