Dog Servitude
Some dog lovers marry into dogs. Others seek solace in a warm canine embrace soon after leaving the dorm or getting divorced. Then there are those who are to the kennel born. Me, I was very post-married and long through with school before I took the pooch plunge — and discovered how quickly a small, alien creature can rearrange your DNA.
Frankie, a rescued mystery mix of indeterminate age but very determinate cuteness, took up residence with me in the fall of 2004. I’m happy to report that, after a stint of freeloading, he’s begun to pay for his kibble.
A piece on our adventures together ran in Bark magazine, the doggie New Yorker. And a wrap up of a few places where I shop for his toys in Tucson Guide led to the illustration of Mardi Gras Frankie by photographer and dog-lover extraordinaire Amy Haskell being sold to Borealis Press. (I’ve never been a big fan of Thoreau, but Frankie didn’t object to the company using a quote by him.) That piece, in turn, helped me nab an assignment on home decor tips for dog owners in Tucson Home.
Stories in Your Dog, the newsletter of Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University, came next. I learned everything I need to know about shedding (Frankie doesn’t do it) and more than I wanted to about inflammatory bowel disease (Frankie doesn’t have it). My reward: Assignments that involved interviews with top dog experts like Ian Dunbar and Nicholas Dodman.
In early 2009, I made my debut as pet travel correspondent for News 4 at 4 on KVOA TV in Tucson.
Thus emboldened by my growing knowledge of things canine in general and one dog in particular, I pitched the idea of a humorous advice book for dog newbies to Alpha/Penguin — and lo and behold: Am I Boring My Dog? And 99 Other Things Every Dog Wishes You Knew was published in September 2009.
Read all about it — and other dog-related news, with lots of pictures — on my blog: Will My Dog Hate Me?
O, Frankie, my furry muse, I sing of you.