Paws and Reflect: Exploring the Bond Between Gay Men and Their Dogs

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.