My Dog Skip

By Willie Morris

Willie Morris' memoir of his boyhood in a small Southern town, centered around his pet dog, Skip, a terrier. Morris was an only child and Skip became the brother he never had. The two did everything together, hunting, fishing, playing ball. Morris had lots of friends and an active social life and Skip was a part of it all. He even learned to play football and other sports. Together he and Morris lived an almost idyllic existence. Of course, there were tough times, like when Skip was poisoned or when he got trapped in an abandoned refrigerator. But he managed to squeak through and the two remained nearly inseparable until Morris went off to college.

There were lots of things that I enjoyed about this book and some not so much. The descriptions of childhood pranks were funny and I liked the excursions into the dense woods nearby and of the closeness between Morris and his dog. In fact, I would have like a lot more about the local wildlife and the woods. What I didn't enjoy so much was the extensive descriptions of the football games and other sports Morris played where the dog was included. Yes, it is remarkable that Skip learned to play those games, but too often it seemed like I was reading the sports report. I got rather bored with the extensive descriptions of sports games. But other than the emphasis on sports, it was a pretty good story and Skip sounds like one of the best dogs ever.