A Dog’s Promise continues the story of the original dog soul in A Dog’s Purpose and A Dog’s Journey, but with a very special twist. We flew down to Tennessee to meet her and fell in love. February 12, 2010 5 min read. +Biography. —Michael Dare denies responsibility for www.disinfotainmenttoday.com "Bruce Cameron is the funniest humor writer I have ever met in my life! She’d started thinking about her dog, Ellie, an 8-year-old Doberman who died in her arms. Post was not sent - check your email addresses! In A Dog’s Journey, Bailey has a mission to find his person and to protect her as she makes some bad decisions throughout her life. “And as I rode away, I couldn’t shake the sensation that I’d just interacted with my very first dog.”. Billy's father had to fetch a ladder to save me, with Fluffy standing there watching contemptuously. And yes, they told The Post: She did agree to another dog, but it took nearly a decade before they found one. Earlier this year the movie adaptation of A Dog’s Journey came out. I was trying to push Brenda away from me, and Brenda, it seemed, was digging for kidneys. You can't "drop" something that has impaled you. I don't know what I expected to happen at that point, being unsure as to how cats exhibit gratitude. This story has been shared 222,059 times. "You could have killed her!" Brenda's talons raked deep furrows in my chest as she scrabbled for purchase. I was driving up the coast of California with a woman, Cathryn, who had recently lost her dog. W. Bruce Cameron is a writer and producer, known for A Dog's Way Home (2019), 8 Simple Rules (2002) and Muffin Top: A Love Story (2017). Did you enjoy this story? And it’s undeniable—Shelby, the star of A Dog’s Way Home, was living in a junkyard when animal control picked her up. When I finished, she had tears in her eyes and told me, ‘This is your next book!’ ”. For some reason I'm remembering that the cat's name was Brenda and that Billy's sister's name was Fluffy. Cameron is also the author of Emory’s Gift: A Novel, the NYT bestseller, 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter, which was turned into the hit ABC series that … She'd probably never seen an actual hero before. Billy yelled, which goes on the list of Really Dumb Advice I've Been Given in My Life. It's not that I don't like cats, it's that cats don't like me. We spent a lot of time searching for rattlesnakes to bring home to his cat, so maybe it's also accurate to say that Billy trained us. She turned to me and said, “I will never have another dog.” I was just starting to get serious about Cathryn, but the whole no-dog thing was a deal breaker for me. It was an ugly counterpoint to a love story that began as author W. Bruce Cameron’s way of coaxing his girlfriend, heartsick over the loss of her dog, to open her heart to another pet. We decided to find out. I tried to get her to calm down but was hampered by all my screaming. “Once we got him, I couldn’t understand why I’d ever want a moment without a dog,” Cameron said. It’s a pretty good trick. The notion that our friends might come back to us—if we only know where to look—has helped many people cope with their loss. She died when I was in college and just taking the faltering steps toward manhood. W. Bruce Cameron was born in Petoskey, Mich., and for a long time it looked like that would be his most impressive life accomplishment. For more information, please see our Privacy Policy. I believe we will always be reunited with those we love. We and producer Gavin Polone made it an absolute requirement that the star of the movie be a rescue, because we wanted to demonstrate that these dogs can do anything. “I had the characters, the scenes, the dialogue. —John Temple, Editor & President Rocky Mountain News "Dave Barry better get new shoes because W. Bruce Cameron is nipping at his heels." And yes, we got another dog. Bruce Cameron’ Talks His New Book A Dog’s Perfect Christmas RedCarpetCrash October 23, 2020 2020-10-23T12:16:55-05:00 2020-10-23T12:16:55-05:00 I’ve always loved dogs, which puts me in a unique category along with what, maybe two or three billion people? ... Mrs. Reid, was a widow who owned four cats, which my father said was evidence she wasn't interested in ever getting married again. “I think this is Tucker’s first trip,” Cameron said. I'm not sure why we concluded that Brenda couldn't get herself out of the tree without assistance from a boy, but I was eager to give it a go because it had not escaped my attention that Billy's sister Fluffy did not have a boyfriend. Eventually we reached an unspoken compromise: Brenda would leap gracefully away from me and dance lightly from limb to limb until she was on the ground, and I would hang in the tree and bleed. A dog who doesn’t like to walk! Sitemap She became more and more alarmed the closer she came to being rescued, her eyes growing large and her fur puffing out in a way that made her whole body look, well, fluffy. My friend Billy had a cat, too, one that Billy claimed he had trained to hunt rattlesnakes. I never spent any time with Mrs. Reid's felines, but I did try to rescue Billy's cat from a tree, where it had climbed to have a better view of all the snakes in the area. She liked the story so much that she married me! What do you hope audiences took away from it? Underneath my T-shirt I was wearing my skin. “I didn’t want to choose between Cathryn and a dog,” he said. Chances are, if the face of an adorable dog on a book cover or a movie poster has made you smile, W. Bruce Cameron is the man to thank. What can readers expect. “He’s pretty silly. It was one of those long teases with positive news but no action, so by the time it resurfaced as a project I had become so skeptical I didn’t really believe it was happening until we arrived on set. Why do you feel kids can relate to dog stories? By closing this banner or continuing to browse this website, you agree to the use of cookies. When I sold 8 Simple Rules into development, my deal included a writing assignment for a screenplay based on the book. Losing a pet means losing this devoted creature, and it cuts a real hole in our hearts. © 2020 NYP Holdings, Inc. All Rights Reserved. You’ve written seven books geared toward children. I don’t remember meeting any dogs before then. Tucker is a cocktail of various DNA samples, like a drink made by a bartender pouring a little from every bottle into the blender. Cameron was stricken. Tell us about discovering that A Dog’s Purpose would become a film. I became concerned with falling, and having already experienced my quota of pain for the day, decided I'd rather cling miserably to thin tree limbs and weave in the wind than drop heavily out of the sky — because as I considered the height from which I would plummet and all the branches I'd hit on the way down, I knew there was almost no way I could be assured of landing on Billy. My father opened the backyard gate one day and in bounded a Labrador puppy. Mostly he loves people. "W. Bruce Cameron is the Dave Barry of modern family life." His best-selling books and three hit movies—including the latest, A Dog’s Journey—portray the dog–human bond with humor and poignancy. It was an ugly counterpoint to a love story that began as author W. Bruce Cameron’s way of coaxing his girlfriend, heartsick over the loss of her dog, to open her heart to another pet. I’ve learned the names of a lot of the neighbors on my block because of Tucker. He chases squirrels and tries to climb up the tree after them.”. (After reviewing the controversial video, Cameron was initially “disturbed.” But he said that the edited video is taken out of context and “mischaracterizes what happened,” adding that the dog in the stunt “wasn’t in danger and wasn’t upset.”), Unlike Bailey, the reincarnated canine of the film, Tucker, a 6-year-old “mixed-up mash of who knows what” isn’t an old soul.