Other People’s Pets

Ever since being abandoned by her mother Elissa, La La has relied on her father Zev for everything. Zev is both protective and reckless, allowing La La to accompany him on burglaries starting when she is eight years old. Zev, a locksmith by trade, has made a career out of what he sees as harmless theft, and La La, his apprentice, proves to be a valuable partner. La La is an animal empath, able to both feel an animal’s physical and emotional pain and communicate with animals to calm and support them. With La La able to soothe barking dogs in target houses, Zev is able to expand his success. It all goes wrong, however, when a homeowner has a stroke in Zev’s illicit presence. Forced to earn money for Zev’s legal fees, La La finds herself going deeper into a world she thought she’d left behind, and she risks losing everything she values in life—including veterinary school and her relationship with her fiancé.

Told with humor, irreverence, and warmth, Other People’s Pets is a story about unconventional choices, great loss, and the dangerous hold the past has over the present. Zev and La La operate in a shadowy area where right and wrong have different shades of meaning, and though there are consequences for every action, their love for each other and their open-throated search for happiness will have readers rooting for their freedom all the way.