*spoilers!*

This was an awesome book and I hate that it was a library book because I wanted to keep it! Rolf started life living with an old lady that always had dachshunds, and she treated him wonderfully (and always got on her friend's cases about giving their own dogs human food). Then the old lady gets sick, and Rolf has to go live with her nephew, who is very much a cat person. Eventually the old lady dies, so Rolf and the nephew are kind of stuck with each other, and they get along okay for awhile. And then during a frightening storm Rolf's back leg accidentally gets slammed in a car door. He's taken to the animal hospital and when he wakes up he feels different, and the nephew doesn't want him anymore. Thankfully there is a wonderful lady working there named Mindy, and she adopts him... It's funny because Rolf doesn't even realize that his back leg is completely gone until his cone is taken off and he actually sees that it's missing. He says it still feels like it's there.

So one day Mindy and Rolf meet a dog/owner duo who tell them about the dog being a therapy dog, and the owner thinks Rolf would be a great therapy dog. Mindy takes Rolf to the therapy classes, and Rolf explains the things they do to weed out the nervous/excitable dogs, like having to walk past wheelchairs and crutches without reacting. When Rolf officially becomes a therapy dog him and Mindy start visiting hospitals and nursing homes, and there is a wonderfully sweet scene at the hospital where Rolf is doing tricks for a group of patients, and this one guy is almost completely paralyzed and can only move one little finger, but Rolf goes up to him and the guy uses his finger to signal, and Rolf does special tricks for him, and the guy's eyes just light up. I may have gotten a bit teary at that part. Then Mindy takes Rolf to sub for a therapy dog that's sick at a school in the special education department, and Rolf acts as a "Reading Dog", listening attentively while the young children struggle to read to him. He comes into contact with a very frustrated little girl who says she can't read and will never read because she's dumb (broke my heart), but Rolf keeps encouraging her and finally she makes her way through a book. Mindy meets the little girl's dad, and they all start hanging out together, Mindy even leaving Rolf with them when she has to go away for a few days. Eventually Mindy and the father make the announcement that they've fallen in love and want to get married, and the little girl is so excited, and Rolf is very happy to gain a bigger family.

This is a wonderful book about a dog who overcomes hardships to help others, and the end of the book has some information about therapy dogs, and tripods, and dachshunds in general. I've only read two other Dog Diaries books but this was by far my favorite. ( )