Julie Klam's You Had Me At Woof

As I've said before, there is no way to even try to resist a book named "You Had Me At Woof."

I met a charming Boston Terrier named Winston at the horse show on Saturday. I may have mistaken him for a Frenchie had I not just read Julie Klam's "You Had Me At Woof."  Winston was awfully handsome and bore an uncanny likeness to his namesake.  I was immediately charmed and now, not unlike my daughter's obsession with micro-pigs, I'm rather imagining taking one with me in my handbag wherever I go.

I think they can take the girl out of publicity, but they can never take the publicist out of the girl. I can't keep my mouth shut when I see or hear or taste something I like.  Julie Klam chronicles her life with dogs, most of the Boston Terriers, and demonstrates with considerable wit how each taught her a life lesson.  She's a very funny writer with a light touch, and kind, even towards those who aren't particularly doggy (I've said before that I don't trust anyone who doesn't like dogs, but one of my best girlfriends is, in fact, a non-dogbian; we forgive).  Empathy abounds, and deliciously dry humor and belly laughs. I wept through the chapter about Dahlia, the older dog that she adopted. One can't really imagine how anyone can discard an old dog but the pounds are full of them and the poor things face either living out the rest of their lives in concrete and iron captivity or euthanasia.  I've often said that if I had piles of money, I'd buy a house on a few hundred acres and fill it with old dogs who can spend their dotage chasing rabbits in green fields and lying in the warm sunshine.

Research shows that people with dogs live longer and are happier. Dog people have of course known this for years.