Serving the Leftovers is a memoir that blends the grit of animal rescue with the raw edges of personal survival. Alysia Dubriske shares her journey from a fractured marriage and unfulfilling jobs into a life defined by compassion, chaos, and canine companionship. Through stories of Pekingese rescues, barnyard adventures, and late-night emergency vet runs, she invites readers into the messy, heartbreaking, and often hilarious reality of saving “the leftovers,” the unwanted, overlooked, and broken animals who need someone stubborn enough to fight for them. The narrative isn’t just about the dogs, though. It’s about how rescue work transforms the rescuer, forcing them to confront their own scars while tending to the wounds of others.

Reading this book, I felt like I was riding shotgun in Alysia’s truck, driving from one impossible situation to the next, always with a dog (or three) in the back. Her writing is candid and conversational, never dressed up with needless polish, which makes the emotional punches land harder. Some chapters made me laugh, like with the golden retriever too bored to fetch, or the duck-pool competitions, while others left me with a lump in my throat. She doesn’t sugarcoat the burnout, the heartbreak, or the anger at human cruelty. Yet she also never loses sight of the beauty in each small victory. That mix of grit and tenderness stuck with me.

What I admired most was her unflinching honesty about herself. She talks openly about mistakes, moments of doubt, even the selfish thoughts that creep in during hard times. It makes her wins feel earned. At times, the pacing feels like a kitchen table conversation. Stories tumble out with tangents and sudden swerves, but that unpredictability works here. Rescue is chaotic, and so is life, and she captures that without forcing it into a neat box.

I’d recommend Serving the Leftovers to anyone who loves animals, but also to anyone wrestling with the idea of purpose. This isn’t just a book for dog lovers. It’s for people who have been knocked down and gotten back up, and for those still down, who might discover that reaching out to help another soul could be exactly what saves them, too.

Pages: 247 | ASIN : B0DJMXGHJ7