fuonlyknew

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of A Daily Rhythm.

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My Teaser for this week is from

a big little life

A Memoir of a Joyful Dog

by Dean Koontz

I’ve been reading Dean Koontz for many, many years. I love his stories. I happened to notice one day that Trixie, his Golden Retriever, had went to doggie heaven.

I had adopted a mixed golden and had recently lost her to an incurable illness. Feeling like I needed to reach out, I wrote a letter to Mr. Koontz about my loss of Lassie, and his loss of Trixie.

I’m sure I went on a bit, as memories poured out of me.

I was surprised and thrilled when he wrote me back personally and also sent me a copy of “a big little life”, A Memoir of a Joyful Dog.

My tease for today isn’t about Trixie and it’s a bit long. It’s a scene where Dean is at the doctor’s getting his bleeding hand tended to. The humor grabbed me!

My Teaser from page 92 in the Hard Cover.

Glancing at my insurance card, the young woman said, “Oh, you have the same name as the writer.”

When I acknowledged that I shared not only the writer’s name but his brain and his wardrobe, and noted that I was here with his wife, the receptionist was delighted to meet me. Her favorite book, she declared, was Watchers, though she also loved Intensity. As she filled out the forms, she repeatedly paused to ask me why none of the films based on my work resembled the books from which they were adapted (because they’re all blithering idiots in Hollywood), why I write so many more women in lead roles in my books than do most male writers (because I’ve met so many interesting women and married a great one), would I ever write a sequel to Watchers (if you can’t top the original story, it doesn’t need a sequel), and what scares Dean Koontz (the possibility of bleeding to death).

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Synopsis

“In each little life we can see great truth and beauty, and in each little life we glimpse the way of all things in the universe.”DEAN KOONTZ thought he had everything he needed. A successful novelist with more than twenty #1 New York Times bestsellers to his credit, Dean had forged a career out of industry and imagination. He had been married to his high school sweetheart, Gerda, since the age of twenty, and together they had made a happy life for themselves in their Southern California home. It was the picture of peace and contentment. Then along came Trixie.

Dean had always wanted a dog–had even written several books in which dogs were featured. But not until Trixie was he truly open to the change that such a beautiful creature could bring about in him. Trixie had intelligence, a lack of vanity, and an uncanny knack for living in the present. And because she was joyful and direct as all dogs are, she put her heart into everything–from chasing tennis balls, to playing practical jokes, to protecting those she loved.

A retired service dog with Canine Companions for Independence, Trixie became an assistance dog of another kind. She taught Dean to trust his instincts, persuaded him to cut down to a fifty-hour work week, and, perhaps most important, renewed in him a sense of wonder that will remain with him for the rest of his life. She mended him in many ways.

Trixie weighed only sixty-something pounds, Dean occasionally called her Short Stuff, and she lived less than twelve years. In this big world, she was a little thing, but in all the ways that mattered, including the effect she had on those who loved her, she lived a big life.

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How about you? Got a tease? Tell me!