London's Number One Dog-Walking Agency: A Memoir
(OverDrive MP3 Audiobook, OverDrive Listen)
" Sparkles with humor, joy and wit. London's Number One Dog-Walking Agency bounds along with the energy of a rambunctious pup and exudes the wisdom of a beloved canine with an old soul (you know the type)."" — BookPage
The irresistibly charming memoir of a young woman who started her own business as a dog walker for London's busy, well-heeled dog lovers. A true love letter to London, dogs, and growing up.
Aside from the odd biter or growler, the occasional bolter and the one dog who didn't want to walk, the canines were the easy part. They were a muddy, messy joy in all shapes, sizes and breeds, from greedy Labradors to pampered pugs and everything in between. It was the owners who were the real challenge, a giddy mix of the over-protective, the clueless, the eccentrics and the perfectionists. There is no rule book on how to navigate the obsessions of the London dog owner. A degree in human psychology would have been far preferable to any sort of animal qualification. Not that I had either...
In 2006, Kate MacDougall was working a safe but dull job at the venerable auction house Sotheby's in London. After a clumsy accident nearly destroyed a precious piece of art, she quit Sotheby's and set up her own dog-walking company. Kate knew little about dogs and nothing about business, and no one thought being a professional dog walker was a good use of her university degree. Nevertheless, Kate embarked upon an entirely new and very much improvised career walking some of the city's many pampered pooches, branding her company "London's Number One Dog Walking Agency."
With sharp wit, delightful observations, and plenty of canine affection, Kate reveals her unique and unconventional coming-of-age story, as told through the dogs, and the London homes and neighborhoods they inhabit. One walk at a time, she journeys from a haphazard twentysomething to a happily—and surprisingly—settled adult, with love, relationships, drama, and home ownership along the way. But, as Kate says, "It's all down to the dogs" and what they taught her about London—and life.
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Kate MacDougall. (2021). London's Number One Dog-Walking Agency: A Memoir. Unabridged HarperAudio.
Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)Kate MacDougall. 2021. London's Number One Dog-Walking Agency: A Memoir. HarperAudio.
Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)Kate MacDougall, London's Number One Dog-Walking Agency: A Memoir. HarperAudio, 2021.
MLA Citation (style guide)Kate MacDougall. London's Number One Dog-Walking Agency: A Memoir. Unabridged HarperAudio, 2021.
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| Shared Digital Collection | 3 | 0 |
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Kate MacDougall is a writer and journalist who now lives in rural Oxfordshire with her family. She writes features for publications including Country Life, the Telegraph, Horse & Hound, Homes & Antiques whilst also wrangling three small children and two disobedient dogs.
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" Sparkles with humor, joy and wit. London's Number One Dog-Walking Agency bounds along with the energy of a rambunctious pup and exudes the wisdom of a beloved canine with an old soul (you know the type)."" — BookPage
The irresistibly charming memoir of a young woman who started her own business as a dog walker for London's busy, well-heeled dog lovers. A true love letter to London, dogs, and growing up.
Aside from the odd biter or growler, the occasional bolter and the one dog who didn't want to walk, the canines were the easy part. They were a muddy, messy joy in all shapes, sizes and breeds, from greedy Labradors to pampered pugs and everything in between. It was the owners who were the real challenge, a giddy mix of the over-protective, the clueless, the eccentrics and the perfectionists. There is no rule book on how to navigate the obsessions of the London dog owner. A degree in human psychology would have been far preferable to any sort of animal qualification. Not that I had either...
In 2006, Kate MacDougall was working a safe but dull job at the venerable auction house Sotheby's in London. After a clumsy accident nearly destroyed a precious piece of art, she quit Sotheby's and set up her own dog-walking company. Kate knew little about dogs and nothing about business, and no one thought being a professional dog walker was a good use of her university degree. Nevertheless, Kate embarked upon an entirely new and very much improvised career walking some of the city's many pampered pooches, branding her company "London's Number One Dog Walking Agency."
With sharp wit, delightful observations, and plenty of canine affection, Kate reveals her unique and unconventional coming-of-age story, as told through the dogs, and the London homes and neighborhoods they inhabit. One walk at a time, she journeys from a haphazard twentysomething to a happily—and surprisingly—settled adult, with love, relationships, drama, and home ownership along the way. But, as Kate says, "It's all down to the dogs" and what they taught her about London—and life.
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May 15, 2021
A British freelance journalist's story about starting a dog-walking business that took her out of a post-college rut and into the contentment of a settled life. MacDougall was a bored sales assistant at Sotheby's when she asked herself two significant questions: "Is this it?...This is adulthood?" After accidentally destroying clay pigeons awaiting valuation, she decided to take a chance on another career: dog-walking. People who knew about her plans to start her own dog-walking service--including her mother, who believed all the author needed was a husband--raised their eyebrows. Yet MacDougall forged ahead, thrilled to work with creatures who reveled in their "perfectly uncomplicated" lives. What she had yet to learn was that the dogs she loved were attached to owners, each with their own neuroses. Some dogs required "a full bath and a blow dry after every walk," and one owner asked the author to use a Baby Bj�rn to take the dog to the park. One client gave MacDougall a "bullet-pointed list" of what her "strict Hindu," Italian-bred cocker spaniel could and couldn't do, including eat beef. As the author's small business grew, so did she. She married her boyfriend and taught him to like dogs, survived a global recession and employed other dog-walkers, and got pregnant and learned about motherhood, which "leaves you like a half-open wound, vulnerable and exposed, your nerves eviscerated, your heart on the butcher's block." Then, without regret, MacDougall turned over her business to someone else and went to live in the country, "knee-deep" in children, dogs, and the simple pleasures of family life. With gentle humor, this charming coming-of-age story captures the ups and downs of a young woman defining a life on her own terms. The narrative also celebrates dogs as the delightful garnish on the "huge, messy...stew" of urban life. Warmly uplifting and wise.COPYRIGHT(2021) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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Starred review from June 1, 2021
Kate MacDougall is a stumbling twentysomething, dissatisfied with what she sees in her career path--temp to administrative assistant, and then what? Whatever it is, it isn't the future she wants. Luckily, she happens to meet someone who's walking a dog ""as a favor to a friend,"" and inspiration strikes. So, with the support of her partner Finlay, she starts a dog walking agency. With each section organized around one particular dog with meaning to her life at that point in time, MacDougall takes her readers along as she starts with her very first client, shows how her business grows, suffers through the great recession, and then becomes a thriving business. Meditations on life and the phases of adulthood mingle with amusing or meaningful anecdotes, and readers will be delighted by the eccentric cast of owners, like those of sweet Labrador Winston, who is not allowed near a puddle (even in the rain) and competing dog walkers like stern German Agnes, who refuses to walk dachshunds. This entertaining and lighthearted look at the life of a woman who took control of her own future is a perfect nonfiction crossover for fans of British chick lit like that of Sophie Kinsella.COPYRIGHT(2021) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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" Sparkles with humor, joy and wit. London's Number One Dog-Walking Agency bounds along with the energy of a rambunctious pup and exudes the wisdom of a beloved canine with an old soul (you know the type)."" — BookPage
The irresistibly charming memoir of a young woman who started her own business as a dog walker for London's busy, well-heeled dog lovers. A true love letter to London, dogs, and growing up.
Aside from the odd biter or growler, the occasional bolter and the one dog who didn't want to walk, the canines were the easy part. They were a muddy, messy joy in all shapes, sizes and breeds, from greedy Labradors to pampered pugs and everything in between. It was the owners who were the real challenge, a giddy mix of the over-protective, the clueless, the eccentrics and the perfectionists. There is no rule book on how to navigate the obsessions of the London dog owner. A degree in human psychology would have been far...
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