My Life in Dog Years Themes

Humorist Will Rogers once said, "If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went" (source). We bet Gary Paulsen would agree. My Life in Dog Years is a tribute to the be...

Charles Schulz had it right: Happiness is a warm puppy.Conventional wisdom has it that pets, like parents, offer love that's unconditional. Funny guy Dave Barry once wrote, "You can say any foolish...

Dogs have a pretty solid reputation for being very loyal animals. Beyond the regular bond of loyalty between dog and "master" (a word that Paulsen doesn't seem to care for), there seems to be the i...

My Life in Dog Years is packed to the brim with smart, strong, capable dogs. No joke; these dogs are practically superheroes. As his canine crew saves lives and manages farms and fights off bears,...

The dark side of having a pet is that their lifespans are relatively short. If you own a dog, chances are that you'll have to deal with losing it. All but one of the dogs in My Life in Dog Years ha...

Paulsen has never met a dumb dog (or if he has, he never wrote about it). His canine companions in My Life in Dog Years are hunters with a strong grasp of physics and aerodynamics, astute businessm...

Man vs. nature—it's a classic theme in novels and stories. People are struggling to survive in the wild, being attacked by animals, freezing in the Arctic or broiling in the desert, or maybe even...

My Life in Dog Years is a pretty lighthearted book. Still, Paulsen and his dogs are outdoorsy types, and the natural world can be a violent place. We watch Paulsen hunt and kill animals and see dog...