"If Stanley had been a tad less overbearing and Sophie a tad more submissive, everything would have been fine rather than a roller-coaster of high drama and hurt feelings. The dynamic--part gender, part sibling--was familiar: I'd lived it. How did it come about that I was spending my days adjudicat- ing between two dogs who were acting out the story of my life?"

Award-winning author Kate Jennings is a fiercely intelligent writer, an astute observer of people and...