The Greatest Dog Stories Ever Told: Thirty Unforgettable Dog Tales

Almost every story in this book is good. Some are funny, some are poignant, some are adventures set in different eras or cultures, and some are interesting in other ways. Only the bizarre tale by Ray Bradbury is really not even about something recognizable as a dog and in my view might better have been omitted from the collection. Many of the stories are extracts from books or longer works of some sort, and the references to the sources are here so you can follow up by reading the rest of the story if you want. I found Jack Alan's to be the funniest one (and you'd be hard pressed to find it elsewhere as the book it's from was published in 1944). Rudyard Kipling's was the most poignant. The selection from Gary Paulsen's Winterdance: The Fine Madness of Running the Iditarod was good as a short introduction to another book worth reading, as were several of the stories. The story another reviewer complains about is by Mark Twain. It is not a happy tale, but not every story has to be a happy one. This one is told from the dog's viewpoint and in that respect especially it is uniquely well done, and, as is typical for Twain, is true-to-life and has its funny moments too.