BOOK REVIEW: Pumpkin – The Raccoon Who Thought She Was a Dog by Laura Young

Stephanie O'Connell | 23 April 2017 | Reply

BOOK REVIEW: Pumpkin – The Raccoon Who Thought She Was a Dog by Laura Young

Boxtree
October 2016
Hardcover, $19.99
Reviewed by Steph O’Connell

Non-Fiction/Humour/Animals

8/10

As a baby, Pumpkin the raccoon was abandoned by her parents after falling out of a tree and breaking her leg. She was taken in by a family with two rescue dogs, Toffee and Oreo, and the three of them quickly became inseparable. They take naps, watch TV and cuddle each other, and Pumpkin’s adventures with her ‘sisters’ have captivated millions of people around the world.

Now, for the first time, their story is captured in this sweet and funny collection of photographs.

Get read to fall for Pumpkin and her mischievous attempts to be a dog, as we remember that love and friendship can be found in the unlikeliest of places.

Many people will be familiar with Pumpkin of instagram fame, where pictures are uploaded frequently, often accompanied by “banter” between her and her sisters, Oreo and Toffee. These are endlessly entertaining and adorable, and one could easily lose many hours if not more while poring over her page.

So it follows that the book would be more of the same, but the book also gives insight into the way Pumpkin came to be a member of this rescue family, and certain anecdotes of their time with her, like when they discovered she would do her business in the toilet, and that time she figured out how to turn on a tap and flooded the bathroom… and the bedroom… and various other areas of the house…

Situations that arise from having a nimble fur-child with opposable thumbs aside, those of us with dogs and cats we love will relate to the stories and “discussions” in this book… but that doesn’t mean it’s any less worth reading because we’ve “been there, done that”. In fact, I think that relatability is part of what makes this book so much fun. It’s through living our own crazy lives with animals that we can sympathise and laugh along with the Young family, and it becomes something of a cathartic experience.

All in all this is a highly entertaining book that won’t take you long to get through, but the value here is the ability to flick back through when you’re in need of a laugh.