Product Description

"For most dog owners, our dogs are not possessions, they are family. Gay men in particular have found joy in bringing dogs into their nuclear circles. Their dogs love them unconditionally, without judgment or regard to sexual orientation; comfort them when they are in pain; and because most men outlive their dogs, teach them extraordinary lessons in how to cope with loss. . . Paws and Reflect is a celebration of all the dogs we have loved in the past, the dogs we love now, and the dogs of our future, who are only waiting for the right moment for us to invite them to join in our lives." -- From the Introduction

Through interviews and with original contributions, Paws and Reflect explores and celebrates the special and powerful bond between twenty-five gay men and their dogs. Interviewees included Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Edward Albee, Cannes award-winning director Jonathon Caouette, Academy Award-nominated writer Ron Nyswaner, actor and playwright Charles Busch and Animal Planet's David Mizejewski, with contributions from authors Jay Quinn, Alistair McCartney and seventeen others.

Praise for Paws and Reflect:

"A guy I dated didn't like my Dachshund. One of them is gone, and it isn't the Dashed. As it happens there are two terrific Dashed essays in this book. Both made me cry and one of them has the best punch line I've come across in a long time. Dink in these real-life stories of dog love and devotion." -- Craig Lucas, Playwright, The Light in the Piazza, Filmmaker, The Dying Gaul.

"Dogs don't care about race, age, appearance, financial standing, employment, sexual orientation or any of those other things that people use -- too often -- to judge one another. Paws and Reflect is an eloquent, moving testament that this unconditional love has helped forma a great emotional and spiritual connection between dogs and their humans that just simply makes our lives healthier and more complete." -- David Frei, Co-host, "The Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show," USA Network.

"If you don't enjoy reading about the white Shepherd who protected Charles Busch, or the canine friends who kept the home fires burning for Ron Nyswaner, you are not a real dog lover. I was stunned by the emotions this book shook out of me."-- Sue Simmons, WNBC News Anchor

"Paws and Reflect is filled with surprises that sometimes made me weep and often made me laugh in delight. I adore this book. If you love dogs, don't miss it!" -- Susan Conant, author of Gaits of Heaven, and other novels in the Holly Winter series of Dog Lovers' Mysteries.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #713916 in Books
• Published on: 2006-11-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 304 pages

From Publishers Weekly
For those whom society ostracizes, the companionship and unconditional love a dog provides can be of especially great comfort. So it is with gay men, who, according to the editors, "seem to have a gift for the special details of dog parenting," perhaps "because it's difficult for gay men to create a family that includes human children." Bringing together conversations with more than two dozen notable gay men, including playwrights Edward Albee and Charles Busch, film director Jonathan Caouette and writers Victor J. Banis, Ron Nyswaner and Jay Quinn, this anecdotal anthology shows how dogs have given gay men love, confidence and support. Fiction author Plakcy and dog breeder Sakson relate their interviews through first-person narratives, stringing together stories ranging from comic to tragic to sappy. The familiar joys and trials of sharing life with a dog are all here, including stories of comfort and "extraordinary lessons in how to cope with loss." The sincerity and warmth that comes through in each of these stories is infectious, and the inter-species relationships they describe provide unique perspective on the interview subjects as human beings.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author
Neil S. Plakcy is the author of the gay detective murder mystery series "Mahu" and has been a contributor to several Alyson anthologies. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared widely in the gay and lesbian press. He has taught various English and writing courses as an Adjunct Professor at Florida International University, Nova University and the University of Miami.

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Customer Reviews

For dog lovers and the dog indifferent, both gay and straight
I bought Paws and Reflect for my partner for Valentine's Day. He loved it and put it on my reading stack. And I'm so glad that he did. As the proud owner of a sweet one year old dachshund, we just recently decided to get his new baby half-sister, who is now five weeks old. We were a bit skittish about introducing a new dog into our household. Through stories both humorous and touching, Paws and Reflect has made me more aware of our bond with our current boy and made me excited about welcoming a new little girl into our family.

The writing in this anthology is superb. The short vignettes by both well-known and (to me) unknown gay men touched on so many points of dog ownership. Both the positive and the negative bonds were addressed, without a sense of respect and veracity

A Book for Every Dog Lover
You don't need to be anything more than a dog lover to love this book. Its not about gender its about the dogs and the people they let love them.

A wonderful heartwarming book of how much our dogs mean to us.
I was worried that this would be someone's doctoral dissertation, but it's not. It is immensely readable--I have trouble putting it down. I was reading it in a casual restaurant when I read a passage about a terrier attacking a St. Bernard that made me laugh out loud. When I was a teen, we had a chihuahua who would bark and growl menacingly at the St. Bernard from across the street. When the St. Bernard had had enough of this, she'd just bend down and give our Rusty a big wet sloppy kiss that would drench tiny Rusty which would very effectively shut him up.

Beneath the main concept of gay men and their relationships with their dogs, there's also a subtle secondary story of gay men living happy, successful--and totally normal--lives. I'm recommending this book to all my friends.