The diagnosis of cancer in her beloved dog pushes the author, a single working mother in a southern college town, inward to a place of powerlessness and despair, but also of heightened awareness. Stories from her past resurface as she is forced to reflect on a pet's brief lifetime. In , she shares with the reader these thoughts and memories not chronologically, but as they bubbled up in the stream of consciousness, in the soul searching that often accompanies impending loss. The result is a personal journey that is both intimate and universal, a journey along a path that, while familiar and seemingly ordinary, unveils glimpses of the simple wisdom that surrounds us if, like a dog, we keep our senses open.