(43) A Flea's Chance on a Dog's Back

I was talking to my dad this AM and he told me about a book he heard about so I looked it up on line. That's because I love books almost as much as I love my dogs(relax Brad you are above the dogs). Any way, I found the book he was talking about and on the way to finding that book, I found a website that showed little clips of authors talking about their books. Something like the old Reading Rainbow book reports. The authors give little back stories to the books in order to entice you to buy their books. I liked the idea since I could hear about multiple books and decide if it sounded like something I would want to read. If it sounded boring, I could just click on the next author or book and listen to see if it was something interesting. On the page of video book clips that I looked at there were about 16 clips and there were about 2000 pages to view. I only looked at one page and it took me about 15 to 20 minutes to listen and pick the next clip. The reason I am sharing this is that out of the 16 clips I listened to 4 were clips of books relating to or having to do with dogs. These are recent books that are being marketed to the public. Imagine how many books there must be in those 2,000 pages of 16 clips each. That's 3200 new books and if there are 4 on each page that's 800 new books about or relating to dogs. How will I ever read all of them? Sometimes I get a wild hair and think that it would be great to write a book about Beeks and his adventures and relate his dog perspective to life in general. Given the plethora of dog books on the market it would have a flea's chance on a dog's back to make it. Think of all of the attention that the book Marley and Me has received and think of the odds it overcame in order to even get to the publishing stage. Amazing.

Anyway, let me share some of the book titles that look really interesting to me. You might want to check them out for good reads.

What a difference a dog makes by Dana Jennings
What a Difference a Dog Makes: Big Lessons on Life, Love and Healing from a Small Pooch (Hardcover) $13.57

Cowboy and Wills: A love story by Monica Holloway
$24.00

Love is the Best Medicine and Tell Me where it hurts by Dr. Nick Trout
Love Is the Best Medicine: What Two Dogs Taught One Veterinarian about Hope, Humility, and Everyday Miracles (Hardcover)$23.99

Tell Me Where It Hurts: A Day of Humor, Healing, and Hope in My Life as an Animal Surgeon (Paperback)$14.00

Saving Gracie
Saving Gracie: How one dog escaped the shadowy world of American puppy mills (Wiley; $21.95)by Carol Bradley

It has been raining on and off most of the day today so we have been spending a lot of time on the back screened-in porch. This place has something for everyone. The animals love to smell the outdoors, hear the birds, cars, and other animals in the area and feel the breeze on their faces. It really is a great place to be outdoors and yet out of the elements like rain. There is enough space here that I can sit and read or work on the computer and they can roughhouse or sit looking out at the chipmunks running around. All three of the animals, that is, Beeks, Max and Chez love to sit and look out, watching and listening for that unexpected sound,movement or smell. Beeks gets a little anxious when the thunder starts to roll and he moves closer to the inside door and to me. Max and Chez are unfazed. I have noticed that Chez will try to get out to the porch even when the rest of us are not out here because he can get closer to the things he really loves, little tiny moving creatures.

When the cycle of quiet returns, we seem to be in the still of the night without complete darkness. Max sleeps, Beeks quietly looks around and Chez hunches over as close to the screen as possible to see the "ground squirrel's" run down their holes nearest the house. All is well here, for the moment, until the dogs hear a nearby truck or kids walking down the lane, or the clap of loud thunder. Then let the ruckus begin!

So long for now, I'd better get started reading, so many books so little time. If you read a great dog book please let me know. It might just be the perfect Flea.