A Dog’s Journey by W. Bruce Cameron

Why am I doing this again? It’s close to midnight, and I have this need to write my thoughts when I should be sleeping, but sometimes the mind wants what it wants. Before I go on a rant about the novel I picked to talk about today, I want to tell you that I decided to keep the Giveaway I’m doing on my blog for a bit longer, and we’ll have a winner of the $10 Amazon gift card I’m doing on my blog. I have two reasons: Only two people signed up, so I want to give it more time, and on the 13^th, it’s my 7^th blog anniversary, so it will be a good way to celebrate.

Today, I had about ten books I wanted to talk about, but faith chose for me because last night, I rewatched the movie A Dog’s Journey, which was adapted from a novel with the same title by W. Bruce Cameron. The first time I watched the movie was on the plane coming home from Cyprus, so it will forever hold a place in my mind. Goodreads marks it as Young Adult /Fantasy; thinking about it, it is more in line with Magical Realism/ Middle Grade.

It’s a story of man’s best friend in its truest and purest form between Ethan, and his dog Bailey. Everything starts when Ethan’s son passes, leaving behind a young wife and a small kid. The two move to the grandparents’ farm so they could help raise CJ, the tiny human as the dog viewed it. Gloria (the son’s widow) disagreed with how CJ was getting close to her grandparents, so they moved. Ethan believed that a dog would always protect CJ as he has been, even if he couldn’t be in his granddaughter’s life.

We see CJ with a dog by her side in every stage of life, entering her life when she needs them the most. The idea of a soul dog reborn in a different breed. I had a thought towards the end that had a religious meaning of reincarnation, as a belief in Buddhism in terms of how each stage was presented to us as readers and viewers. I would re-read it, but it is a very emotional story (which might be why it was marked as YA), and I’m not in the proper mental status for it.

Alex