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.