June 12, 2010
What Dogs Can Inspire
What Dogs Can Inspire
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A real life golden retriever, named Tara has been both a character in a number of mystery novels and an inspiration for a rescue organization. Join Susan as she talks with popular mystery writer, David Rosenfelt about his book New Tricks, which combines a mystery, great humor, adorable dogs, and also cutting edge science facts about synthetic DNA into the fiction. We'll also hear all about what it is like living with 27 golden retrievers as part of the rescue organization he established, the Tara Foundation.
Photo courtesy of .davidrosenfelt.com
| Wild About Pets: About Tara David talks about the inspiration for both the character Tara in his books, and for the Tara foundation itself: his dog Tara. He then talks about his love for rescuing dogs; a love that has resulted is saving over 4000 dogs. |
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| Wild About Pets: Saving Shelter Dogs David explains why so many golden retrievers end up in shelters, and shares some techniques to help them through their issues. We also discuss how he went from movie making into writing, and delve into the pages of his latest book Old Tricks. |
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| Wild About Pets: Old Tricks We talk a little more about his new book, and try to separate some of the science fiction from science fact. He also provides a sneak peak into his next book. |
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| Links to Related Websites: |
Look While You Listen!  Click here to view the photos David and Susan are discussing. |
| Guest(s) Appearing on this Episode | ||
| David Rosenfelt I am a novelist with 27 dogs. I have gotten to this dubious position with absolutely no planning, and at no stage in my life could I have predicted it. But here I am. My childhood was relentlessly normal. The middle of three brothers, loving parents, a middle-class home in Paterson, New Jersey. We played sports, studied sporadically. laughed around the dinner table, and generally had a good time. By comparison, "Ozzie and Harriet's" clan seemed bizarre. I graduated NYU, then decided to go into the movie business. I was stunningly brilliant at a job interview with my uncle, who was President of United Artists, and was immediately hired. It set me off on a climb up the executive ladder, culminating in my becoming President of Marketing for Tri-Star Pictures. The movie landscape is filled with the movies I buried; for every "Rambo", "The Natural" and "Rocky", there are countless disasters. I did manage to find the time to marry and have two children, both of whom are doing very well, and fortunately neither have inherited my eccentricities. A number of years ago, I left the movie marketing business, to the sustained applause of hundreds of disgruntled producers and directors. I decided to try my hand at writing. I wrote and sold a bunch of feature films, none of which ever came close to being actually filmed, and then a bunch of TV movies, some of which actually made it to the small screen. It's safe to say that their impact on the American cultural scene has been minimal. About fourteen years ago, my wife and I started the Tara Foundation, named in honor of the greatest Golden Retriever the world has ever known. We rescued almost 4,000 dogs, many of them Goldens, and found them loving homes. Our own home quickly became a sanctuary for those dogs that we rescued that were too old or sickly to be wanted by others. They surround me as I write this. It's total lunacy, but it works, and they are a happy, safe group. Click here to visit his website |
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