From Dogs I Have Met

Always judging a book by its cover, I picked up Ken Foster's The Dogs Who Found Me at the Faulkner House in New Orleans' Pirates Alley last summer. What ever book you pick up in this intimate store, it will be good. So it doesnt really matter if I pick one up soley for aesthetic reasons. And it was one of those books I finished in a day or two then sent to a friend who had watched Reddy for a couple of months while I was away.

Presently back in New Orleans for a couple of months, I read in the Gambit that Foster was reading from his follow-up book Dogs I Have Met and the People They Found at Octavia books in Uptown. So I went, poured myself a glass of complimentary red wine and listened to him read from a couple of chapters from the book.

Foster's theme is centered around the kinds of people who take in the unwanted, stray dogs. And most of the times these dogs are pits and/or pit mixes. His stories also include other people's reaction to this breed. I did not know this but pit bulls used to be as popular as the lab is today in American Culture. Helen Keller had a pit bull, the dog from Our Gang was a pit bull. Foster had big displays of old advertisements and such from the turn of the century, all positive images of the pit bull. However, as we all know, pitties have fallen out of favor and not because of any fault of their own. From owners' ill-breeding practices.

Afterwards, Foster signed his new book and I had him sign one for a new friend of mine in Shreveport. She is like one of his characters he writes about-taking in the unwanted dog left at the truck stop, or tied to the bridge, or wandering down the country road. You probably know one of these people yourself, if you are not that person already! This book is a great read. Yes, I am reading it before I send it along to my friend.