And I’ll admit that some dogs are easier to love than others. My own mutt, Stan, is a case in point. Mercurial, needy, narcissistic, he’s not exactly the poster dog for Man’s Best Friend. Still and all, when Stan cuddles up just so (usually while I’m busy on my laptop), he somehow manages to pull off that mysterious canine magic trick: he makes me feel a little bit better about life.

Stan also serves as my muse, albeit sporadically. As a matter of fact, Bob, the narrator of this novel, was modeled on Stan, right down to the misanthropy, the gluttony, and the odor.

Bob originally appeared as a character in my novel The One and Only Ivan, inspired by the true story of a western lowland gorilla. The real Ivan spent twenty-seven years, alone and caged, in a shopping mall in Tacoma, Washington. Did he ever have a pal like Bob? I don’t know. But there was a pet store at the mall where Ivan lived, and he had lots of visitors. It wasn’t a stretch for me to imagine such a friendship evolving.

And so Bob was born. He had to be tiny, to fit in a hole in Ivan’s cage. He had to be wily. He had to be a street dog: tough and blunt and no-nonsense. (You can imagine my delight when I learned that the inimitable Danny DeVito would be voicing Bob in the Disney The One and Only Ivan movie. Yep. That’s Bob, all right.)

Bob’s had a tough life. He’s seen the darker side of humans. He doesn’t really get the whole “man’s best friend” thing. (His best friend, as it happens, is a gorilla.) He’s carrying some pretty heavy baggage for such a little dog. And he faces down a lot in this story: tornadoes and owls, floods and wolves, terror and guilt and self-doubt.

But through it all, Bob never loses his tiny-mutt swagger. And he never stops listening to his good-dog heart.

Even if you’re a devout cat person, I hope you enjoyed spending time with the guy.

Acknowledgments

Authors, like dogs, may seem like simple creatures. But beneath our shaggy exteriors, we require lots of support and TLC. The One and Only Bob would never have happened without the help of many lovely humans.

Endless gratitude goes to the fabulous folks at HarperCollins:

—Top Dogs: Suzanne Murphy, President & Publisher, and Jean McGinley, VP, Associate Publisher;

—Design: Amy Ryan and Sarah Pierson;

—Managing Editorial: Mark Rifkin, Renée Cafiero, and Valerie Shea;

—Assistant Editor: Sarah Homer;

—Marketing & Publicity: Nellie Kurtzman, Ann Dye, Jenn Corcoran, Audrey Diestelkamp, Vaishali Nayak, and Emily Zhu;

—Digital Marketing: Spencer Alben, Lindsay Jacobsen, Craig Kleila, Shae McDaniel, and Colleen O’Connell;

—School & Library: Patti Rosati, Mimi Rankin, and Katie Dutton;

—Audio: Caitlin Garing, Peter Bobinski, and Karen Radner;

—Everyone on the amazing HC sales team.

Special thanks and extra treats go to: