Stay: My Forever Friendship with an Aging Dog

A heartwarming and humorous memoir about one woman's naïve attempts to ignore, deny, and will away her dog's mortality. After a slew of untimely goodbyes to childhood pets, Lisa's first act as a newly-graduated and -married twentysomething was to adopt a dog of her own. She made a vow to four-month-old Dakota: to give her a long, happy life and to be there for her until the very end. After nearly thirteen years of inseparable companionship and adventure, Dakota is beginning to show signs of aging. When an accident in the house leads to a visit with a veterinary neurologist, Lisa struggles to accept Dakota's mortality, instead relying on her usual defense mechanisms: rationalizing, making jokes, and leaving it up to her husband, Brad, to be the adult. As she navigates the caretaking of her elderly dog, Lisa begins to understand what love actually looks like, what it means to stay present, and how best to show up for the ones she loves the most. This book is a must for anyone who has ever cared for an elderly pet, has the good fortune to do so in the future, or enjoyed Lily and the Octopus by Steven Rowley, Woodrow on the Bench by Jenna Blum, or Gizelle's Bucket List by Lauren Fern Watt.