Hello! I’m a writer, dog book author, and the founder of New York Dog Parade, and this is my newsletter about dogs. No other animal has evolved alongside us like the dog. And dogs are excellent mirrors for exploring our — well, MY — (sometimes very complicated and confusing!) emotions. Anyway, I love writing about dogs! Which is a good thing, because dogs are everywhere. They are in parks, on subways, and in cafes. They are in the T-Mobile store when you’re trying to switch your phone over from Verizon, and this employee can’t figure out how to do it (REALLY, SIR??!??!), and you’re super frustrated because there are all these passwords and security questions you of course don’t have the answer to, and TO MAKE MATTERS EVEN MORE STRESSFUL songs like "Pour Some Sugar on Me," "Stacy’s Mom" and even Creed (Creed!!!) are playing at, like, a volume 9 (when everyone knows the appropriate volume for these songs is 0). Just when you’re about to have a complete melt down, a dog walks in!!! And not only is this beautiful senior Golden Retriever tolerating this music and experience, she seems to be ENJOYING herself. So, you go over there and do a little four-minute petting (/therapy) session with this angel, and suddenly, you feel better! The dog gives you the hit of dopamine/happiness/relaxation needed to not tolerate ALL of life, but at least the next fifteen minutes of it, until you can get out of this store and hopefully on to see your next dog. Which is pretty cool when you think about it. And I spend A LOT of time thinking about it! There is something to be said about the powers of dog + human relationships, and this is where I say it.

About Fern Watt

Fern Watt is the author of Gizelle's Bucket List: My Life with a Very Large Dog, which has been published in twenty languages and optioned for film. Her work has been featured on The Today Show, Good Morning America, BBC Network, FOX, ABC, Sunrise Australia, The L.A. Times, The Times U.K., Buzzfeed, People, and more. She resides on the Upper West Side with her mischievous mutt, Bette, couch-loving labradoodle, Oscar, and favorite human, Max. Her newest book, Adventure Dogs: Activities to Share with Your Dog - from Comfy Couches to Mountain Tops (Chronicle, 2022) is in development for a TV show, and she’s working on her third book now. Coincidentally, she's also named after a dog.