It's A Dog's Life

"This is not a book about a dog. I really do prefer my husband honest. But it's hard to tell the story of our journey into the empty nest, and leave out one particular animal. Which kind of illustrates the problem."

It is November 2009, and after mourning the loss of Arrow, their beloved Australian shepherd mutt, Susan and David Morse and family are finally ready to adopt a new dog. David's acting jobs keep him away from home for long stretches of time, the last two teenagers are on their way to college, and this time it's Susan's turn to pick the dog. She probably should have thought a little more carefully before falling for a retired racing greyhound.

Enter Lilly, who lands like a disoriented neutron bomb in Susan's comfortable suburban home after living the first three years of her life in the rugged and ruthless world of the racetrack. Instantly lovable but hopelessly inept at domesticity, Lilly turns out to be more than Susan bargained for, throwing all Susan and David's plans for their long-anticipated, footloose empty-nest years into complete disarray.

In The Dog Stays in the Picture, Susan Morse tells the hilarious and moving story of how an anxious dog and a high-strung woman find tranquility together."

The Sexton family's long love affair with the Dalmatian began in Linda's childhood. There, on a snowy morning in the family home just outside Boston, Linda heard a whimpering coming from the basement. She discovered their first family dog giving birth to a litter. Witnessing the intimate act of birth had a profound effect on the family. Her mother, Anne, used the experience to complete the poem "Live," part of her third collection, titled  Live or Die , which would be awarded a Pulitzer Prize.

For Linda, the boundless joy of both breed and breeding triggered in her a lifelong love of Dalmatians. All told, thirty-eight Dalmatians will move through her life: the ones that cheer and support her through difficulty, divorce, and depression; the ones that stay with her as she enters the world of professional breeding and showing of Dals; and, of course, the one true dog of her heart, Gulliver, her most stalwart of canine champions.

Bespotted  is a page-turning and compelling look at the unique place dogs occupy in our lives. It captures another piece of this literary family's history, taps into the curious and fascinating world of dog showing/dog fancy. Bespotted is an upbeat and commercial memoir by one of the most critically acclaimed memoirists of our time.