pet connection

Been a busy-crazy week, which is why I haven’t gotten around to writing about the box that landed on my front porch a week ago today.

Kim and Jerry were with me when I found it. I immediately knew what was in the box, and so did Kim.

“You just never get tired of seeing new your new books, do you?” I said to Kim, who glanced back at her husband with a smile.

“Jerry gets tired of it,” she said. “He complains that we don’t have enough places to put them all.” (Here are all of Kim’s books, by the way.)

I’m guessing I tolerate more in the way of clutter than Kim and Jerry, because I know I’m not going to have a problem finding room for books No. 9, 10 and 11. Nor have I had trouble finding homes for second editions of “Dogs For Dummies” and “Cats For Dummies” or all the foreign translations of almost all the books I’ve written or co-written.

And 12 years after the hot-off-the-press issue of that very first book — “Dogs For Dummies” — slid out of an envelope from the publisher, it’s still fun to see a book you’ve put so much into finally land in your hands.

As I blogged last month,  I’ve already got copies of “The Ultimate Cat-Lover.” “The Ultimate Horse-Lover” I won’t see until next month.

“The Ultimate Dog-Lover” is the final version of the book I’d gotten an earlier look at last May, when the publisher put out an show-only version of it for bookstore-buyers and library buyers at the book industry trade show. I hadn’t even driven home from L.A. before the first of those “first look” autographed books were on eBay!

Too bad for those buyers, because the final version is even better. I’m delighted with how the first two books turned out, and I’m sure I’ll love the third just as much. Each book has great color photography, wonderful true-life stories of inspiring animals and — and here’s what’s really unique — pet care and behavior information written by some of the world’s top experts.

On this book, we really did a lot more editing and coordinating than writing ourselves, which is sure different. Although all of the co-authors have stories in the books — and I have a story in each of the three, dog, cat and horse. Story-telling is different than the kind of writing I usually do, and I enjoyed the challenge of it. I did a reading of my story from “The Ultimate Dog” last spring at the Del Norte Library in Crescent City, Calif. The audience cried, and so did I. A lot of love and emotion went into my stories, and some wonderful memories, too.

These are books I’ll be proud to autograph, and prouder to find room for on my crowded bookshelves.

If you’re Interest in buying the books, by the way, just click on any of the covers to go to our Pet Connection bookstore, where you’ll find all the books I’ve written with our Dr. Marty Becker, as well as the books we’ve written on our own and with other people.