The Second Part of the Second Chapter of CITY DOG!

(...picking up where we left off last week:)

So let us forget about all the other people for now, or at least try really hard to. I have learned that people can have a hard time forgetting about things. I have also learned that people have a way of becoming quite easily confused.

I know that sometimes Amy gets confused. I know that sometimes Amy does not know where to start her story. I am here to tell you that it is not that confusing. The story started when Amy and Jonathan drove to Cape May, New Jersey and got me. Right before that there had been a number of years that Amy will refer to sometimes as “The Baby Debates,” and at other times she will refer to them as “The End.” What happened is that during The Baby Debates, Jonathan told Amy, who wanted a baby, that he wanted one, too, just not right yet. And then after saying that for a few years, he said he did not, want a baby that is. I think that is when the period of time changed in Amy’s mind from The Baby Debates to The End. Also, I think that must be how I know that just because you say something year after year, it does not mean it is true.

And so Amy and Jonathan drove to Cape May, New Jersey, which is where I come from, and they got me. Instead is a word I believe may have been used. But that is not something I like to think about.

I liked the first neighborhood I lived in in New York City, and I very much liked the Central Park that was right at the end of our block. It was very big, much bigger than the park we go to now. But we didn’t stay there very long, and then I wasn’t with Amy and Jonathan anymore, then I was just with Amy. I do not ever remember feeling bad about that, and I do not know for sure what happened to Jonathan. I do not know for certain where he went. I think that he stayed there, in the house I lived in when I was young, the one that had stairs on the same side of the door as all the furniture. There was a lot of furniture there; there was a Chippendale sofa in particular, upon which I was not allowed. For some reason my being on that sofa often resulted in Jonathan referring to me not as Carlie (as I understandably prefer to be called) but as “the dog.”

“Amy,” he would say, “Can you get the dog off the Chippendale sofa.” And he did so in a way that I felt lacked a certain respect, revealed perhaps a less than generous spirit.

Soon after I met him, Jonathan faded out. It was a slow fade, but even so, I never felt I knew him well. Never once did I sense him to be an enduring presence in my life, even during my uptown puppyhood. To be perfectly honest, at this point I do not wish to remember him.

And then we moved here, to Fifth Street. It is in a place called the East Village and Amy said it was as far away as she could get from the Upper East Side, which is where we lived before. This does not make very much sense to me, because even I can think of places farther.

We came to Fifth Street and spent our mornings in a park that was smaller and called Tompkins Square Park, where I made friends but Amy did not. Amy did not spend very much time at all talking to even one of the very many people that are always there, gathered in small pairs, and bigger clusters, and even bigger groups. Instead of talking, as so many of the other people seem so keen to do, Amy spent a lot of time thinking about the novel she wanted to write. When she talked to me about it, she would say how she wanted it to be a Great American Novel. But she did not write a novel, Great American or otherwise.

She wrote a book about me.

It's official!!

CITY DOG is out!
I hope you get a chance to check it out. I would love to hear what you think.
xo
Carlie
CITY DOG is out! http://tinyurl.com/citydog.

The First Part of The Second Chapter of CITY DOG!

(ed note: I like it when writers post the first chapters of their novels online. I'm mixing it up a bit and posting the second chapter online. Mostly, I just like the second chapter, like a lot. CITY DOG is narrated by Amy Dodge, a children's book writer in New York, her dog who is (I bet you can guess) ME , and one of the characters of her children's book. Chapter Two is the first chapter narrated by ME. Alison and I both really hope you like it.):

Chapter Two

I Don’t Want to Work, I Just Want to Bang on the Drum All Day


This is a book about me!

My name is Carlie. I am a three-year-old West Highland white terrier, which means that I am a small, game, hardy and well-balanced looking terrier. It means that I am the most genial of all the terriers, that I was originally bred for the hunting of both rodents and vermin, and that my ancestors hail from Scotland.

Amy has just returned from being on the other side of the door. We have had our greeting at the door in which Amy smiles at the very sight of me and says in her very nice and very happy voice, “Hello!” And I have responded, in kind, “Hello!,” but she has not heard me. Amy is not the best listener. I have found that remarkably few people are any good at listening, but sometimes I wonder if maybe Amy is especially bad.

Amy and I have gone out for the last walk of the day, the one that is usually an hour or two before Amy tells me she has, “zee bone for zee bed,” and then tells me that, “another day has come to an end,” in the soft voice, the voice that sounds a little bit like singing and makes me want to wag my tail very fast and sleep with my head right up on the pillow. The last walk of the day is always very quick. There is no turning down Second Avenue and walking to Fourth Street and then back up to the Cooper Square street, in the shape of a square, like there is at other times of the day. At this time of night we do not make the shape of a square. It is only straight, there and back, all of it on Fifth Street, all of it business. We are back already, and I have been given a snack treat, which is different from “zee bone for the zee bed” in that it is earlier, and also, not announced.

Amy has gone to look at the white rectangle shape that flips open and glows. A lot of the time she pokes at it, and it alternately clicks and beeps and falls silent. She can stare at it mesmerized for hours, even when I try to talk, even when I give my quick chomp-chomp which translates quite literally to “Stop staring at the white rectangle shape and pay attention to me!” Attention, so you know, is very high on the list of my priorities. Yes. If you watch the Westminster Dog Show at Madison Square Garden on the television, when it is the Westie’s turn, you will hear the announcer say, “The Westie will not be ignored!” The announcer speaks the truth. And then, after some blah blah blah, as the Westie begins to run down the length of the show ring, the announcer will describe her as, “possessed of no small amount of self-esteem.” They say this exact thing, year after year, because it is true. Though that is not to say that simply repeating things year after year will make it so that they are true, because it does not.

Where was I? Right, Amy is staring at the white rectangle shape and could be for a while, so I’ve got some time, and I wanted to let you know, in case you were wondering, that this is a book about me.

Yes, it is a book about Amy. And it is a book about Amy and Jonathan, or at least about the end of them. It is about Robert Maguire sometimes, and Renee and Lara, and Nick and Bonnie, and also someone we don’t like called Erin. But you have not met any of those people yet, seeing as how it is still very early in the story.

Check back soon for The Second Part of the Second Chapter of CITY DOG...

Whoa

Sorry I haven't blogged for a few days. I've been in the throes of what I like to call a groomer-induced co-dependent frenzy. This sometimes happens to me when I return home from a trip to la doggy salon. Basically I become anxious and my main goal is to make sure I have Ali in my sightline at all times. So you can imagine how that and blogging do not go hand and hand. I also get a little bit argumentative during my co-dependent frenzy. During my thrice-daily walks around the block (these in addition to my morning excursion to the park) I got into tussles with several dogs, including two of my neighbors: Cooper, a new pug in our building, and Remington, a Jack Russell mix. Though if I had to say, I'd say it was Remington who started it.

Now Ali and I are out on Long Island for the rest of the week, and I am really a tremendous fan of Long Island (more on that to come in subsequent posts) so I am feeling pretty much 100% better. I think also that blogging might have helped. Ali told me that at times writing can be very cathartic even though you have to watch out for too much of that kind of writing, because it gets old.

My book is out in less than one week!

More soon,

xo

Carlie.

Eh

Today, I was at the groomers. I do not very much care for the groomers. Even though they do not put me in a cage and let me roam free, and even though Ali got up at the crack of dawn to get to the groomer right when they opened so that I would be the first one in, and the first one out, I found it to be an overall unpleasant and unnecessary experience. Ali keeps telling me I look so pretty. Do I not always look pretty?

I am however excited for the plaid collar Ali just ordered me from www.puppydogplaids.com for our book events.

Peace out.

xo

Carlie

Brown Eyed Blues

Today is a very beautiful day in New York City. Ali and I took a very long walk in Central Park this morning and hung out for a bit on my favorite hill. Now I'm just hanging out while Ali gets some books together to mail out and works on setting things up for the book party we are having at Animal Haven Shelter in Soho in late September. I'm also listening to one of my favorite songs ever: Ben Harper's Brown Eyed Blues. Oh, cool, it just started over again from the beginning.

Oh For The Love of Cream Cheese!

So, I don't know if I should really talk about this so close to my literary debut and all, if really what I should be doing is not revealing any of my flaws. But in a weird sort of way since CITY DOG (the book about me) is a work of fiction, and fiction (so I've heard) is really just a different sort of way of getting at the truth, I feel I should be nothing but honest in my nascent blogging life. So here goes.



I have a touch of gingivitis.



It is a truth.



My vet has been long suggesting that I get my teeth cleaned. Ali has been long putting it off. Ali is not wild about the idea of having me put under anesthesia and she also thinks that three years old is a little bit young to be having a teeth-cleaning. Ali also didn't have the easiest time of it the last time I had to be put under (there was an absess) and I think that plays into it. But since my gums have most recently turned an unbecoming (but yet also quite alluring) color of hot pink, Ali figured why not just get it done now? So we went to the vet today for our pre-anesthesia blood test and they stuck me three times but could not get enough blood. Three times! Ali (who always comes with me into the exam room) said that if the third time wasn't the charm, we were calling it a day. And we did.



Now we have the option of going back for more blood-taking tomorrow or calling the whole thing off. I do realize that “calling the whole thing off” could really just mean a postponement but I prefer not to think about that. It is a conundrum. It was a bit of an ordeal. 



Personally I think forget the teeth-cleaning bc is not the pre-book release grooming going to be enough to deal with?



If you have any thoughts on this matter / words of wisdom, please do not hesitate to email me at my email address: gowestie@mac.com



More soon.



xo

Carlie

It is a truth.

This is a blog about me.

My name is Carlie. I am a three-and-a-half-year-old West Highland White Terrier, which means that I am a small, game, hardy, and well-balanced-looking terrier. It means that I am the most genial of all the terriers, that I was originally bred for the hunting of both rodents and vermin, and that my ancestors hail from Scotland.

My person, Alison Pace (most people call her Ali, I do) wrote a book called CITY DOG. And I bet you can guess: it is a book about me! It is about some other things, too, but I prefer to think of it as a book that is all about me. It comes out on September 2, so as you can imagine it is a pretty exciting time around here.

I decided that since CITY DOG is my literary debut, and thus the first experience that I will have in what I have heard referred to here as the wild world of publishing, I will keep a blog about my publishing experiences.

Stay tuned,

xo

Carlie