Skip to main content

London's No. 1 Dog Walking Agency

 


Description

Kate MacDougall always knew her heart wasn't really in her job at Sotheby's. All around her, friends were finding their dream jobs and whooshing up career ladders. After yet another breakage, this time of two precious porcelain pigeons, she had enough, and walked out of her snoozy, back office existence into the unknown world of the then-nascent gig economy.

London's No. 1 Dog-Walking Agency is the story of her next 9 years and the dogs (and people) she meets along the way. There's Winston, the Labrador, who isn't allowed to get muddy, even after his owners split up and then enlist Kate in their custody battle. There's the chic trio of Islington couples whose immaculately arranged dog walking schedule is thrown off when one of them gets off with the dog walker Kate has employed. There's Kate's long-suffering, dog-agnostic boyfriend Finlay, and her mother, who is always on the alert for wedding bells.

Amongst all this, there's Kate herself: trying to work out what she wants from life, and when and how to get there.

Review

If you love dogs - this is the book for you.

Kate's story begins back in 2006 when she left her job at Sotheby's and began to walk dogs for a living.  One of the things I liked was the fact that it ends in 2014 (with an Afterword to bring it right up to date) so you get to read about not just one year in the life of the Dog Walking Agency.

Each chapter is headed with the name of the dog and breed and some are revisited which was lovely to see where they had progressed to. One dog stood out for me and that was Stanley. He forms a very special relationship with one of the dog walkers that Kate had to employ as she became more successful. I had a little tear in my eye at one point reading about Stanley and his walker Tom.

It's true that the book is about the dogs and the walking of them, but it is so much more than that. It almost has the feel of reading a  novel about it as you find out not just about the dogs, but their owners and their little foibles too. A few life lessons are also thrown in throughout the chapters along with some laughs, especially at the antics of the dogs and some rookie dog walking mistakes.

I'm giving this book 4 out of  5 stars. My thanks to Readers First from whom I won a copy of this book -  thanks very much. This book is published on 8 April 2021.
Labels:

Comments

  1. Di7 April 2021 at 14:57

    You temptress! Now ordered needless to say!

    Thanks for the heads up.

    Di - and woofs from Dudley! xx

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Those leaving a comment on any post on this blog do so in the knowledge that their name and blog link are visible to all who visit this blog and by providing their comment they have published their own personal details on this blog and also consented to our use of that personal information for that specific purpose.

Popular posts from this blog

The C Word - An anthology of murder, mystery, death & destruction

  Great to be on the book tour today for this book today especially as 100% of all royalties from The C Word will be donated to NHS Together Charities. Description So, what do writers do during Lockdown? They create murder, mystery, death and destruction of course! The C Word is a collection of short stories collated during the COVID-19 pandemic to raise money for NHS Charities Together. A plethora of wonderful stories created by a wide variety of writers, each with their own unique style. Some you will know already and some we’ve yet to introduce you to. However, we’re sure you’ll want to hear from each and every one of them again as we leave 2020 behind us. With contributions from Steve Mosby, Sophie Hannah, Elly Griffiths, Sarah Hilary, Rob Scragg, Trevor Wood and many more. Review A great collection of short stories and certainly written for our times. Some of these stories were a little too dark for my usual reading tastes, but as they were short I stuck with them. There could...
1 comment
Read more

The Ghost Cat - Alex Howard

  Description Early morning, 1902. In a gloomy Edinburgh tenement, Eilidh the charlady tips coal into a fire grate and sets it alight. Overhearing, a cat ambles over to curl up against the welcome heat. This is to be the cat's last day on earth. But he is going to return... as The Ghost Cat, a spirit-feline destined to live out his ghostly existence according to the medieval proverb of "The Cat with Nine Lives" - For Three He Plays, For Three He Strays, For Three He Stays. Follow The Ghost Cat as he witnesses the changes of the next two centuries as he purrs, shuffles and sniffs his way through the fashion, politics and technological advances of the modern era alongside the ever-changing inhabitants of an Edinburgh tenement. As we follow our new spirit-feline friend, this unique story unearths some startling revelations about the mystery of existence and the human condition and provides a feel-good read full of charm for any fan of history, humour and fur-ridden fun. Revi...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Girl on the Train - Paula Hawkins

Description THE NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER. YOU DON'T KNOW HER. BUT SHE KNOWS YOU. Rear Window  meets  Gone Girl , in this exceptional and startling psychological thriller Review I must be one of the last people to read this book. I did apply for a review copy but unfortunately wasn't successful. I then waited for the book to come down in price which it didn't - so I decided I would buy it and read it straight away! I'm sure it will be a film and before anyone gives away what happens I felt I really needed to get it read, so it jumped the TBR queue. There is not much plot outline from the publisher as you can see in the description above, so there wasn't a lot to go on when I began to read the book. First of all the book jumps around date wise - past and present and also between the main characters. I did have a little trouble remembering who was who and which time frame we were in - but that soon settled down. I also had to re-read the beginning because I th...
3 comments
Read more