Lucky is a twenty year old dog and has spent her whole life with her owner Will, a retiree living on his own in the countryside. Having just returned home from a shopping trip just before Christmas, Will dies suddenly in the car, leaving Lucky all alone. Not wanting to leave her master, she tries to survive while looking for help. After eighteen days on her own, Will’s brother George arrives and finds them. While dealing with the death of his brother, George also has to decide what to do with Lucky not wanting to have her euthanised. Fortunately, she is taken in by his daughter Victoria and is immediately adopted by her son Bruce as the household’s new dog, as their previous pet, Cheyenne had died eight months previously. All this is strange to Lucky who know finds herself living with new people in different surroundings, but still with a family that loves her.

This is a children’s story which is based on real life, with writer’s liberties used. The story is very sweet and reading through it was a pleasure. It’s simple, but then it is aimed at children and the language and structure used is appropriate for those of a younger age. It doesn’t shy away from death within the story, but does handle it in a respectful way. While the characters are not much more than sketched out, they still come across realistically. Surprisingly, Lucky is not the main narrator for the story and it changes back and forth between several characters. The main problem with the book is the formatting and spelling that could have used an editor in several, very obvious, places. George becomes Georgia at one point and several apostrophes go wandering. However, the story with it’s heartbreaking ending does compensate for the issues that arise.

Overall, the story is sweet, simple, and fine for children, showing life for an ageing dog who gets a second chance.