A Dog's Way Home

A Dog’s Way Home is one of a growing series of novels by Bruce Cameron, which sees the world through the eyes of a dog. Bruce Cameron clearly is a Dog Person, and has insight into how dogs think and reason. The book is written from the dog’s point of view.

In some ways, A Dog’s Way Home is a bit cliché. The dog, Bella, is separated from the master she loves and through sheer guts, love and will, she struggles to find her way back to her person.

Bella’s appearance hints she may have some Pit Bull in her lineage. An animal control person, who really doesn’t like animals, wants to exhibit control and power in his meager world. Against other animal control personnel’s opinion, he says she is a pit bull and that is it. She must be destroyed. In stark contrast to the widely accepted image of Pit Bulls as being mean and vicious, Bella is loveable and kind, and early on she learns her purpose in life is to bring comfort to anyone, person or animal, who needs it.

Cameron puts the reader into Bella’s head. We see the world as she sees it and the way she interprets it. An example is “no barks” which were the words her person used to teach her when she shouldn’t bark. Bella uses that to describe other dogs, as in “he never learned ‘no barks’”. Bella defines the unbreakable bond between those we love. Even a 400-

mile trek through dangerous wilderness, nothing will keep Bella from reuniting with her beloved person.

Some parts of the book were hard for me to read, having recently lost our own dog, or as we called her, our Puppy. She was thirteen years old, but still our Puppy.

Despite the tugs on the heart strings, stay with it…you will be rewarded.

A book review.

Linda Kercher

Bill Kercher