Lily and the Octopus
Genre: Fiction
This is the story of Ted and his dog Lily, an aging dachshund. Lily and Ted have been through so much together and one day Ted finds an octopus on top of Lily’s head. The octopus becomes Ted’s nemesis and the three go on a journey to rid Lily of her octopus. Throughout the story we learn about Ted’s friendships and former relationships and about how Lily came into his life. This is a story of love and devotion between a man and his best friend.
Liv, our dog, has been with us for about ten months. About two weeks after she arrived, I looked at her one night and thought, “I’m in trouble!” because I’m really whole-heartedly, fully and completely in love with this girl. She and I spend a lot of time together. She is my writing assistant, my walking coach, my chores partner, my shadow and generally my cuddle bug. So, when I read this book, I had a smile on face for the first half of the book. Ted is lovable and his dog sounds adorable and you can’t help but fall in love with both of them. But, at some point I went from really loving Ted to wanting him to grow up and stop the nonsense and face up to the realities of what’s really going on. He does, but only towards the end of the story. I kept trying to translate their trip that is depicted as an adventurous expedition into real-life, adult world and I just couldn’t. But maybe that’s the point. Maybe this journey that Ted and Lily take was about leaving lala land and arriving in the real, scary, unfair world. Reality sets in and you have to keep going. If you have a dog, I think that, like me, you’ll enjoy this book. Just don’t take any of it too literally.
Liv, 2018
