Book recommendation

Marley and Me ( Amazon.com link for more reviews )

I finished a book yesterday that I highly recommend, with one warning - if you are prone to crying over sad endings, skip the last three chapters. The book is "Marley and Me : Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog" by John Grogan. It's the story of a more than slightly psychotic Labrador Retriever named Marley and his 13+ years with the Grogan family. John and his wife picked out a puppy from a backyard breeder in Florida. They " met " the mother of the pups, a calm, even tempered, and beautiful dog, but the father wasn't nearby when they were there. After they'd fallen hard for their pup and were leaving, a big, ungainly, manic-looking dog came lunging out of the swamps near the home where the pups had been. After a few months of having the puppy, whom they named Marley, after Bob Marley, it was obvious whose side of the family the pup had gotten his temperament from...
The book was full of wild, wonderful and hysterically funny stories about Marley's exploits in the family, which grew as he did. The couple started out with one son, lost a baby boy (and Marley was a comfort to the wife, which was a big surprise to her husband who had already figured Marley was "the worst dog in the world"- the sub-title to the book), had another boy and a girl. They also moved three times, which involved finding a place for Marley...
As I said, though, the ending of the book and the last of Marley's life are as exceedingly sad as the rest is funny. I cried a lot. Even when you see it coming, like the author did, you'll cry - and it's not your dog...