I Have Heard You Calling in the Night (2006)

Thomas Healy was little more than a drunken Glasgow thug, a bully prone to picking bar fights, when an ad for Doberman puppies in the local paper caught his eye and he took home a puppy that had grabbed his fist with small, sharp teeth and refused to let go. Martin grew into a hulking, fierce dog capable of besting even a pit bull in a fight. But he also tamed Healy, who abandoned booze, began to write, and became a published novelist. Calling in the Night is everything Marley & Me is not: smart, acerbic, laconic, with nary an ounce of treacle dripping through Healy's muscular prose.