How Elizabeth Abbott wrote Dogs and Underdogs

Author Elizabeth Abbott dedicated her most recent book, Dogs and Underdogs: Finding Happiness at Both Ends of the Leash, to the animals in her life. Elizabeth speaks with Shelagh about a very special dog and the moment she realized that the bond between humans and their pets goes both ways.

Dogs and Underdogs is about my life, and my life with dogs. It's from both ends of the leash, so it's also about the dogs' lives.

Way back in 1988, I fled Haiti after writing a book that put me in serious danger. I thought I was only leaving for a couple of months, and so I took my son, but I left my dog Tommy with my husband in Haiti. Two years later, after many attempts to have Tommy sent to me, I realized he was in danger. He was sick, and nobody would send him to me. My marriage had failed — my brother-in-law had been made the president of Haiti after a military junta, and everything was falling apart. I realized nobody was going to send me my dog, and that I had to go and get him. So I went to Haiti, went to the house and took him.

I brought him back to Canada, where he was diagnosed with cancer and they said he had only about nine months to live. He was quite an old dog. But it was a beautiful nine months — he and I continued the relationship we'd always had. He was the dog that sat at my feet, that did everything with me, that shared my morning banana. I realized that a relationship with a dog isn't something that's just one-sided. The loyalty and the caring isn't just on the dog's side. A human also owes a great deal to a dog.

I dedicated my book to all the animals that have been in my life — the ones that are still with me and the ones that have passed away — because they've been a huge part of my life, they've made it what it is, and it was very important to acknowledge them, and because I wanted to understand our lives together from their perspective as well as from mine.

Elizabeth Abbott's comments have been edited and condensed.