Interview with Bo Hoefinger and His Human Parents Horst and Lisa

Bo Hoefinger is not an everyday, run-of-the-mill author--he's a mixed-breed shelter dog with an attitude. "Bad to the Bone" focuses on how he and two seemingly normal people wreak havoc on an unsuspecting world while creating a lifelong bond in the process. All three graciously sat down for an interview with Between The Covers.

BTC:Please tell us the story of how "Bad To The Bone" went from being a Christmas present to being a hot new non-fiction book.

Lisa: It was actually written as a x-mas present for me in 2006. Bo was getting older and Horst wanted to give me something to have long after Bo was gone, the result was a book written through Bo's eyes. I thought it was so cute and funny I decided to find Bo a literary agent. In July 2007 he signed on with Barbara Poelle at the Irene Goodman Agency , then in July 2008 he put paw to paper on a contract with Kensington Books. In October 2009 Bad To The Bone was released and became the first book written by a dog to ever be published in non-fiction, not bad for a writer in a fur suit. I hope Bo's book brings as much enjoyment and laughter to others as it has to me.

BTC: What's the secret to having a happy multi-species home?

Lisa: There are three main ingredients to being happy in a situation such as ours:
1) There needs to be a healthy supply of love to go around
2) A Swiffer with a 10 boxes of bonus sheets in reserve
3) An immune system resistant to pet dander

Bo: And a king size bed. Humans take up a lot of space.

BTC: Author Temple Grandin, asserts that "animals make us human". What are your thoughts on this?

Bo: Funny you should mention that because I was just reading Church Grandin, that's Temple's dog, who asserts "humans make us animals". Church is right of course because 'the man' is always looking to keep us down. If I have to hear about opposable thumbs one more time I'm going to have to pee in a shoe.

BTC: Thinking about writers, what do you think about the recent popularity of dogs as narrators of books (Garth Stein's "Art of Racing In The Rain", Spencer Quinn's mystery series with Chet, etc.)?

Bo: Those dogs aren't real. But the writers are, with a heaping load of talent. Kinda the opposite of what we got going on in my house.

BTC: As a writer, how do you "court the muse"?

Horst: Since I write as Bo, I like to get inside his head. I sit back and think of a time when he was less than obedient, usually in an obnoxious way. Once I have that feeling, I get a snarky type commentary going on in my head. That's the voice that types away on the keyboard. If I were to use my own voice it would sound something like...

Bo: He's not taking credit for writing the book again, is he? That man is shameless. Simply shameless.

BTC: It seems that pretty much everyone in the family is a blogger these days. We know about boknowsonline.com, sunbearsquad.org, still doing a bit on dogster.com--what else? Since we are bloggers too, we'd love to hear more about them, what inspired you to start them, etc.

Lisa: We started Bo Knows to introduce Bo to the world. There are so many sites with sad animal news we decided to have one with only funny stories, a place to go to get a laugh.

Bo: On my blog I normally introduce a ridiculous story from my perspective and then excerpt the relevant parts. My specialty is any wacky story with an animal angle. As long as the protagonist in the story can't speak a human language (parrots get a pass) and they've caused trouble or embarrassment for humans, I will cover them.

Lisa: After working on Dogster for over 16 months we decided it was time for our next adventure. On Dogster we covered the hard hitting issues in the animal community; abuse, puppy mills, legislation, and the huge overpopulation of homeless dogs. We have always adopted rescues but never really knew the story behind the scenes, what it takes to save even one dog.
All the issues that affect the dog community have become very important to us and we after our departure from Dogster we have decided that is where our focus will remain. Bo's book is dedicated to rescue and shelter workers who make this world a better place, one animal at a time. We are donating a portion of the proceeds to help homeless dogs.

Sunbear Squad is a wonderful not-for-profit that took the horrible tragedy of Sunbear and used it to help others to become good Samaritans to animals. A blog has recently been set-up, The Sunbear Blog Squad, and my goal is to start blogging regularly in the spring. I'm taking a little hiatus at the moment to spend time with Bo.

BTC: What advice do you have for aspiring writers/bloggers?

Horst: Do it as a hobby and have fun with it...all else is gravy.

Bo: Yeah, do it for the gravy!

BTC: And, of course, the burning question for BO--Rawhides or Greenies?

Bo: Greenies by a landslide. After I eat one, I don't worry about chatting up the local Chihuahua for fear of knocking her over with bad breath. Besides rawhides can be dangerous. One time I had to put my paw down Copper's {his sister dog} throat to pull one out. I wasn't hungry, she was chocking. Now my parents make her use a fork and knife with everything she eats. Even the
Thanksgiving turkey.


As a special treat, Bo has donated three "pawtographed" copies of his book to BTC readers. All you have to do to enter to win one is send a blog subject you'd like to learn Bo's thoughts on, or a photo of your own dog to: talktotc@tatteredcover.com. Winners will be picked randomly from the entries on Monday, March 1, 2010.