Anna Quindlen, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Newsweek columnist and author of “A Short Guide to a Happy Life” says the idea for her new book “Good Dog. Stay.” came after she wrote an elegy of sorts for her almost 15-year-old Labrador Retriever, Beau, before he died.
“I once had an editor who hated dead-dog columns. (I did one anyway.)” she wrote in April. “This is a live-dog column. It’s a shame that obituaries and eulogies come only after people are gone and unable to appreciate them … Beau, of course, will have no idea what is said about him.”
Beau passed away shortly after the column was published, and Quindlen was besieged by letters from dog owners touched by the piece. Her publisher suggested turning the column into a book, and “Good Dog. Stay.” was born.
Quindlen understands why people were so moved by the column about Beau. “People love their dogs,” she said. “People have the relationship with their dog that they expected to have with their spouses or their kids. Dogs never stab you in the back, probably because they don’t have opposable thumbs. And they lick your face when you cry. You can’t say that of anyone else. Nor would you want to.”
“Good Dog. Stay.” is in bookstores now.