Nose down, eyes up

By Merrill Markoe

Subjects: Middle-aged men, Man-woman relationships, fiction, Man-woman relationship, Human-animal relationships, Human-animal communication, Dog owners, fiction, Pets, Fiction, humorous, general, Dogs, Fiction, Animals, Man-woman relationships, Middle aged men

Description: Gil is a bit of a schlub. Nearing 50, he lives rent-free as a handyman in an elderly couple's Los Angeles vacation home. His girlfriend, Sara, works as an animal communicator. Consequently, he can now understand all four of his dogs and is surprised to discover that the alpha dog, Jimmy, has been giving informative lectures to the neighborhood dogs about such topics as begging faces, edible shoes, and peeing inside versus outside. A chance meeting with Gil's ex leads to his accepting a job remodeling her guesthouse, and Jimmy begs to be brought along. Soon Gil finds himself moving uncomfortably closer to his ex and further away from Jimmy, and it's only when things get rough that Gil and Jimmy begin to reconsider the meaning of family.