In mid-2019, Karin du Croo and Miguel Gallardo adopted Cala, a mix of terrier and God knows what else, who had been abandoned in the middle of the Sierra de Segura. Cala entered their lives and changed them forever, bringing them down to Planet Dog, a special place with its own heroes and villains.

In the pages of The Great Dog Book, Gallardo and du Croo retell the complicated process of adoption and the dog’s acclimation to its new home in a rich blend of travel journal and instruction manual for the world of dogs that suddenly opened before them.

“Sadly, Cala’s story isn’t unknown to us,” Ingrid Ramón, a dog trainer, tells us. “We live in a country that still lacks an understanding of animals as well as empathy for the feelings of these creatures that are abandoned and abused every day. Cala, an intelligent and sensitive dog with great potential, found the right home at the right time. This is a humorous book about how people who didn’t want a dog wound up discovering an unsuspected world that broadened their perspectives.”