Dear Gretchen: Letters to My Dog

Five years after her Shepherd mix Gretchen died and a year before her 30th birthday, Heidi Parker Colonna is swimming in adulthood. The quiet, country setting of her new job and talk of having a baby turn her thoughts back to a letter she dropped in Gretchen's grave: She was Heidi's world. She saved her from childhood grief. How could Heidi do joyful things without her original sidekick?

In this poignant memoir complete with diary entries and photos, Colonna tells how she set out to reconnec...