Love at First Bark: How Saving a Dog Can Sometimes Help You Save Yourself

by Julie Klam

Overview

Look out for Julie's new book, The Stars in Our Eyes, publishing in July 2017.

The bestselling memoirist shows how saving a dog can sometimes help you save yourself.

Julie Klam writes about dogs with a rollicking wit and a radiating warmth-as no other writer can. In her bestselling memoir You Had Me at Woof, she shared the secrets of happiness she learned as an occasionally frazzled but always devoted owner of Boston terriers. Now, with the same enchanting, pop culture-infused amalgam of humor and poignancy that reached the The New York Times and the Today show and won the hearts of readers across the country, she returns with more humorous insight into life with canine companions.

Klam focuses here on dog rescue, and its healing power not only for the dogs who are cared for and able to find good homes, but also for the people who bond with these animals. Klam became involved with rescue after years as an owner of purebred dogs. She was looking for a way to help and participate in a community, but she never imagined just how much she would receive in return. The dogs she has rescued through the years have filled her life with laughter and contentment, sorrow and frustration, and they have made certain that she never has a dull moment. Along the way, she has collected stories from friends who have also found that guiding dogs to nurturing homes made their own lives richer. These experiences, which show us that even in our smallest gestures we can make a big difference, inspired Love at First Bark.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781101547960
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	10/18/2011
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	192
Sales rank:	340,142
File size:	133 KB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Julie Klam grew up in Bedford, New York. After attending NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and interning at Late Night with David Letterman, she went on to write for such publications as O, The Oprah Magazine, Rolling Stone, Harper's Bazaar, Glamour, and The New York Times Magazine and for the VH1 television show Pop-Up Video, where she earned an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Special Class Writing. She married the show's producer, Paul Leo. They live with their daughter and three dogs in Manhattan.

Table of Contents

1 Morris the Pit Bull, Couples Therapist 1

2 My Darling Clementine 59

3 There Is a Dog House in New Orleans 113

Acknowledgments 171

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Julie Klam is like Proust, if he wrote about dogs instead of madeleines, wrote English instead of French, had better hair-and wrote exceptionally hilarious books that you can't help reading all at once."
-Patricia Marx

Editorial Reviews

The men and women who raise rescue dogs are a breed all their own. Author Julie Klam knows first hand. After years ranging purebreds, she joined the rescue squad with the motley crew of Boston terriers that she described in her solid-selling You Had Me at Woof. Love at First Bark carries her message, as it were, into the field with its moving descriptions of how people are saved by the dogs they rescued. Brimming with stories from friends about their canine companions, the book possesses the spontaneity of a backyard romp with a joyous pet. Best read while cuddling your favorite little buddy.

…a witty memoir about how Klam's plunge into the world of dog rescue helped transform her life.
—The Washington Post

Yvonne Zipp

Julie Klam is like Proust, if he wrote about dogs instead of madeleines, wrote in English instead of French, had better hair—and wrote exceptionally hilarious books that you can’t help reading all at once.”
—Patricia Marx

“[Julie Klam] can break your heart . . . then lift your spirits higher than a kite.”
—The Huffington Post

From the Publisher

Klam earned an Emmy nomination for her work on VH1's Pop-Up Video, but you'll know her from last year's best-selling canine love-fest memoir, You Had Me at Woof. Here she reveals what dogs she has rescued have given her and recounts stories of other people saved by the dogs they've saved. Can't miss with the enormous dog-loving crowd; national tour.

Library Journal

Klam (You Had Me at Woof, 2010, etc.) offers a collection of compassionate tales of dog rescue. Canine lovers will sit up and take notice, as this slim volume delivers much heart and Klam's signature self-deprecating humor. When financial struggles culminated in a move to a dangerous city neighborhood, the author and her husband had their hands full with a young daughter and three rambunctious dogs. Further money woes added strain to their relationship. Then they stumbled upon Morris, a lovable mixed pit bull who had been tied to a street sign on a hot day and abandoned without food or water. One does not have to be a dog owner to cringe at the image of cigarette burn marks on Morris' paw or to understand how helping this sweet dog brought Klam and her husband closer together. The author also introduces readers to other beloved but challenging cases like Clementine who suffered with fecal incontinence. Those who work in animal rescue will relate to the camaraderie of teamwork involved, via Facebook and Twitter feeds, in striving to find good homes for older or infirm dogs. After a trip to New Orleans for a fundraiser, Klam realized that rescuers are only human, but "there is a superpower that comes from knowing you're making a difference in the world around you." A realistic, joyful account.

Kirkus Reviews