Imagine 'Marley & Me' Written from a Dog's Point of View

Online, April 30, 2010 (Newswire.com) - Meet Bo Hoefinger-author of BAD TO THE BONE: Memoir Of A Rebel Doggie Blogger-, part golden retriever, part chowchow, a "senior dog" by his own definition who is rescued from a shelter by a lonely couple in Albany, New York in what he calls a revenge adoption. It seems that this couple selected him as payback to the husband for watching a football game rather than helping his wife decorate the Christmas tree.

Bo, who says he types 60 words a minute and writes his own memoir, is quite a character. Nothing is sacred to him and he keeps no secrets. With not an ounce of shame he gossips about his devoted two-legged parents, as he tells the reader that his mother is a bad cook and that his father is perhaps a worse handyman. He even fell through a bedroom ceiling once when trying to lay a TV cable.

Members of Bo's four-legged family include a Rhodesian ridgeback named Copper and a feline friend, Moose, a grey-striped tiger cat, who is perhaps best known for her off and on battle with constipation.

Bo has a wicked sense of humor. His account of the efforts his parents went to and what they used to control his bleeding from a wound while they rushed him to the vet emergency room will leave you laughing. "I will say that my paw feels as good as ever, but a strange thing happens. Around the same time of every month my mother gets cranky, and my paw starts to throb with pain." This mutt, however, is capable of much empathy and love as evidenced in the chapter where he movingly discusses his mother's bout and ultimate recovery from cancer. "If you don't have a healthy owner, you don't have anything."

When the father gets a transfer at his work, this-- if we are to believe Bo's version-- slightly off-center family eventually moves from Albany, New York to a city near Atlanta, Georgia where a local ordinance requires that all residents have a gun in their home. Can you spell Kennesaw? According to Bo, the dogs bark more slowly in Georgia than in New York. In preparation for the move, Bo's mother reads GONE WITH THE WIND. She would have been much better off reading Anne Rivers Siddons or Celestine Sibley if she wanted an accurate portrayal of modern day Atlanta.

Bo includes along with his narrative a lot of photographs, charts, lists, etc: "The Top Reasons I Love My Mother," his favorite foods, his favorite non-food smells, a list of vanity tags and in a "Q and A with the Author" the following:

Q: If you had a gun with two bullets in it and were confronted by Michael Vick, Sylvester the Cat and Tweety Bird, whom would you shoot?

B: I'd shoot Michael Vick, twice.

This dog is well-read and worldly. He is familiar with Helen Keller, Evel Knievel, Johnny Cash, Rip Van Winkle, Willard Scott, Oprah Winfrey, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Hugh Panther, Sean Connery, et al.

In this extremely well-written account of his life up to now, Bo comes across as feisty, stubborn, lovable and bright. We can then forgive him for believing that dogs are smarter than cats.

-Corbin Foster, Amazon Reviewer
* Bo's book is dedicated to shelter workers, and 10% of his proceeds go to help homeless dogs and cats.