Julie Barton

Dive Deeper

Dog Medicine: How My Dog Saved Me From Myself


Julie Barton

Julie Barton is a writer living in Northern California. She has an MFA in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts and has been published in several magazines and journals including Brain Child, Two Hawks Quarterly, Huffington Post, Louisiana Literature, The South Carolina Review. Dog Medicine is a memoir spanning one year in Julie’s life, from April 1996 to April 1997. During that year, when Julie was 22, she was diagnosed with major depression and was suicidal. Family, doctors and therapists intervened, but nothing helped until she adopted a small rust-colored puppy named Bunker. He somehow sensed her moods and was able to provide hope and comfort when nothing else could. But when Bunker was about eight months old, he received his own life-threatening diagnosis. He had saved Julie—now it was up to Julie to find the strength to save him. Dog Medicine is the story of the remarkable animal-human bond that saved both their lives.

Update: the book has been acquired by Penguin Random House and is now a New York Times best-seller and available in bookstores around the world!

Julie Barton has written
  • Dog Medicine: How My Dog Saved Me From Myself