Marley and Me, Week 1, Post B

So far, I have had tons of connections with this novel. First of all, I am a dog lover and can really connect with the characters of John and Jenny for this reason. There are several pictures of Marley in the front cover and I have a few pictures of my dog, Ginger, that are almost identical. In the preface of the novel, the author, John Grogan, describes his childhood dog. It was sort of eerie to read this, because as I kept reading there were so many similarities between his dog and the dog my parents had before I was born, Jessie. One of the more unique similarities was that both dogs would dive to the bottom of lakes and bring back large rocks in their mouths, I don’t know of any other dog that has done this. As the actual novel began, even more similarities occurred to me. John’s house was built in the 1950s, so was mine. Challenged with the task of choosing the right puppy, John decides that he and his wife Jenny should keep an open mind about bringing home a puppy, which is exactly what my dad told my brother and I when we were trying to choose the right puppy. They end up bringing home a puppy named Marley, and John decides to register him in the American Kennel Club, in the case that one day Marley becomes a show dog. My mom and dad also registered Jessie in the American Kennel Club, because my dad would do obedience shows with her and traveled to several cities for these showings. Marley loved to run around the house while unraveling a roll of toilet paper, just as Ginger loved to do when she was a puppy. (I guess it’s a dog thing). Also, Marley had extreme amounts of energy as a puppy, as did Ginger. Both were even so enthusiastic at one point that they knocked out a pane of glass from a door! This story has many parallels to my life, and I enjoy reading it to see if the next event will be strikingly similar to one in my life.