“I guess I had never bothered to consider that there might such a thing as a boy, but now that I had found one, I thought it was just about the most wonderful concept in the world. He smelled of mud and sugar and an animal I’d never scented before, and a faint meaty odor clung to his fingers, so I licked them.”

Do you ever wish your pet could talk? If so, A Dog’s Purpose will give you a glimpse into what might be going on in their minds. The book follows a young puppy through his life with his mother and then in a pound until he is euthanized because of a broken leg. That is not where the story ends, though, but is just where it begins as the dog wakes up as another puppy but can remember his last life.

This is the first book in a series and I’ll admit I read the second book first a few months ago. Our library had a blind date with a book event (you check out a book that is wrapped up) and I ended up picking A Dog’s Journey (review coming on Friday). I enjoyed the book so much that I knew I wanted to read the first in the series very soon.

One of the dog’s lives in A Dog’s Purpose has him spending his full life with a boy named Ethan. He decides loving and protecting Ethan must be his main purpose in life. He still has two lives after that in the book, which makes him question if that is his actual purpose until finally a smell reaches him from that past life.

I would highly recommend this book and any in the series to anyone who enjoys fiction and/or animals. It is for adults, as there are abusive adults, animal cruelty and endangered children in the book. However, the overall theme is finding and fulfilling a life’s purpose, even if you are a dog.

Buy the book here (affiliate link).