Status Updates From Strider

my sense is this is a manic pixie dream dog and i'm not sure this book is for me. i might stop and read the previous book in this series, apparently it won the newbery in 84. not sure why didn't I read it at the time? i was 7 or 8 and reading things like playing beatie bow. maybe the school library didn't have it

his dad has come back for a visit with the narrator's "ex-dog" bandit. i find that weird. he doesn't call his dad his ex-dad because he's gone and has a new one. but with a dog it's like their bond has completely evaporated and his previous dog is nothing now he's got a new one

now they're trying to teach strider to read. this book meanders but has some good lines like "being trusted by a dog, especially one that has a good reason for not trusting humans, is a nice feeling" so those little sparks are stopping this from being a DNF

the adults are surprisingly easygoing and let the boys keep the dog. the boys are responsible pet owners! the narrator has a part-time job and uses the money to cover the costs of vaccinations, registration etc. they teach him things too. the only thing they can't do with him is sit/stay because strider gets distressed obviously thinking they might leave him like with his previous owner :(

so obviously the owner told the dog to 'stay' before abandoning it but the narrator and his friend are concerned that the dog will be picked up by animal control and have lured him to their house with hotdogs. they've decided to have joint custody of the dog and share him 50/50. this is kind of sweet now

okay so they've run into the dog on the beach. the dog has obviously been dumped and seems unhappy/distressed but doesn't want to follow the boy because he's waiting for his owner to come back 3 ngl it's making me sad

okay the dog is taking a long time to appear. this about a boy who might be about 14? it's hard to tell. his parents are divorced and he lives with his mum with what the landlord calls a "charming garden cottage" but what he calls a "shack" lol. his mum is absent at work in the evenings and his dad drives trucks. the kid thinks about his dad a lot but sees him infrequently :(

currently in my 'stray dogs that unexpectedly change a kids life' book era and am not sure why but am drawn to these lately