Dog Medicine: How My Dog Saved Me From Myself

Description

At twenty-two, Julie Barton collapsed on her kitchen floor in Manhattan. She was one year out of college and severely depressed. Summoned by Julie's incoherent phone call, her mother raced from Ohio to New York and took her home. Psychiatrists, therapists and family tried to intervene, but nothing reached her until the day she decided to do one hopeful thing: adopt a Golden Retriever puppy she named Bunker. Dog Medicine captures in beautiful, elegiac language the anguish of depression, the slow path to recovery, and the astonishing way animals can heal even the most broken hearts and minds.

Julie Barton is a writer living in Northern California. She has an MFA in writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts and has been published in several magazines and journals including Brain Child, Two Hawks Quarterly, Huffington Post, Louisiana Literature, The South Carolina Review, and more. She is a mother of two and an animal lover who lives in Northern California.

A beautiful, soulful, insightful book that simply has to be your next must-read -- Cheryl Strayed, bestselling author of Wild A heartfelt page-turner about depression and how dogs can save us from ourselves * Kirkus * A stunning new memoir from Julie Barton explores the topics of severe depression and canine companionship as treatment in poignant and revealing language * Foreword Reviews * Barton's story of her life with Bunker is truly moving, and provides heartwarming proof of the ability of pets to alter our lives for the better * San Francisco Book Review * Read this book if you or someone you love is wrestling with depression. Read this book if you love dogs. Read this book if you want to remember what hope feels like. Just read this book -- Susan Chernak McElroy, New York Times bestselling author of All My Relations: Living with Animals as Teachers and Healers Anyone who has ever loved a dog will relate to Julie Barton's Dog Medicine. This memoir is a heartfelt tribute to man's best friend -- Elliott Holt, author of You Are One of Them If you've ever loved an animal; if you've ever hated or doubted yourself; if you've fought against darkness-then Julie Barton's memoir is your kind of medicine. -- Ellen Lesser, author of The Shoplifter's Apprentice and The Other Woman