Really a lesson about acceptance and looking beyond appearance, Ivan! should also be required reading for any family on the fence about adopting a shelter dog. To read in the dog’s own words about the heartbreak of faces at the cage, and lovely times spent with potential families, only to have them disappear is heart-wrenching to say the least.

If you can get past the implausibility of having a dog wax philosophical now and then, or quote classic Russian writers like Leo Tolstoy, then you will find this book to be humorous, heartwarming and adventurous. Of course, you already have of excellent suspension of disbelief skills if you can accept that a dog “wrote” this book and not a rural alternative high school english teacher named Tim McHugh.

Throughout the course of the story, we learn not just about Ivan’s life and rough beginning; he was stepped on the head as a stray puppy and wound up in an animal shelter, but also about Tim, an earthy, crunchy type who built his own house and home schooled his kids.

He also failed to learn the life lesson that if you climb a mountain with your dog and you both almost die, it may be best not to do it again. Fear not, Ivan survived the mountain. He had other challenges to endure though; the loss of a leg being one of them.

The book’s jacket photo could have been more representative of Ivan’s unique look. There are more accurate photos on the inside as well as on his website.

IVAN! A Pound Dog’s View           
on Life, Love, and Leashes
Tim McHugh
Turner Publishing,
$21.95 ($23.95 CAN)
Hardback
ISBN: 978-1-59652-831-4
Pub. date: 10/11/11

$14.19 on Amazon

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