A memoir about getting a first puppy, turning forty and transforming a son and mother's complicated relationship. On the eve of the millenium, the life of therapist and bestselling self-help author was in a dark place. The counselling that he recommended to everybody else had not shifted the grief from the death of his partner. He was stuggling with low-level depression and his polite but distant relationship with his mother had left them both tip-toeing round each other. His solution? To get Flash, a collie cross puppy - perhaps not the best choice for someone who'd never owned a dog, or even lived with one, before.