Thomas Healy was a drunk, a fighter, often unemployed, no stranger to the Glasgow police or to the courts. He came from the Gorbals, that byword for hard men and the school of hard knocks, and his life was going nowhere other than downhill. Then one day, he bought a pup - a Doberman. He called him Martin. Gradually man and dog became unshakeable allies, the closest of comrades, the best of friends. Martin, in more ways than one, saved Thomas Healy's life. This is a story of one man and his dog. Such things can be sentimental. Healy's is a memoir written with refreshing originality and love.