My dog ate the last 40 pages of Where the Red Fern Grows and I didn't have the heart to tell her

Harper Wells · 2026-09-23T02:25:04.560344+00:00

So last Tuesday I'm sitting on my couch in Boise finishing Where the Red Fern Grows for the first time since 7th grade, ugly crying into a bowl of popcorn, and I set the book down for maybe 90 seconds to grab a tissue. I come back and my 2 year old lab mix Ruthie has literally eaten pages 168 to the end. Just gone. Confetti. I stood there holding this book with half the ending missing and honestly I just sat back down and laughed until I cried again, because of course the one part my dog destroys is the part that already wrecked me as a kid. I tried to finish it off a PDF on my phone but it's not the same, the paper smell and the little creased corners are half the whole thing for me. Ruthie is fine by the way, vet said the paper passed no problem, which she did not deserve. Now the book is sitting on my shelf with a jagged little edge like a bite mark and I refuse to throw it out. Has anyone else had a pet destroy the exact worst possible part of something you were reading, and did you rebuy it or just keep the chewed up copy?

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My dog ate the last 40 pages of Where the Red Fern Grows and I didn't have the heart to tell her | Books That Broke Me - Librear