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"Three years is not long enough. But three years of Rex was worth a lifetime of ordinary."

Introduction

Rex arrived on a Saturday morning with one ear up and one ear still deciding. He stayed for three years. He left a gap that has no clean edges.

Only Three Years, Rex is the true story of a German Shepherd who came home as a puppy and became, without ceremony or announcement, the most important presence a family had ever known. Told with warmth, dry humour, and piercing honesty, this is a book for anyone who has ever loved a dog — completely, without reservation — and lost them too soon.

What readers will find inside

The boy who started every morning by finding Rex, just to feel the rise and fall of him — and the grief that settled into his feet years later, slowing him without him noticing

The teenage girl who told Rex everything she could never tell anyone else, and the door she stood at every afternoon just to say his name out loud

The man who made a spreadsheet about getting a dog — and ended up memorising the weight of Rex on his feet each evening, knowing what was coming

The woman who had wished for something that would simply show up — and found, in a dog, the most complete answer she had ever been given

Rex himself — his Happy Rex grin, his tennis ball, his 3:15pm reunion, and his final morning in the centre of the family he had chosen

About the book

This memoir does not flinch from the illness, the fight, or the loss. But it does not end in grief. It ends in gratitude — for the three years that were, and the life-sized shape they left behind in a family that would choose them again without hesitation.

Rex also includes a heartfelt epilogue on pet loss grief: what it really is, why it is always underestimated, and what to do when the world moves on before you are ready.

Is this book for you?

You have loved a dog and lost them, and wanted someone to describe exactly what that is like

You are sitting with a dog who is slowing down, and you are not ready

You want a true story told with the craft of a novel — one you will finish and immediately want to give to someone you love

You are a parent who wants to help a child understand love, loss, and showing up

You believe a short life can be a whole life — and that three years of the right dog is enough to carry forever