I loved this book the most. Jill Ciment tells the story of an elderly couple in New York City living in a 5th floor walk-up. Their cat, Dorothy, is a precious dachshund who they adore. She is about 14 years old and the night before they are having an open house to show their apartment so they can sell it, she becomes ill. Alex and Ruth want to move to a building with an elevator as their apartment is five floors of tough climbing, especially at their age!
Dorothy has evidently hurt her back and in the cold, New York weather, they place her on their cutting board and cover her to take her far away to the emergency animal hospital. Getting a taxi that will get them there quickly is difficult as a tanker truck has jack-knifed and turned over in the tunnel stopping all traffic in and out of Manhattan as the driver ran away and is suspected as a terrorist.
The story develops around that incident in that if people are scared, they are likely to offer less for the apartment and with the showing of the condo to some superbly described characters by Ciment, there is the phone calls back and forth with the hospital where Dorothy has to have a risky surgery to see if she will ever walk again. I loved when the chapters alternated from Dorothy's point of view to the narrator as Dorothy described what was happening from her dog's eye view.
How the story ends would be a spoiler so I will stop there....but does Dorothy survive the surgery? Do Alex and Ruth sell their apartment and get into a new elevator installed building? Does the terrorist really follow through on an attack? It is an easy read but sweet and enjoyable and very cleverly written. I would like to read more by Jill Ciment after reading this book.
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