What Wendell Wants: Or, How to Tell if You're Obsessed with Your Dog (Paperback)

~ Jenny Lee (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Nearly every dog owner will be able to relate to some part of Lee's comic exploration of her obsession with Wendell, her wheaten terrier. Don't pick this up expecting to gain insight into a canine companion's psychology, however; this book deals strictly with the issues that plague the human half of the dog/person equation, and explains how readers can tell if they're a dog-obsessed owner. One simple way is to answer the questions posed by this book's chapter titles, queries such as "do you talk about your dog nonstop?"; "do you suspect your dog is a genius?"; "have you updated your will with provisions for your dog?" Lee admits to all these symptoms, as well as others like ordering a birthday cake for her dog, signing him up for swimming lessons and taking innumerable pictures of him. "For the first time in my life I had put together a photo album," she writes. "It contained Wendell's ... first snow, his first bath, his first bone, his first rawhide, his first Halloween." Throughout the book, Lee intersperses mini-profiles of the "10 Breeds of Obsessed Dog Owner," such as the competitive owner, who "thinks that his dog is better than your dog," and the tofu owner, who "practices yoga, eats vegetarian, and hates people who smoke." While such types may not present a pretty picture of the human side of things, Lee ends on a positive note with a description of the Ultimate Owner: "These owners love their dogs, but they also seem to understand that they are in fact, dogs. And the dogs themselves seem to understand this fact, and seem happy that things have worked out this way."
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description

Jenny Lee covered her first year of marriage in the painfully real and funny book I Do. I Did. Now What?! Now it's time for her to write about the real love of her life: Wendell. Her dog.

*Do you talk about your dog non-stop?
*Do you suspect your dog is a genius?
*Do you name each of your dog's toys?
*Does your dog get more heavy petting than your spouse?
*Do all holidays revolve around your dog?

If any of these scenarios sound familiar, you probably have a healthy admiration for your dog. But if all of the scenarios in What Wendell Wants sound familiar, well, it's obvious that your appreciation of your pooch has truly crossed the line into true love--dysfunctional, sure, but who cares?!

Jenny Lee knows this obsession inside and out, and her advice is not to fight it: there's simply no cure. Instead, she offers hysterical accounts of her own experiences--from fretting over her dog's haircut to getting his portrait painted a la Picasso to trying desperately to impress the Bed & Biscuit dog kennel--to give all kindred dog-loving spirits out there some consolation that they're not alone.


From the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Delta (September 27, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385337868
• ISBN-13: 978-0385337861
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #819,742 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Insanely Funny, January 10, 2006

By	Tiffany Huebner "ME" (Princeton, MN) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: What Wendell Wants: Or, How to Tell If You're Obsessed with Your Dog (Hardcover)

I got this book from my husband for Christmas. I have a LIST of people I am lending this book to...it's hillarious!

Anyone that gives it less than 5 stars just doesn't understand what life is like when you are obsessed with your dog. So many times through this book I could swear I was writing it.

Of course I feel a bond of sorts with Jenny Lee since she did consider a French Bulldog. I own two...and several other dogs and animals. And, YES, I am obsessed with all of them.

Two PAWS UP!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good to know I'm not the only one!, October 1, 2005

By	Tyler T - See all my reviews

I was recommended this book by one of my dog loving friends who said that it was a must read--and I'm pleased to report he is absolutely right! It's such a relief to know that there are others out there who obsess about their dogs the way I obsess about my Jack Russell--McKenzie. I too throw birthday parties for my dog and also have a weakness for cute Halloween costumes.

The best thing about this book is that the author embraces her neurotic tendencies and owns up the fact that she's a little nutty when it comes to her dog, but you never blame her for it because it's obvious that it comes from the heart.

There are also some really funny charts in the back of the book! It's definitely a great gift for the dog lovers in your life!

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Too too precious, November 8, 2004

By	T. Barger "tuffyb" (Hartselle, AL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: What Wendell Wants: Or, How to Tell If You're Obsessed with Your Dog (Hardcover)

Jenny Lee is the author of another book written prior to this one which seems to have received decent reviews, but she has also been a writer for such magazines as "Redbook". I believe this sort of writing is where her talent, as such, must lie. As a person who shares my home with five dogs, I adore my canine friends and family members and usually enjoy reading about the antics of other dogs, too, but this silly book -- complete with many sections written in ALL CAPS for emphasis (and lots of precious parenthetical asides, too!)-- was, regrettably, more than my stomach or patience could bear. After a couple of irritating chapters, it has been placed on the reject pile.