Monday, June 23, 2008

Dog Days of Summer?

OK she did play Cruella De Ville the most notorious dog kidnapper in literature (What? you haven't seen the remake of 101 Dalmations?), but in real life Glenn Close is a serious dog lover. In fact, she and her husband have started a wonderful web site that features all things dog and is worth your perusal.

The site, www.fetchdog.com, has lots of features: products to buy, information on common dog conditions, puppy photos, and blogs, one of which is written by Glenn Close. Her blog features interviews with celebrities and their dogs and the most recent one is a remarkable story about a service dog, raised by inmates, and the Iraq vet he is serving. It is a great read about the power of dogs to communicate with others and sometimes get through barriers that humans can't seem to penetrate.

Speaking of which, there is a new book out that is all about the communication that takes place between humans and their animals. Not all of this is verbal, as The Life of Edgar Sawtelle explores. Called a "stunning debut novel" by Amazon the book by David Wrobleswski is back-ordered (that's what a great review in the NY Times will do!) but probably worth ordering anyway.

It took Wrdobleswki ten years to write the tome about a deaf, dumb boy who communicates wordlessly with the family's dogs. I'm not sure what kind of dogs these are but the Sawtelles breed them.

Sound good to me and perfect for a beach read. I'm always inspired by people who hang in there for ten years to write their book--gives me hope on a lot of levels.....

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