Judy S. Gives This Tale Ten Wags!

From the New York Times bestselling author of One Good Dog comes a novel about a woman’s cross-country journey to find her lost dog, and discover herself.

“My name is Justine Meade and in my forty-three years there have only been a handful of people that I have loved. No, that’s an exaggeration. Two. Two that I lost because of stupidity and selfishness. One was my son. The other was my dog.”

If there’s been a theme in Justine Meade’s life, it’s loss. Her mother, her home, even her son. The one bright spot in her loss-filled life, the partner she could always count on, was Mack, her gray and black Sheltie—that is, until she is summoned back to her childhood home after more than twenty years away.

Ed and Alice Parmalee are mourning a loss of their own. Seven years after their daughter was taken from them, they’re living separate lives together. Dancing around each other, and their unspeakable heartbreak, unable to bridge the chasm left between them.

Fiercely loyal, acutely perceptive and guided by a herd dog’s instinct, Mack has a way of bringing out the best in his humans. Whether it’s a canine freestyle competition or just the ebb and flow of a family’s rhythms, it’s as though the little Shetland Sheepdog was born to bring people together. Susan Wilson's The Dog Who Danced is his story, one that will surely dance its way into your heart.

Judy S. says:
"Justine has her dog, Maksim, and then, just like that, she doesn't.  Mack is named after Maksim the dancer because Justine and Mack take part in a competitive dancing, canine freestyle.  Although a grown woman now, Justine still has issues with her father.  Old ones, the kind that are hard to resolve.  There's grief involved, and mistrust, and pain--lots of pain.  Alice and Ed have some of these same issues with each other.  There used to blame, too, but that's not there as much anymore, these years later.

Mack has intertwined his life with all of them, like some graceful, swirling waltz of devotion.  He has given Justine, Alice and even Ed, who reluctantly let him, a measure of grece-giving love that has lifted them each over that hard wall of pain.  It may just finally have let them soar.  And because of that realization, neither Justine nor Ed and Alice want to lose Mack.  About this one thing they are quite certain.

How pets heal us with their extraordinary love is the focus of this book.  It was inspiring--I give it 10 wags!"