A Dog's Life: The Autobiography of a Stray

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For other uses, see Dog's Life (disambiguation).

A Dog's Life: The Autobiography of a Stray is a children's novel written in 2005 by Ann M. Martin.

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

A Dog's Life begins with a dog mother who gave birth to five puppies. The only two in her litter that survied were Squirrel - the book's protagonist - and Bone. Their mother teaches them all she knows on living as a stray. One day, she leaves Bone and squirrel to fend for themselves. The two puppies stay at their location for a while - the Merrion estate - and befriend one of the Merrion children, Matthias. Bone soon becomes restless, and leaves. Squirrel follows and leaves the only home she's ever known.

Bone and Squirrel travel through the surrounding woods for some time, until they reach a highway. They are drawn to the other side of it by the scent of chicken, and make a dash across, only to be nearly hit by oncoming cars. All of the cars stop, and a couple form one fo the cars get out and take Bone and Squirrel home with them.

Being unexperienced owners, the couple - George and Marcy - have absolutely no idea on taking care of strays, and puppies at that. They are extremely cruel, and can only keep Squirrle and her brother for a day. The day after the puppies arrive, the couples' patience runs out, and George dumps the two puppies outside of a mall. Bone recives a bloody nose upon being thrown out, and Squirrel breaks her front shoulder. The two puppies wait for a time, until two women exit the shopping mall and see the two puppies. One woman takes Bone, saying that she's "always wanted a puppy." The other woman asks what they are to do with Squirrel, but the woman who took Bone says that Sqirrel is an ugly dog, and that someone will come and find her eventually. Once the two women walk away with Bone, Squirrel begins to howl with grief. She waits for Bone to come back, but she never sees him again.

After a day of sleeping at the shopping mall, Squirrel finally decides that it's time to move on. She finds a garbage dump outside of the mall, but is driven away from it when she hears a growl. She makes her way to road outside of the mall, and crosses it to reach the forest on the other side. While travelling through the forest, Squirrel finds a neighborhood on the other side. She eats the garbage form the houses for a few days, until she meets another dog named Moon. The two dogs become inseparable.

Moon and Squirrel travel from town to town and highway to highway for many years. Moon and Squirrel find a resting stop aloing the highway, and start to eat the remains of someone's sack-lunch. They are attacked by a pack of starving strays, and both dogs recive a few injuries in the process. They retreat form the resting stop and into the surrounding woods. Moon and Squirrel heal from their injuries, and attempt to cross the highway several days later.

When crossing the highway, Moon spots a log with two unsuspecting chipmunks on the other side, so both Moon and Suirrel bolt across. They do not see the truck speeding down the road, and the two puppies get hit. The family in the truck take Moon and Squirrel to the vet, where Moon is pronounced dead. The vet states that Moon died instantly, and that Squirrel was in little harm. The vet fixes Squirrel's injuries, and the fmaily that hit her decides to adopt her. They take her home, but slowly forget about her. When they leave after the summer to go back to the city, they forget they had Squirrel and left her there. After waiting a few days, she decides to move on.

When Squirrel is an old dog, around 9 or 10, she is wandering down and old country road. One of her eyes is dialatted, she is starving, and she appears to suffering from arthritis. She comes across the house of an old lady named Susan McGrath. Susan notices Squirrel, and eventually coaxes the dog to come inside her house over the period of two days. Susan keeps Squirrel over night and calls the vet for an appointment the next morning. Over that time, Susan and Squirrel become companions. Susan eventually takes in Squirrel as her own, and names Squirrel 'Addie.' The story ends with Susan 'adopting' Addie and keeping her for the rest of her days.