My mom said, “Have you ever read Stickeen? It’s a really short book, it’ll only take you an hour, here.”
Where has this book been all my life? How come I had never heard of it before? Is it too controversial because of saying that dogs are people too? It’s on the web at that link. Either read it now, or bookmark that page and go read it when you have a spare hour. The author is John Muir, one of the founders of the Sierra Club, an amazing outdoorsman and naturalist. He was instrumental in getting the national parks system going, and in particular in getting Yosemite to be a national park. That’s part of the Sierra Club web site that I linked to. You can find more about Muir there.