In John Kennedy Toole's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel "A Confederacy of Dunces, Ignatius J. Reilly, an overweight genius misfit, winds up selling wienies for Paradise Vendors, Inc. (the fictional equivalent of Lucky Dogs) in New Orleans' French Quarter. In "Managing Ignatius", Strahan relates his amusing--and bemusing--experiences working for more than two decades with the audacious characters who comprise the actual stable of Lucky Dog vendors. 24 halftones.
When walking the French Quarter and watching a Lucky Dog salesman set up that colorful cart and call out to entice customers, don't you wonder how such a business works? As a knowing review in Rolling Stone stated, "People have always loved the cart and harbored a mysterious need to ride it. Revelers have been known to climb on top of the rolling wienies, screaming 'Yippee kaya!' as vendors stoically push them back to the barn at 4 a.m." Since 1947 the red and yellow carts have trumpeted good fortune and sustenance. Jerry E. Strahan recounts the wild adventures of the Bourbon Street wienie salesmen but also takes readers well beyond New Orleans. In fact, he takes them halfway around the world, where this unique pushcart business maneuvered its way through the bureaucratic red tape of a communist country to become a licensed corporation in the People's Republic of China. In China, two points quickly became apparent to Strahan. First, 99 percent of the Chinese population had no idea what a Lucky Dog cart represented. One elderly passerby declared it to be a missile. Second, the success or failure of any joint venture in the Asian nation is directly proportional to the political clout of that company's local partner. Lucky Dogs also recounts how the business and its vendors survived Hurricane Katrina. Miraculously, it reopened only six months after the storm in a city where more than 80 percent of the landmass had been flooded and where less than 40 percent of the population had returned. To reestablish itself in what many described as Third World conditions, the company had to transform its operation. This work mixes business history, autobiography, survival story, and an insider's look at the bizarre lives of some of Bourbon Street's most quirky characters--the dauntless Lucky Dog vendors. Both humorous and tragic, though it may read like fiction, it is, for better or worse, all fact.
Learning to read doesn't need to be ruff with this rhyming tail about a pair of lovable pups, now with a fresh look! Penny is a small, frisky puppy. Clover is a big, careful canine. While Penny has no problem jumping over a log, Clover isn't so sure she can do it. Can Clover come up with the courage to take a leap of faith and follow her friend?
Lucky Dog is a hilarious and heartwarming memoir by a renowned veterinary oncologist who tells us what we can learn about health care and ourselves from our most beloved pets. What happens when a veterinary surgical oncologist (laymen’s term: cancer surgery doctor) thinks she has cancer herself? Enter Sarah Boston: a vet who suspects a suspicious growth in her neck is thyroid cancer. From the moment she uses her husband’s portable ultrasound machine to investigate her lump — he’s a vet, too — it’s clear this will not be your typical cancer memoir. She takes us on a hysterical and thought-provoking journey through the human health care system from the perspective of an animal doctor. Weaving funny and poignant stories of dogs she’s treated along the way, this is an insightful memoir about what the human medical world can learn from the way we treat our canine counterparts. Lucky Dog teaches us to trust our instincts, be our own advocates, and laugh while we’re doing it.
An accidental dog swap unleashes an unexpected love match in this new romantic comedy from New York Times bestselling author Julia London. Carly Kennedy's life is in a spiral. She is drowning in work, her divorced parents are going through their midlife crises, and somehow Carly's sister convinces her to foster Baxter--a basset hound rescue with a bad case of the blues. When Carly comes home late from work one day to discover that the dog walker has accidentally switched out Baxter for another perkier, friendlier basset hound, she has reached the end of her leash. When Max Sheffington finds a depressed male basset hound in place of his cheerful Hazel, he is bewildered. But when cute, fiery Carly arrives on his doorstep, he is intrigued. He was expecting the dog walker, not a pretty woman with firm ideas about dog discipline. And Carly was not expecting a handsome, bespectacled man to be feeding her dog mac and cheese. Baxter is besotted with Hazel, and Carly realizes she may have found the key to her puppy’s happiness. For his sake, she starts to spend more time with Hazel and Max, until she begins to understand the appeal of falling for your polar opposite.
Rescued from an animal shelter on the first night of Hanukkah, Latke has trouble learning the house rules. Despite a series of mishaps, he is one Lucky Dog!
Our readers and customers asked for informative and entertaining fiction for teens and young adults about their lives, and we've listened! We're pleased to publish Lucky Dogs, Lost Hats, and Dating Don'ts, a collection of over a dozen hi-lo (high interest-low reading level) short stories for people with intellectual disabilities or other learning challenges. Middle schoolers through adults will identify with the book's true-to-life stories and their characters (some with developmental disabilities, some without), who want to live as independently as they can. And just like real life, there are episodes of hilarity, poignancy, messiness, responsibility, longing, fulfillment, and adventure. From roommate troubles to wanting a pet, and from seeking a girlfriend to going camping with friends, these appealing short stories engage readers and impart subtle life lessons. A set of questions at the end of each story encourages discussion and further self-reflection. Stories included are: -A Day of Kindness -A Very Lucky Dog -Adventures in Camping -Bad Hair Day -Dear Diary -Dirty Dishes -Doctor Visit -Evening Walks -How to Find a Girlfriend -Road Trip -Slugger -Sneezes -The Kissing Scene -Tornado at Big Burger Written by experts in literacy and inclusion for people with developmental disabilities, stories range in reading grade level from 1.5 to 3.5 (Flesch Kincaid scale) and are illustrated with large format black and white photos. Large type, a sans serif font, ample margins, and space between paragraphs helps to provide a smooth reading experience. An Introduction provides important information about who can benefit from the book and how to use it. If you're a parent, educator, reading specialist, book club coordinator, librarian, or counselor don't miss this unique book for your teen and adult readers with intellectual disabilities or other struggling readers!
Hunter, my majestic eighty-six-pound mutt, was the love of my life for thirteen years. I was addicted to looking at him—every twitch of his ear was fascinating to me. I've taken thousands of photographs of him, dozens even in the same position. He was "my lucky dog." I adopted Hunter when he was two. He came with that name, his former owner a fan of Hunter S. Thompson. I noticed Hunter's photo in the window of a pet store in Vermont and brought him home. If I was the lucky break in his life, he was the transforming experience in mine. Before, I was a little wild. As a photographer, I traveled around the world, picking up and leaving on a dime. Life was exciting: photo shoots in Paris, Haiti, the Himalayas, the Andes, and even the Amazon. Hunter tamed me. I couldn't be away from him for more than five hours at a time. I had no children of my own; Hunter taught me about responsibility, love, and devotion in a way that was inaccessible to me with "people." —Mellon
