Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
By Jill Baker, Hachette Australia, $32.99.
The ambitious young stockbroker Gordon Gekko was so very vocal in the 1987 Oscar-winner Wall Street saying outright that if “you want a friend, get a dog”.
How true!
Furry four-legged friends give such unconditional love. Such was the case for Jill Baker and a dog dubbed Dirty Harry. This is a poignant memoir.
Award-winning newspaper editor Jill Baker arrived home to find her husband dead on the bedroom floor. Still in shock, and within weeks, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. It was a year from hell as surgery, chemotherapy and radiation treatment followed.
It was her friend who blurted out: “You hardly smile … you haven’t laughed in weeks”. She was right when she said, “Jill, you need something to love.”
Jill needed someone who “cuddled me at night and was still excited to see me in the morning. I just hadn’t met him yet”. Then at her lowest ebb, Jill took a chance. She needed something or somebody to make life worth living again. Could it really be a crazy, howling, snoring, digging, chewing, barking orange pup?
Jill needed something to give her life purpose but could that really be a “snoring, howling, digging, chewing, barking non-university dog like Harry?” In fact, it was Harry who helped a broken woman to love life again.
Turns out Harry and Jill were made to be together. They are an unlikely duo. A Walkley Award-winner, Jill is “quiet, Harry is loud as hell. Jill meticulously plans the day while Harry says let’s wing it. She sips pinot while he’s an espresso martini guy”. Jill has a beautiful friendship with her “miracle dog”. Theirs is an unbreakable bond.
