Here's a hypothetical question to start with: If you had to choose between your human friends and your animal/pet friends, who would you choose? If you didn't have to think very hard before choosing the pets, I definitely recommend this book. Martin McKenna's story about three years of his life is fascinating because after running away from home, he was basically embedded with a pack of feral dogs. He observed how the dogs interact with each other and how they communicate. Soon the dogs made more sense to him than humans and he didn't suffer the anxiety that he felt around his family or at school.

While the story is mainly about his relationship with the dogs, his history is interesting in many ways. He grew up with ADHD at a time when people believed the way to deal with an unruly child was through humiliation and "discipline" (in quotes b/c what was once called discipline is now considered abuse). I would have liked to read more about this because this was a quick read and he mentions he couldn't read or write and was bullied at school, but there's no real explanation for his arrested development other than his ADHD. Nor was there much explanation of his perseverance to literacy and ultimately becoming an author. He shares many devastating details of his life before he ran away, and while he lived on his own. I found myself invested enough to want to know more about his life after he joined the human world again.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a copy for review. I enjoyed it and recommend to animal lovers, and especially anyone who has bonded with animals after having felt misunderstood by the world around them.