I read it soon after my first dogs -- rabbit-hunting beagles -- died, when I was ~12. - Edit 1
Before modification by Burr at 07/09/2012 05:35:56 PM
I cried a very long time, but it wasn't so much devastating as cathartic, I think. Haven't read that book again since junior high; I'm somewhat afraid reading it again would ruin my memory of it.