Friendship | Katie Up and Down the Hall

The True Story of How One Dog Turned Five Neighbors into a Family.

AOL’s Paw Nation Interview Makes Katie’s Tail Wag

Posted October 13th, 2010 in Friendship by Glenn Plaskin

A few days ago, after being a regular follower of AOL’s popular PAW NATION, it was especially exciting when I saw my own book about KATIE featured on the site. The conversation I had by phone with the interviewer, Liz Ozaist, was a very emotional one, as Liz is also a passionate dog lover. We talked about the joys of dog ownership and the deep sorrow that comes with the loss of man’s very best friend.

I hope you enjoy it:

New Book – “Katie Up and Down the Hall: The True Story of How One Dog Turned Five Neighbors Into a Family”

by Liz Ozaist (Subscribe to Liz Ozaist’s posts)

Every dog owner knows how exceptional the human-canine bond can be, but celebrity journalist Glenn Plaskin’s cocker spaniel, Katie, had an even more unique talent: She single-handedly turned a floor of strangers living in a lower Manhattan high rise into a family by nosing her way into each person’s apartment… and heart. Plaskin reminisces about the four-legged star of his new book, “Katie Up and Down the Hall: The True Story of How One Dog Turned Five Neighbors Into a Family.”

Do you think there are other stories like yours of people coming together because of a special animal?

Absolutely. I believe there are communities throughout the U.S. with neighborhood mascots that race from backyard to backyard, uniting strangers along the way. I tell people that dogs are like emotional anchors; even though they’re not able to speak, they have a strong sense of communication and are sensitive to emotions. If you have something on the end of a leash, it can lead you anywhere.

How did Katie go about charming several people on your floor?

I like to say that I took the initiative and she was my ambassador. When I first got Katie, I didn’t know a thing about dogs. A neighbor, Pearl, had once owned a cocker spaniel, so I knocked on her door for advice, and the rest is history. Katie crawled into her lap and never left. After breakfast, she’d wait at my door to be let out and then she’d run down the hall straight for Pearl’s apartment, where she’d spend several hours with Pearl and her husband before heading back to my place. We started leaving our doors open, so Katie could push them open herself. She eventually ended up doing the same thing with John, a single dad who lived down the hall with his son Ryan. My dog brought us all together, helping us to create our own version of a family.

Katie was a big people pleaser, but she wasn’t too keen on hanging out with other canines. Why do you think she was so averse to her own kind?

That was all my fault. I didn’t know that you need to socialize dogs within the first three months, exposing them to everything from other dogs to kids and even traffic. Katie didn’t have contact with other dogs until it was too late, so she became a human dog. Whenever we came across another dog on the street, she’d put her nose up into the air and look at them as if they were alien creatures.

You brought Katie along to several celebrity interviews. What’s your favorite anecdote?

I named her after Katharine Hepburn, so I decided to take Katie to meet her once. Hepburn’s reaction wasn’t exactly what I expected. After glaring down at Katie, she exclaimed, “Small compliment, a midget me!”

It must have been tough to lose Katie. What advice would you give to someone grieving for a pet?

A friend of mine once said an incredible thing about how animals hide their suffering from us because their mission in life is to make us happy. I know that’s what Katie would have wanted — for me not to be too sad — but it wasn’t easy. I actually wrote a blog about how to recover from the death of a pet. A few things I learned: Go ahead and cry, no matter how old you are. You don’t have to be stoic. Second, tap into memories by framing photos, watching videos, and reliving moments by talking to people who knew your pet and understand loss. I also held a memorial for Katie — two, actually, because so many people wanted to come! Finally, don’t try to replace your pet because you can never really replicate what you had. Like humans, each animal is unique.

Was it difficult to get another dog?

After waiting eight years, I brought home a cocker spaniel puppy named Lucy last May, so I now have a new chapter to write! She’s completely different from Katie. Lucy’s very alpha and will go up to a husky and bite its tail to play. She’s also more difficult to train. I’ve lost 18 pounds since I got her because of all the walks we go on. I call it the puppy diet. She’s laying claim to her own hallway turf too. The other day, I asked her if she wanted to visit Stanley, her dachshund boyfriend, and she ran down the hall to get him.

Lucy and her down the hall boyfriend Stanley

What’s the underlying message you hope readers glean from your book?

A family is anything you want it to be, whether it’s human, canine, young, or old. Often, it’s not our biological ties that bind us to the people who mean the most in our lives.

Plaskin and his cocker-spaniel puppy, Lucy, will be at Meet the Breeds for a book signing on Saturday, Oct. 16 from 1–3 p.m. at the AKC Humane Fund Booth.

More on MEET THE BREEDS IN TOMORROW’S BLOG

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A Thunderstorm, Liz Smith, and Canine Fun at Barnes & Noble

Posted October 4th, 2010 in Friendship by Glenn Plaskin

Planning my Barnes & Noble bookreading was like planning a wedding. It went on for months. There was the advertising in the New York Times, New York Post, the three local Battery Park City newspapers; the art department at Hachette Book Group USA designed a two-sided brochure; 5,000 of these flyers were printed for the neighborhood, including 2,000 of them put under every door in my apartment complex. We also passed them out at our Battery Park City block party, and otherwise spread the word in dogs parks, pet shots, restaurants, and my vet’s office! Moreover, the New York Post did a feature story on the book that appeared right before the bookreading, announcing the night, while our local newspaper, The Broadsheet, also did a feature interview. After all this build-up, including my passing out Katie adhesive stickers to anyone I could, telling them they could stick them anywhere they liked–the big night was finally here! I had even arranged for a celebrity to host the evening, the legendary LIZ SMITH who agreed to moderate, not just introduce me but engage in a full-length conversation that I believed would be more effective, and entertaining.

My puppy Lucy and the Katie book both on the New Arrivals Table!

And, at last, the night was finally here. But just as I was leaving to pick up Liz Smith in a car, with my puppy Lucy skipping alongside me, seemingly disaster struck. The one thing that will keep people away from any bookstore at 7 in the evening is a severe thunderstorm combined with high winds, right?! Could anything be worse? An author must therefore pray for good weather, but getting my wish was not my fate. Just as Lucy and I stepped out of my building to get into the car, rain started pouring down, the sky darkened, thunder booming away at us as we pulled from the curb. Feeling disheartened, we trudged uptown to get Liz. It took almost 45 minutes to get there, and another 45 to get back downtown to the Tribeca Barnes & Noble. Liz, an incredible trooper, could easily have canceled the evening, as she had a wicked cold and cough. In fact, in the car, amusingly on the way downtown, she was swigging back a bottle of cough syrup with codeine in it. I was so nervous about the weather–and fearing that nobody would show up–that I jokingly suggested that I needed a little codeine too (which I did!) About 15 minutes before the reading was to start, we were still nowhere near the store, but I called the B&N community relations manager, Carolyn Hughes, who had been incredibly helpful in planning every detail of the evening. I asked her if people were arriving. “We have about 30 people so far,” she said, my heart sinking as I thought to myself: ‘I went to all this trouble and we’re going to wind up with 30?!” But the show must go on. Finally, after 90 minutes in the car, at 7:05 p.m., Liz and I arrived at the store late and were brought in through a back entrance up into the green room. Maybe thanks to a prayer or two, the rain had stopped about 15 minutes earlier–suddenly gone with only a light mist of moisture still threatening the night. Once we were in the green room, Carolyn walked in with a smile. “We have an overflow crowd, standing room only, about 150,” she announced. What?! “That rain stopped and everyone arrived at the last minute.”

Liz, Glenn, and Lucy Backstage at B&N

My spirits soared. It was such a poignant night, especially because some of the main characters in the book were there. John,the single Dad who moved into our building with his three-year-old son Ryan, had flown all the way from Paris France to be present at the book’s debut. Also on hand was the wonderful Georgian physician, Naia, who had lovingly taken care of Pearl, our matriarch, and star, of the book. Also

Dear friend Peg, my sister Debby, Lee, who rescued Pearl on 9/11, and Naia, Pearl's caretaker in her final years

there was the lovely Lee, our neighbor who had rescued Pearl on the Esplanade during that horrible Tuesday, September 11, 2001 .

NYC Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, Lucy, and Me

Veronica Kelly, Glamorous As Always

Shaking hands with my neighbor Sy, longtime friend Michael Simon in bow tie to his left, to his left Sy's wife, Esther

And so the show began. Carolyn introduced Liz as “someone truly extraordinary, a Living Legend of New York, the former gossip columnist who toiled for more than 35 years in the vineyards of the New York Daily News, New York Newsday, Newsday itself, the Los Angeles Times, for 70 syndicated Chicago Tribune newspapers culminating in a long stint for the New York Post where she insists she was fired a year ago in March.” Liz then followed it up by saying: “I’d like to re-introduce myself. I am the former Liz Smith. I used to be a big shot GOSSIP columnist but now I am just an Internet nobody like everyone else in the world. However, I do still have one claim to fame. Glenn Plaskin has been my fevered fan for more years than I can remember. So much so that when I went to rave about his book KATIE for a jacket plug…I had to disqualify myself as being impartial. I am partial to Glenn and his dog. I do want to say that even before publication, KATIE has received more space, more media fill, more PR, more heated discussion than anything since the 1936 search for who was to play Scarlett O’Hara in Gone With The Wind. Katie will be even more famous after today. So you picked a good time to be here.” I was amused and touched by all this as I sat with my new puppy Lucy in the green room. Before I came out, Liz introduced the Katie book trailer, a 4-minute video with music that captures the essence of the story. Afterward, with many tears in the audience, I finally came out. There were my friends, my neighbors, my family, many of the characters described in the book, alongside people I’d never met, with people standing all along the perimeter. And then the conversation rolled as Liz and I traded anecdotes about dogs and movie stars–including a spirited exchange about the legendary Kate Hepburn. When it came to the time I was going to read a passage from the book, Lucy began chewing on my papers, bored with the entire evening and ready to get some action. After finishing a chapter from the book titled “Prancing With The Stars,” in which Katie meets hotel queen Leona Helmsley and Miss Hepburn, the evening ended with hugs and autographs. Liz stayed behind, as she was surrounded by the audience, kindly signing Katie books. One neighbor of mine who is 90-years-old went up to Liz for an autograph, and Liz signed it this way: “We may be 90 (Liz isn’t!) but we’re still here!” How can I ever thank Liz Smith for her generosity in hosting this evening, even when she was feeling ill, and in doing it in such a charming, beguiling way? One of my favorite moments of the night was when she sardonically said: “It must have been so comforting sleeping with a dog….” to which I answered: “Liz, I’ve slept with a lot of dogs, but Katie was a lot better!” Liz finished by saying she’d host my next bookreading, “probably in a wheelchair.” “I’ll be in one too,” I told her, both of us laughing as we left the stage, with lots of KATIE books in people’s hands–and hopefully their hearts.

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Don’t Miss OK Go’s Brilliant Video With Dancing Dogs

Posted September 30th, 2010 in Friendship by Glenn Plaskin

You will be mesmerized, as I was, by the riveting choreography in OK Go’s latest video, featuring great music and dogs that dance, prance, jump, and jiggle up and down and around–balancing themselves on moving ledges, shelves, chairs, you name it, as the brilliant band goes through their moves.

It’s funny and fun, and once you start watching it, you can’t stop. Five million people agree, having seen this winner on YouTube.

And the best part about the video is that OK Go is using it as a platform to help needy animals.

“Most of the dogs in the White Knuckles video are rescues,” reads a statement on the band’s website. “They’re the lucky ones — they have loving families. Unfortunately, there are countless animals out there who do not.”

When fans download the video through OKGo.net, net proceeds from the download price (which starts at $2 for the standard-definition version and $5 for the high-definition version) will be donated to the ASPCA. Donations are earmarked for rural animal shelters, according to the band.

In the back of my new book, KATIE UP AND DOWN THE HALL, I list my favorite animal and dog-related charities, and the ASPCA is front and center.

So please support this organization and do it by having some fun–just download this dog-dance, dance with your own dog, and help the dogs of the world.

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A Night To Remember: Katie’s BIG Launch

Posted September 28th, 2010 in Friendship by Glenn Plaskin

Glenn, the legendary Calvin Klein, and Lucy

A few nights ago, after nearly a year of intricate planning, the launch party for KATIE UP AND DOWN THE HALL was an evening to remember, complete with canine-packed gift bags, strawberry-flavored “Kate-tinis,” cocker spaniel cupcakes, and giant dog bones filling the windows at Manhattan’s chic MacKenzie-Childs –which rolled out a red carpet and trumpets at their whimsical flagship store on West 57th, with its signature hand-painted china, glassware, and furniture.

With my new blonde-haired puppy Lucy making her canine entrance to the flash of photographers, it was an overflow crowd of more than 300, including the Queen of daytime TV, Judge Judy, bestselling authors Mary Higgins Clark and Barbara Taylor Bradford, and Police Commission Ray Kelly, his wife, Veronica, and their son, Fox TV anchor, Greg Kelly.

Veronica, Glenn, Lucy, and Police Commissioner Kelly On Red Carpet

Judge Judy Arrives!

The host of the evening was my great friend, the legendary CALVIN KLEIN, whom I’ve known for many years, having first interviewed him for a classic Playboy Interview years ago. A great dog lover with two chocolate Labs, Calvin, in association with the book’s publisher, Hachette Book Group, turned the evening into a tribute to The American Kennel Club’s Humane Fund & Responsible Dog Ownership Days.

One of my favorite friends Ivana Trump

Lucy, the prestigious American Kennel Club's President Dennis Sprung, Lisa Peterson

Indeed, I’m incredibly grateful to the American Kennel Club, which has done so much to honor my book about a remarkable dog who united a family. They wrote their own article all about the party!

At the party, we were delighted to have on hand AKC President Dennis Sprung and the organization’s superb Director of Communications, Lisa Peterson.

I’ll be reunited with them both on October 16th, the weekend of the AKC’s uniquely entertaining and informative MEET THE BREEDS event, held at the Jacob Javits Center, where signed copies of KATIE will be sold by Borders.

As for the launch party, my publisher, Hachette’s Center Street imprint (led by my great editor Harry Helm [“KATIE’S” greatest champion], and its President, Rolf Zetterstein) and I will be eternally grateful to the entire staff of MacKenzie-Childs, most notably to the brilliantly-organized Jamie DeVault, Director of Retail and Trade Operations, who made the evening technically perfect in every way, together with the store’s magnetic and generous owner and CEO, Lee Feldman, who was so incredibly hospitable in opening up his store to us.

One culinary pleasure of the evening was the incredibly delicious and refreshing “Kate-tini,” which was generously conceived and executed by Lake Placid Spirits, the nation’s top creator of a premium handcrafted, grain-based vodka. Each batch, I’m told by the owner, Ann S. O’leary, is created with care from natural ingredients and is distilled in copper column pot-stills. P3’s uniquely smooth flavor is owed to the crisp, clean water drawn directly from Lake Placid and their signature final filtration (or polishing) using garnet from the southern Adirondack Mountains.

Can you believe how happy my guests were to be drinking something this special? It wasn’t until the end of the evening that I tasted it–but the fresh strawberries used in it were sublime–and you have to run out and get this vodka and make up a batch of “Kate-tinis” for anyone over age 21!–the recipe listed below in the enclosed photo.

As pictures are worth much more than these words, I include some visual highlights of the evening, most every one of them starring my six-month-year-old trooper, Lucy, passed from legend to legend throughout the evening, filling the paws of her predecessor, the unforgettable Katie, my cocker spaniel that started it all. A thousand thank yous to everyone that made it possible.