Last week, I was given the book Hooray for Dogs. I was raving about what great art this book contained to the person that gave it to me. It is sort of wonderful in a way we don’t often see anymore. It’s not a book that tells a linear story, it’s a book of art and some wonderful quotations and short historical stories about dogs. But the fact that it’s mostly paintings and drawings is what makes it special. The artwork is lush and beautiful. Each image really brings out a sort of key feature or maybe emotion that represents something we love about dogs, such as loyalty, fun, or just those cute poses they do sometimes. Or cute poses they never do, but we can totally imagine them doing if hey could, like on the cover!

The inside of the cover says,

This is a potpourri of pictures and words about dogs. It seeks to define the qualities which make dogs our best animal friends, and illustrates each theme with anecdotes and illustrations.

Hooray for Dogs celebrates the good qualities of our canine friends, finding the traits which transcend the differences between breed and breed, individual and individual.

The illustrations, almost all in color, are drawn from nearly one hundred books, magazines, posters, and advertisements.

Some days are just special in the most unexpected ways. Today I had a meeting with a group of people. One woman came in and had a Rottweiler with her who ran into the office where we were meeting. I immediately fell in love with the dog. I love Rottweilers, they are the most huggable dog. I think it’s great when dogs are welcome in the workplace, and I asked, “Does he go everywhere with you?” She said, “Just about, he even loves planes.” There were others at the meeting who knew this dog and concurred that he did indeed love planes.

So for the first half of the meeting I befriended the dog and was petting him and scratching him while we were talking. I love how Rottweilers back into you as if to say, “more! more!”

About half way through the meeting, I started putting the pieces together and I had an epiphany! I turned to the woman and said, “Hold it! Are you the author of Good Dog, Carl?” She said, “Yes, and that’s Carl.”

Now it’s not that I’m star struck or something, but I knew I was in the presence of another dog lover. Carl is iconic, and here I was bonding with him. It was quite a moment, and I was in the middle of trying to talk about technology. Well, it was fine, but it was one of those happy moments that I just love remembering. I’ll probably see Carl and Alexandra Day again and I look forward to it.

When I got home, Kody gave me a thorough scent analysis that took about a half hour. It was fascinating watching him check out each leg and hand and go through his process.