Pawprints On My Heart by Jean Keating is an endearing collection of thirty-one stories and poems about the companion animals that bless our lives. The hardback is beautifully rendered, with a colorful jacket depicting a Papillon, mother with three mischievous puppies .Drawings by professional artist Bev Abbott bring the subject of each story and poem to life.

     Numerous authors, many from the Chesapeake Bay region of Virginia, share their delight and wonder with animal companions that have been a part of their lives.The biographies of the authors are as entertaining as the stories. Each is slanted toward the relationship of the author with the animal companions featured in the story. Bev Abbott, the book’s illustrator, has “owned, loved, and been controlled by her miniature dachshunds for 25 years.” Jean Keating, the editor and author of five of the stories, “lives in Williamsburg with the 15 dogs and two cats that rule her home and heart.”

     Some of the stories reflect the animal’s point of view.The reader experiences the smells and sounds of a barn from a bird-hating horse’s point of view. One author writes in the voice of a 17-year-old calico cat instructing her youngest kitten just leaving the litter .“To get snacks, cry for food even when it’s not mealtimes.”
Readers go behind the scenes of life with TV star and famous service dog, Peekaboo. This little ten-pound Papillon was the first toy dog to be named Service Dog of the Year by the Delta Society, a tribute to his support in opening doors, making beds, emptying laundry, and retrieving things for his owner who is a double amputee.But we also learn that he’s not above ‘choosing’ things from lower shelves in grocery stores and ‘borrowing’ lace handkerchiefs from lady’s handbags in restaurants.

     In an age when crude language is often excused as providing grit and realism, the book is warm, witty, well-crafted, and moving without resorting to any off-color language.Pawprints On My Heart presents a beautiful package with touching messages that makes it a fitting gift for all seasons. 

     The majority of the stories are about dogs, and the book has been chosen by Dog Writers’ Association of America [DWAA] as one of three finalist for the best dog fiction book of 2001 . 
The title reflects the early training of the editor, a former NASA engineer, in creating new words to fit a situation. Pawprints, written without the space, signifies the emotional prints left on human hearts by the animal companions they love. In the words of the editor, “they leave paw prints on clothes and carpets, on hearth and home, and pawprints on our hearts.” 

     The power of a dog’s love and companionship in bringing a sense of love and family to overcome the grief and loss of divorce is shown in a lightly humorous story entitled “The Beginning After the End. ”This story appears in Pawprints On My Heart, and also as the Animal Antics segment of the April 2002 Chesapeake Style magazine at http://www.chesapeakestyle.com.

     In the editor’s introductory words, the animals ‘live in the moment’, expressing their joy at our company with unabashed devotion. ”The book is an unabashed tribute to the animal companions in our lives, a wonderful read that leaves one feeling blessed to have know these delightful and entertaining animal companions .It is available from the contacts listed in the ad in this magazine for Astra Publishers. For more information, go to www.Astrapublishers.com