Once-hesitant Tucson pet owner pens ‘Am I Boring My Dog?’

Edie Jarolim with Frankie

SHEILA WILENSKY
AJP Assistant Editor

Although she secretly always liked dogs, owning a dog wasn’t “the Jewish thing to do” when Edie Jarolim was growing up. Now a proud dog owner — or “dog slave” — she’s the author of the newly released “Am I Boring My Dog? And 99 Other Things Every Dog Wishes You Knew.”
Jarolim, a baby boomer, recalls watching the TV show “Lassie” about a collie whose owner and pal, Timmy, was “a little blond kid who lived in the countryside. I lived in Brooklyn with delis. None of my friends had dogs. There was the occasional parakeet or hamster.”
Also, says Jarolim, “I thought I lacked the canine-caring gene since my mother was afraid of all creatures great and small. She was no James Herriot.”
A former senior editor at Frommer’s and Fodor’s travel guides in New York City, Jarolim moved to Tucson in 1992. She became a food and travel writer, publishing articles in numerous publications, such as Tucson Home, National Geographic Traveler, Arizona Highways and The New York Times Book Review, and three travel books, including “Arizona For Dummies.”
In 2004, Jarolim met a fellow food writer who was an avid dog rescuer at a local writers’ group. Dog rescuers, says Jarolim, are relentless about convincing friends to join the more than 70 million U.S. households with at least one dog in residence.
“I can’t get one because I travel too much, I told her,” says Jarolim, admitting that was clearly an excuse. Several months later, the friend sent her an email about Frankie, a terrier mix, available from Arizona Schnauzer Rescue.
“How could I resist this cute, small fuzzy dog?” she asks.
“I didn’t know a thing about dogs. I started reading and asking questions. What if I do get a dog who doesn’t like me?” Jarolim wondered. She adopted Frankie and it turned out she did have cause to worry. “At first Frankie just laid on the couch and looked depressed. I cried a lot at first,” she says.
“Eventually he got hungry and figured out I was his best ally, and after about a week he got off the couch,” says Jarolim. “It took about three to four months before he was totally bonded to me.”
In winter 2007, around the same time Jarolim was  beginning to feel “burned out” as a travel writer, Frankie was diagnosed with diabetes. It became harder to depend on a dog sitter; plus, she says, “I missed my little dog.”
That’s when Jarolim realized “it might be useful to write a guide for other first-time dog owners.” Her book covers everything from how to do research, to considering if a canine friend is suitable for your household, to setting up a pet trust to determine who’ll take care of your dog if you die or are incapacitated.
Still, the big question for Jarolim and other prospective dog owners is, “am I boring my dog?” You must be “observant and read a dog’s body language,” she says. “Frankie would yawn; it turns out that’s a sign of stress in a dog.
“It’s important for people to reciprocate. Dogs spend a lot of time trying to figure out what we want,” explains Jarolim.
These days, in addition to accompanying Frankie, now a celebrity, to  book signings and other venues, she appears monthly on KVOA-TV’s lifestyle program with Martha Vazquez, where she discusses other questions that “Am I Boring My Dog?” raises in each of its 10 chapters — helping other secret dog lovers to take the leap.
Jarolim and Frankie will participate in a book signing on Saturday, Oct. 17 at 2:30 p.m. at Clues Unlimited, 3146 E. Fort Lowell Road. A portion of the sales will benefit Arizona Greyhound Rescue.