Another Good Dog (Achterberg) - Discussion Questions

Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for ANOTHER GOOD DOG … then take off on your own:

1. The author describes the pain of losing her beloved hound of 17 years as having "left a gaping hole" in her family's "collective heart." Have you experienced the loss of a pet? What makes the loss of a creature so profound?

2. How easy or difficult would you find fostering dogs: taking them in, caring for them, and having to let them go?

3. Of the many dogs the author fostered in Another Good Dog, which ones were your favorites? Which dogs would have been hardest for you to say goodbye to? Were there any you would have glady (or reluctantly) given up on?

4. Talk about some of the particularly tough challenges she faced—perhaps working with dogs traumatized by cruelty …or the job of weaning nine puppies.

5. Achterberg talks about "how bad my addiction [to fostering] had become," a habit that was testing her marriage and her husband's patience. Did you feel any sympathy for him? Or were you impatient with his complaining?

6. Follow-up to Question 5: Achterberg faced other family complications, including her son's health issuses and her daughter's beauty pageant. How difficult was it for the author to juggle the various demands placed on her from all different directions? Did you ever reach the point where you felt she had over committed herself—that her husband was right to present her with his enough-is-enough ultimatum?

(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online and off, with attribution. Thanks.)

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