City where she currently lives with her poodle, Dea.
She has enjoyed an eclectic professional background,
including acting, voiceovers, audiobook narration,
advertising copywriting, and social work.
In her spare time, she continues to study Italian and has
even taught Dea some Italian words. Several of Alison’s
outdoor passions are hiking and skiing. Mostly Alison
loves to walk in Riverside Park in NYC with her dog,
Dea trying to chase squirrels.
is thinking about them will find insight
and laughter in Walking Alison,
written entirely in the voice of Dea,
an exceptional black poodle.
Called
Grace
in New YorkCity where she currently
lives with her poodle, Dea. She has
enjoyed an eclectic professional
background, including acting, voiceovers,
audiobook narration, advertising
copywriting, and social work.
In her spare time, she continues to study
Italian and has even taught Dea some
Italian words. Several of Alison’s outdoor
passions are hiking and skiing.
Mostly Alison loves to walk in
Riverside Park in NYC with her dog,
Dea trying to chase squirrels.
what their dog is thinking about
them will find insight and
laughter in Walking Alison,
written entirely in the voice of
Dea, an exceptional black poodle.
Called
Grace
“I adore poodles and for me, this was a light-hearted, fun read! Dea is a black female poodle who narrates her life with Alison, her owner. We are treated to the chronicles of Alison’s life, the ups and downs, through Dea’s eyes from early puppy days through adult life. We are treated to logic and reasoning from a dog’s perspective. We don’t have them for long and this is a great read to remind all pet lovers that our furry friends have a method to their sometimes madness! Highly recommend!”
-Lori Pennington, Goodreads
How did humans possibly manage to function before dogs became domesticated some 23,000 years ago? That is what Dea, a savvy black poodle, wonders in “Walking Alison: A Poodle’s Mostly True Story of Helping Her Human Navigate Life,” by Alison Rand — a wise and jaunty memoir told entirely from her dog’s point of view.
During their daily walks, new puppy Dea pulls her human, Alison, by the leash into making connections, handling crippling loss, and coping with the challenges of life. What might have been tragic through Alison’s eyes finds wider perspective and resonance through Dea’s as she tolerates Alison’s pathetic attempts at meditation and online dating, sees her through a second bout of cancer, and finally steers Alison toward appreciating life’s daily wonders that are a puppy’s birthright.
Thanks to Dea’s “training,” Alison learns to finally trust herself in new and life affirming ways, realizing that feeling safe is a conscious decision.
Hello, I am Dea, a 14-pound black poodle,
and I have a lot to say.
Dea at home
The most important thing you need to know about my Alison’s new memoir, “Walking Alison,” is that I am the star of this book. Yes, moi. A mighty and talented poodle.
Let me tell you a bit about how this came about. My Alison was trying to write a follow-up to her first memoir, “A Place Called Grace,” and since I am always quite helpful — you know, like reminding my Alison when meal time should be, which is quite often — I thought I would pitch in and narrate her story for her. Because I know her story just as well, if not better, as she does.
Besides, we are very much alike: same birthday, same bouts of anxiety, same love of exercise.
Naturally, my Alison agreed that I should narrate her book, Walking Alison. Because I am always right.
In this book, “Walking Alison”, you will read how I helped fix my human’s life — because, let’s face it, humans are just hopeless about almost everything. They cannot be trusted to throw when I want to fetch, or cuddle while they’re working, and they do bone-headed things like leaving me alone, All Alone, while they go out to do the silly things humans do out there.
Now that I, Dea — sturdy and gorgeous and with spectacularly strong shoulders — have helped my Alison, the book is quite good, if I do say so myself!
Sure, there’s a bit of sadness as my Alison deals with illness, loss and setbacks in her life. But who can be sad for long when in the presence of such an amazing dog as moi?
Alison Rand’s previous book, “A Place Called Grace,” follows her misadventures as she struggles to find her footing as an actress in New York and Rome, Italy.
Divorced and in her mid-thirties, she has never gotten past an early childhood trauma, leaving her yearning for a sense of permanence. A place to call home.
To shake things up, Alison makes a bold, possibly foolhardy move — she relocates to Rome, where she barely speaks the language, knows no one, and has no acting work lined up. In a series of tragi-comic encounters, Alison settles into an exotic culture, looks for amore in all the wrong places, and finally begins to break into the acting world as she seeks a safe, solid center.
