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• 'Love at First Bark' a great read with ties to New Orleans rescue community

  By Sheila Stroup, The Times-Picayune, October 27, 2011 | Reprinted

  When I heard that Julie Klam was coming to New Orleans, I wanted to meet her. First of all, she is hilarious. Her new book, "Love at First Bark: How Saving a Dog Can Sometimes Help You Save Yourself," is laugh-out-loud funny, as well as being heartfelt and inspiring.

  It is called a "memoir," but it is really an explanation of why Klam feels compelled to rescue dogs, especially Boston terriers, those little black and white pups with the big round eyes and pointy ears. It follows on the heels of her bestseller, "You Had Me at Woof: How Dogs Taught Me the Secret of Happiness."

  There is a moment in one of her stories when she decides she must foster -- perhaps permanently -- an adorable 3-year-old Boston terrier who has been described to her as "fecally-incontinent." Because of her physical problems, the dog has been in and then out of several different places, and Klam feels sorry for her and fears she will never find a real home.

  It is one thing to take in an adorable fecally-incontinent dog if you live in, say, a house with a doggie door and a fenced-in yard. Then it might seem almost doable. But Klam and her husband, Paul Leo, and their daughter Violet are living in a New York City apartment on the 16th floor and already have two young pups who can't seem to get the knack of waiting to go until they're outside. Still, she feels the need to help this little dog, and one evening at dinner she decides to break the news to Leo gently.

  When she asks him if he'd like to know what she's thinking about, he answers "No." And when she asks him why, it's because he already knows. "You're thinking about the crapping dog, right?" he says.

  Right. And the dog she names Clementine soon comes to live with them, with sometimes laughable and sometimes heartrending consequences. I met Klam Sunday when she was in town for a book-signing, and I told her I feel like we are kindred spirits. I wanted to know more about Leo. Being married to a man who has put up with my dog and donkey weaknesses for decades, I know she has a special husband. One of my favorite lines in "Love at First Bark" is this one: "If Paul and I died at the same moment -- in some dog pee-related death, slipping in a puddle and cracking our heads open -- and were buried together, the joint gravestone would read, "They never learned."

  The thing is, when you're reading this book, it crosses your mind, just for a moment, that this could happen. Klam describes Leo, a TV producer, as not so much a rescuer as a willing bystander.

  "I couldn't do what I do if he wasn't okay with it," she says. "He allows the amount of chaos we have in our life." Besides her family, rescuing dogs is what she loves most.

  "There's nothing else I fight to get," she says. "I don't care about things, but if a dog needs me, that's what keeps me up at night."

  >> Read More

• Pet Adoptions Can Sometimes Backfire. Now Josie Needs Our Help.

  June 2, 2011 By Teresa Rowell | Reprinted with permission from Examiner.com

  

  Animal rescuers are usually volunteers, meaning they rescue out of compassion.

  They usually operate on donations and, with any luck, grant money.

  They spend countless hours caring for as many animals as they possibly can; most while working full time jobs.

  When it comes time to place one of their rescues into a home, it means everything to them that it be just the right place for both the pet and the new owner.

  They screen potential adopters through interviews and sometimes home visits.

  They believe the adopters have come to them because they truly want to add a new member to the family. It may be the heart-wrenching story behind the former life the animal endured. Or, perhaps it was the photograph that captured the animal's personality that just drew them in.

  For whatever reason, the rescuer will always make a very prudent decision about the adoption. And, you can believe the heart, which took the animal in in the first place, plays a big role in their assessment of letting the animal go.

  So, when an adoption backfires, there is nothing more disturbing.

  >> Read More

 

 

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  (January 1, 2009) —By ARNO Staff

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