Product Description

In this touching selection of essays, journalist and speaker Mort Crim shares the lessons he learned from his dogs and the comfort they brought into his life. Primarily, he shares stories of Golum, a gentle Doberman, and Bogey, a cocky little Dachshund, and the positive lasting effects they had on his life. From welcoming him home from work each day to helping him through the death of his first wife, these two dogs shared canine love and wisdom in ways that will touch-and sometimes break-your hearts.

The author shares more that just his personal experience, however. He also examines the innate wisdom of dogs when it comes to love, caring for others, and just being yourself. Crim explores the many life lessons we can learn from our dogs if we just take the time to observe them and open our lives to them. These lessons include the value of loyalty, the importance of play, the ability to be happy with what you have, the capacity to take criticism without holding a grudge and so many others. There are even thoughts on getting along with those selfish, egotistical, aloof people in our lives-in other words, cats (and there are even a few things we can learn from felines).

For readers who have had wonderful dogs in their lives, this book will revive joyful memories. For those considering inviting one into their home for the first time, this book will show them how much a dog can add to their lives and how deeply one can touch your soul. This is an unforgettable book for any animal lover.

---

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1198407 in Books
• Published on: 2000-04-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 200 pages

About the Author
Mort Crim is a journalist, author, lecturer and motivational speaker. He was a network journalist for over thirty-five years, working as a correspondent with ABC, New York and as a senior editor and anchor for WDIV-TV, Detroit. Now, he is the host of the award-winning radio program Second Thoughts, currently heard on more than eight hundred stations nationwide. Mort is the author of several books, including Second Thoughts: Upbeat Thoughts for Beat-Up Americans and Good News for a Change!: Touching Your Heart, Increasing Your Hope.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Chapter Three

Even Short Tails
Can Wag

ôThe worst bankrupt in the world is the man
who has lost his enthusiasm.ö
ù H.W. Arnold

öNo animal should ever jump up on the
dining room furniture unless absolutely
certain that he can hold his own in the
conversation.
ùFran Lebowitz

Golum and Bogey never had a bad day.

Bad moments, yesùas when scolded for misbehaving, or getting a shot from the vet. But as soon as the unpleasant event was over, their old vim and vigor quickly returned.

When some event didn't suit them, these two simply dealt with it and moved on. They never moped or slunk away to pout. Even as age and arthritis began taking a toll in their later years, these happy dogs refused to let stiffness and pain rob them of their zest.

Golum and Bogey loved lifeùand lived lifeùenthusiastically. Theirs was a joy that came from their hearts. But it manifested itself most dramatically in their butts.

At the slightest hint of fun&3151the rattle of a leash, the opening of foodùboth dogs immediately went into a tailspin.

Bogey, who still had a tail, would start a rapid back and forth motion like a windshield wiper. But Golum, whose tail had been bobbed in keeping with good Doberman grooming standards, merely rotated his.

However, as his excitement grew, he would twirl that stub so fast it appeared his hindquarters might, at any moment, become airborne. Golum didn't have as much appendage as Bogey had, but what he had he used with ebullience. Even a short tail can wag impressively when linked to a soul full of delight.

Their enthusiasm was contagious, and enthusiasm was something I badly needed to catch during those dreary and difficult months following Nicki's death. How could any creature be so happy? What was the secret of their great gusto? Surely, to be as terrific as they thought I was, I would need to rediscover the excitement I'd lost.

I fully understood that this would take time. Grief has its own calendar. But I also knew Golum and Bogey were on my side. I knew they would lead the way.

For dogs, enthusiasm seems to be built in. They don't have to think about it or work at it. Enthusiasm comes as part of the canine packageùas standard as barking and sleeping.

We humans, on the other hand, don't always find it so natural. After several years of wrestling with life, of encountering defeats and disappointments, of suffering losses, we may find our supply of enthusiasm so depleted we forget whether we ever had any.

Watching Golum and Bogey romp in our backyard one sunny, spring afternoon, I knew that, in time, I, too, would feel like playing again.

Nicki and I had shared an optimistic view of life. She had made it clear she didn't want that part of our marriage partnership to die with her.

"Honey, please don't grieve too long," she had said to me only a few days before her death. "I want you to build a new life. It's really important that you move on with your life."

The excruciating pain I felt in that moment made it difficult for me to really hear what she was saying. But now, watching those dogs frisking about among the early spring flowers, gave Nicki's admonition fresh meaning. What she had wanted for me was exactly what I would have wanted for her had I been the one to leave first.

What she had urged was that I never lose my enthusiasm for life. That I never allow tragedy or sadness to have the last word.

Faith in God, belief in the meaning and the goodness of life, were at the heart of her philosophy and had been since we'd met as childhood sweethearts. So I readily understood the full scope of what she was communicating with those few simple words, "I want you to build a new life."

There was no doubt in my mind that, in due course, I would rediscover a reason to live, that enthusiasm would be rekindled and hope renewed. What Nicki and I believedùwhat we had sharedùtranscended our physical presence together.

I had seen my mother rediscover joy after losing the most important person in her lifeùmy father. They'd loved each other deeply and exclusively for forty-four years, and we wondered how she would survive such a devastating loss. But Dad, like Nicki, had left a heritage of hope. Of faith. Of enthusiasm for life. A conviction that we were all created for a purpose and that death is not a dead end but a passage. Because Dad never lost his belief in the meaning, the goodness and the ultimate triumph of life, my mother was able to rebuild hers.

When Dad was dean of students at a small southern college, he once counseled a sophomore named Harold. One of Harold's professors had told Dad that the young man had ability but lacked enthusiasm. He was apathetic.

Harold appeared emotionless as he walked into Dad's office. He sat slouched in a chair as Dad tried to draw him out of his indifference and engage him in conversation. Harold responded to Dad with a blank stare.

"Harold," Dad said, "Your professor tells me you're apathetic." Still nothing.

"Harold, do you understand the word apathetic?"

Finally Harold responded, "No, and I couldn't care less."

Apathy is a crime against existence itself, and it's one we shouldn't tolerate indefinitely in ourselves.

Sure, life will deal cruel blows to all of us. There will be sadness. Failures. Disappointments. Keeping the flame of enthusiasm flickering at such times isn't easy. But it is essential. And it is possible.

How do we do it? For one thing, we have to allow healing to occur. When Bogey was about two years old, he cut his leg, and the gash was deep enough that we took him to the vet.

As the doctor finished taping on a bandage, he said, "The wound should heal within a week if you can keep him from chewing off the bandage and getting to his stitches.

That's the secret. How many of our wounds would heal if we'd only allow them to? Emotional wounds. Psychological hurts.

But like our little dog, we're instinctively driven to revisit the wound. To keep examining it. Ultimately, that slows the healing process and delays a return of enthusiasm.

I once visited an elderly relative who's husband had died five years earlier. She had left everything in his bedroom exactly as it was the day he died. The belt that he'd placed on a dresser was there, untouched, as were several other personal items.

The woman had turned the bedroom into a shrine. She had refused to let go of her pain, so her grief was as sharp as it had been five years earlier.

When their son was four, Rabbi Harold Kushner and his wife learned that the child had progeriaùthe disease that causes rapid aging. This meant the boy would lose all his hair and look like an old man before he reached puberty. At age fourteen, their son died.

It's difficult to imagine any greater grief than that which accompanies the loss of a child. But from that bitter experience, Rabbi Kushner was able later to write, "Pain does not last forever." Yes, pain will subside. Enthusiasm will reemerge if we allow it to happen.

In the final analysis, enthusiasm isn't a function of fate.

It's often an issue of time, but it's always a matter of choice:

When the U.S. Navy first launched its Polaris submarines, it was decided that each sub should have two complete crews. Each crew would alternate so that each got six months at sea, six months ashore.

When one of the veteran crewmen was asked how he liked the system, he replied, enthusiastically, "It's great. Whether you get along with your wife or whether you don't, you get six months of happiness every year.

That crewman had decided this arrangement would be a win-win no matter what.

If you seem a little short on enthusiasm today, try using what you've got. See how it multiplies.

You'll discover that even short tails can wag.

---

Back to Top

(c)2000. All rights reserved. Reprinted from Second Thoughts: On: How to Be as Terrific as Your Dog Thinks You Are! by Mort Crim. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the written permission of the publisher. Publisher: HCI, 3201 SW 15th Street, Deerfield Beach, FL 33442.

---

Customer Reviews

I couldn't put the book down once I started reading it!
I purchased the book as a gift for my daughter who has 2 dogs. When I received the book I thought I'd look it over to see what it was about. Once I started reading, I stopped doing all the things I thought I'd do over the weekend.I found myself laughing, and sharing many of the thoughts written by Mort Crim with my husband who isn't a big lover of dogs. He lived on a farm most of his life and thinks dogs are to be outside, not in the house. But after I read him parts of the book, he was even agreeing that it is so well written and thought provoking. I found myself remembering the dog, "Suzie" I had growing up and how she loved sleeping under the blankets by my feet every night! When I started dating my future husband, she would growl everytime he hugged or kissed me. I think she knew that was the person who was going to take me away from her. After we were married, she stayed with my parents as we couldn't have any pets in the apartment we moved to. Soon after that she was poisoned by a man who put out meat he'd put poison in. Several dogs in our neighborhood died. I always felt sad I never took her with me so she wouldn't have gotten that poison. As I read Mort's book I could relate to so many things he was writing about that we face in our everyday lives. If only everyone were as loyal and trusting as dogs are, we'd all be so much happier and better friends. I'm going through changes at my company and I found so much help as I read how we need to have faith in ourselves and not worry about tommorrow or have regrets about yesterday. Mort really has such a gift in comparing our human problems and challenges to how dogs face things everyday and accept and love everyone. When my 5 children were young, we didn't have a dog as I felt I was too busy to handle one. Suddenly one of our sons died at age 9 and we were devastated. One of our friends had some puppies to give away and I thought maybe that would help all of us focus on something positive. It was amazing how much "Buffy" helped us accept what we had to and learn to love and trust again. I would find our oldest son laying with the puppy and telling her all about his brother, Danny, and things that they had done together. I would listen and hear the things that he said and realize how sad he was, but also happy to tell the puppy about him and see Buffy wag her tale like she understood. I never thought the book would affect me so much, it really makes you relate to your past and remember many wonderful memories. What a special talent Mort has to be able to put his thoughts into words that everyone will relate to whether you have a pet or not. It is the Golden Rule book of how we should all face everyday and live it to the fullest.

A Dog-on good book
Storytellers have long known that the best way to spin a good yarn is to have a hook. In the middle ages, troubadours used songs to entice illiterate peasants around a campfire to teach them life's lessons.

In today's competitive popular culture, Mort Crim has found a novel way to teach us some of the most important lessons about life. He uses man's best friend, the family dog, as his literary foil.

Mort Crim follows in the tradition of satirists like George Orwell and Jonathan Swift,

_Animal Farm_ taught lessons about totalitarianism using barnyard animals. _Gulliver's Travels_ projected human frailities on a race of giants and on the tiny Lilliputians.

Crim portrays his two pet dogs as four-legged furry humanoids without the baggage of human egos. Because dogs can't talk, they can't do such nasty things as lie, brag or complain --- the perfect life mate for man.

The author points out that dogs display some of man's best traits like loyalty, playfulness, forgiveness, without our dark side. But who really holds the leash in the human-canine partnership?

As one wit once remarked: "If aliens watched us from above and saw humans feeding, bathing and walking their dogs with pooper-scoopers in hand, the aliens could easily be forgiven for thinking that dogs ruled the planet and humans were their pets."

It's said that man is made in the image and likeness of God. But Mort Crim's use of dogs as human substitutes works so well because, in reality, dogs are made in the image and likeness of man.

That is, we humans project onto dogs the positive traits that we value in people. The truth is that their human masters are the equivalent of deities to dogs.

Mort Crim cleverly uses the basic goodness that we choose to see in our pet dogs to illustrate lessons about racism, forgiveness, and adaptability in life.

For example, Crim points out that dogs do not judge other dogs by their color or size. He notes that would be about as useful as librarians classifying books by their color. Dogs, unlike humans, don't worry whether their dog-dishes are half-empty or half-full. They just chow down. Nor do dogs often bite the hand that feeds them.

This book is chock full of highly entertaining anecdotes and touching stories. Some are tales of dogs and humans. Others are biographical sketches plucked from the lives of famous people that illustrate inventive lessons about love and life.

If you read Mort Crim's earlier book, _Second Thoughts_, you know it's packed with bite-sized literary appetizers. But this new book can be digested as a full-course meal with all the side dishes, plus dessert. It's his best effort yet.

Book is terrifric
This book is as terrific as the title. When I first picked up a copy, I thought, "Okay, clever title but is there any substance?" There was. This is a touching but profound look at life with many personal anecdotes. And it's not just a book for pet lovers. It's for anyone interested in a richer, deeper more rewarding existence. I heartily recommend it for anyone, young or old, with or without a love of dogs. Oh, by the way, cat lovers will also find a chapter just for them.