London's Number One Dog-Walking Agency
Book Feature - London's Number One Dog-Walking Agency by Kate MacDougall
HBL Note: I’ve been waiting so long to be able to feature this book. That title, am I right? Even people who don’t know me very well know that I am a huge dog-lover so this book caught my eye right away. There is also this long-running joke in my family about my dad taking me to London. When he was a teacher, he took middle school students there for years. At the time, I was too young to go along but he promised to take me when I was in middle school. Well, I’m 35 now and I still haven’t been. Luckily, I get to read books like LONDON’S NUMBER ONE DOG-WALKING AGENCY that satisfies both the dog-lover and Anglophile in me. (But Dad, you’re still not off the hook!) Scroll down to read more about Kate’s memoir told through stories about the dogs she walked and the neighborhoods they lived in.
From the publisher:
In 2006, Kate MacDougall was working a safe but dull job at the venerable auction house Sotheby’s in London. After a clumsy accident nearly destroyed a precious piece of art, she quit Sotheby’s and set up her own dog-walking company. Kate knew little about dogs and nothing about business, and no one thought being a professional dog walker was a good use of her university degree. Nevertheless, Kate embarked upon an entirely new and very much improvised career walking some of the city’s many pampered pooches, branding her company “London's Number One Dog Walking Agency.”
With sharp wit, delightful observations, and plenty of canine affection, Kate reveals her unique and unconventional coming-of-age story, as told through the dogs, and the London homes and neighborhoods they inhabit. One walk at a time, she journeys from a haphazard twentysomething to a happily—and surprisingly—settled adult, with love, relationships, drama, and home ownership along the way. But, as Kate says, “It’s all down to the dogs” and what they taught her about London—and life.