When I first got Frankie, I had fantasies about taking long contemplative walks with him, during which I would ponder my surroundings and the nature of the universe and after which I would transfer my deep thoughts to paper. Aside from the fact that Frankie has little, short legs and follows close behind me rather…
Pet Travel Book Club: Exit Atticus, Enter Pete
Last week’s virtual book club meeting was a huge success — not least because Tom Ryan, the author of the book we discussed, got involved. Here is what he wrote on Following Atticus’s Facebook page about the review on A Traveler’s Library, the co-host of the club: It’s windy and cold outside and I’m lying…
Pet Travel Thursday: Passports and Pooches with Purpose
Every now and then I hear people on TV disparaging bloggers as losers who sit in their parents’ basements, typing away in their pajamas. My experience with pet bloggers has been dramatically different. Our shared concerns — and our shared traffic — have accomplished amazing things, from getting food donated to shelters to getting individual…
The Pet Travel Book Club Kicks Off with Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley
True confession: I’ve never been in a book club, real or virtual, much less organized one of my own. After years of graduate school literature classes, I didn’t want to discuss books for a while; I just wanted to read them without pressure to say what I thought. When I got over that, I was…
Travel Thursday: Tailing John Steinbeck
I love serendipity.* I had made plans to interview John Woestendiek, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and the author of Dog Inc., for Animal Cafe because I thought a top-rate writer who was on the road for a year with his dog might have interesting things to say about pet travel. I didn’t know anything about…
Introducing: The Pet Travel Book Club
Last week I told you about my exciting new venture, blogging about pet travel books and movies on A Traveler’s Library. I semi-jokingly said, “Can a pet travel book club be far behind?” Several of you expressed enthusiasm. We’re on. Phase 1 Here’s the plan. I will tell you — at least a month in…
Pet Travel Thursday: My 7 Links
I was recently posed a challenge by my friend Vera Marie Badertscher of A Travelers Library that’s been making its way around the interwebs: Pick out your best posts in seven different categories and then pass the challenge along to five more bloggers. Called — very aptly — My 7 Links, it was started by…
Wordless Wednesday: 6/15/2011
These Parisian pups Spanish Pulis *came to my attention via a rather circuitous route. My friend Vera Marie Badertscher, blogger at A Traveler’s Library and author of the wonderful new Quincy Tahoma: The Life and Legacy of a Navajo Artist (I’m sending you to the blog, where you’ll find two surprising dog-related reviews), sent me…
36 Hours in Tucson: Canine Edition, Part 1
Sometimes I’m way ahead of the curve. For example, I’ve been blogging about doggie dental care since the beginning of this month, well in advance of the designated Pet Dental Month, February. (Of course, I’m not big on designated months; see November Is Pet Diabetes Month: Oh the Irony). Sometimes I’m far behind it. On…