"Some human lives can be measured in dogs. Writer/musician John Armstrong is such a person, and in A Series of Dogs, he takes the measure of his own, now at nine dogs' lives and counting. A hilarious, perceptive and moving memoir that is really about the dogs that have added texture and meaning to his own journey, A Series of Dogs introduces the reader to a cast of some of the most memorable characters to come along in Canadian literature in some time -- all of them dogs. Meet Ruff, the family/farm dog, who started it all; Kiltie, a cocker spaniel, longed-for and but never truly embraced, who nevertheless teaches the author an important life lesson; Spooky, the boy-and-his-dog dog, who introduces the author to heartbreak. Chopper is another man's dog, but that doesn't stop him from getting a chapter in Armstrong's story. The reader gets to know Rip, the bandmate; Mugsy, the