12.09.06
Author explores dogs as gay men’s best friends
A dog may fetch you a boyfriend, drive one away, or test the commitment of your significant other.
Those are some of the lessons of “Paws and Reflect: Exploring the Bond Between Gay Men and Their Dogs.” The book of 25 short stories, including some contributed by gay celebrities, looks at these complex inter-species relationships, exploring everything from dogs as “guy magnets” to jealous rivals for affection.
Co-editor Neil Plakcy, a mystery writer and English professor who lives in Hollywood, Fla., says he tried to make the book a mixed breed of “the heart-warming and the funny.”
Plakcy, 49, says he decided to do the book after realizing that in so many households a dog is truly a gay man’s best friend.
“First of all, it’s hard for gay men to become fathers,” Plakcy says. “For many gay men, our dogs are our children. Secondly, dogs give unconditional love. Many gay men never got that kind of love, either from their parents or from their peers.”
Plakcy says he and his friend, Sharon Sakson, the book’s co-editor, were looking for a project to work on together. Plakcy was writing gay detective novels at the time. Sakson, a producer for NBC Nightly News, was involved in judging dog shows. She also breeds Brussels Griffons, the breed of dog that is featured in the Jack Nicholson film “As Good as It Gets.” They decided to split the project. Plakcy sniffed out the gay writers and persuaded them to contribute to the book. Sakson conducted many of the celebrity interviews.
The dog as “guy magnet” theme is played out in Jeffrey Ricker’s humorous contribution “Dakota,” about a Newfoundland-Border Collie mix. Ricker writes:
“When I got Dakota, I was single. All my friends said he would be a total guy-magnet…. What he lacks in intelligence, he makes up for in geniality. He’s kind of a blonde like that.”
But Ricker soon discovers that using Dakota as “screening device for men” doesn’t work:
“Dakota rolled over on his back to have his belly rubbed by every man who walked through the front door,” Ricker writes. “My dog, it seemed, was a tramp.”
Another particularly funny story in the book is titled “My Ph.D. in Dachshunds,” by Stephen Kwielchek. The Dachshund, which belonged to Kwielchek’s boyfriend, is apparently jealous of him. The rival takes out his frustrations by repeatedly peeing on Kwielchek’s pillow. Kwielchek gets back at the dog in a particularly hilarious way.
“Puppy Whipped,” by Donald Hardy, tells the story of a gay man who goes to great lengths to care for two sick dogs. One dog is so sick it can’t walk much, so he ends up carrying it around in a little red wagon:
“There I was. A forty-seven-year old, six-foot-two, 200-pound man, pulling a small, fluffy golden dog down the dock in a cute, little red wagon. Gay.”
The story “The Dog Who Outed Me,” by Kevin Anderson, tells about how a rescue by a dog during a mountain-climbing trip leads a man to come out to his brother.
Former Express features editor Andy Zeffer contributed “Discovering the Dog Lover Within,” a wagging tale about how his roommate’s dog won his heart after years of being a cat lover. There is a particularly funny passage describing the debate between cat lovers and dog lovers.
Plakcy, who is a professor of English at Broward Community College, says one recurring theme of the book is that dogs are family. They often fill the gaps in gay men’s lives, many of whom lacked formal family structures.
“We’re the only minority group that doesn’t have family members in our group,” Plakcy says. “Many of us have look for new families that can relate to us. Sometimes dogs can help in that quest.”