SOLVED!! Thank you u/ditdoh !

I encountered this book as a very young teen in the late nineties or maybe very early 2000s. It was fictional novel and was not age appropriate—it was probably my mother’s book which I’d covertly taken from her. I believe it was a contemporary book. I can’t imagine that it was written earlier than the late 80s at the most.

I didn’t read the entire book, because the novel ended up being a strange combination of both too unsettling and too mundane at the same time for me.

What I remember is that the novel took place in a world where it was possible for dogs to have a surgery which would give them human voice boxes to allow them to speak. The narrator of the book/the book’s main character was a dog who had had this done. My memory is that this character was not the only one who had this surgery done, but that the surgery was was common place in the world of the novel. This could be incorrect, though—I’m not totally sure.

This premise was very bizarre and interesting to me and drew me to the novel many times. But other than that the premise, I don’t believe the content of the book was at all fantastical. In fact, I remember it being somewhat boring or disappointing to me. This makes me think the novel may have been something like a fictional memoir of the main character, dealing with the struggles of being a speaking animal in a world of humans. I believe the time period setting of the book was supposed to be analogous to a contemporary world, rather than being far in an alternative past or imagined future.

The cover art of the book was very striking to me. I remember a stylized drawn portrait of a dog in a red velvet suit jacket with a white ascot or collar underneath.

I have asked my mom about this book and tried my best to find it through googling. I hope someone can help! I would love to check it out again.