I, Malcolm by Blaize Clement

Told from his position in the afterworld, Malcolm, the family dog, is the only witness to the kidnapping of a three-year-old little girl. He watches and waits, and finally sees the man during a family vacation at the beach. When he runs at the man, he is fatally shot. In the afterlife, he is assigned the task of rescuing the child. But strict rules govern the contact between the living and the dead, and Malcolm can only help the child by planting ideas in her mind. This, his final report, tells how he managed to save the child, bring her kidnapper to justice, and learn the true secret of life.