All dogs should be as lucky as Simba. When he was nearly 14, his veterinarian said Simba was too sick and frail to accompany his family on a cross-country flight from their old home in California to their new home in New York City. Many families in a similar situation take dogs to shelters with the explanation, “We’re moving and we can’t take him with us.” That was never an option for David Elliot Cohen, his wife and their five children.
While the kids and their mother, Laureen Sieger, did travel by plane in August 2014, dad loaded the 90-pound Labrador retriever into the back of a station wagon and set off on a 3,300-mile drive. He did this even though the vet warned that Simba could die “any day now.”
Mr. Cohen recruited longtime friend Erick Steinberg to join him. The guys turned the eight-day road trip into a quirky adventure along the old Route 66 highway, incorporating tourist stops that ranged from the well-known — Las Vegas and Graceland — to the world’s largest thermometer in Baker, Calif., and a corner in Winslow, Ariz., that was immortalized in an Eagles song.
Then he wrote a book, “The Wrong Dog.” The hardcover is $22.95, published by Yellow Pear Press this month and distributed nationally by Publishers Group West.
Despite the adorable puppy portrait on the cover, the book is more than the story of Simba and the cross-country road trip. It’s a beautifully written memoir about Mr. Cohen and his family, including his parents and his brother, Dan, who have deep Pittsburgh roots.
At times the book reads like an off-beat sightseeing guide, including stops at Meteor Crater, the Painted Desert, the Petrified Forest and Cadillac Ranch near Amarillo, Texas. At other times the book is funny, sweet and sad. In fact, some of the most moving and poignant writing comes from the stop in Pittsburgh.
The trip had many potential pitfalls, starting with the fact that Simba couldn’t ride for more than three hours at a time. While Mr. Cohen and Mr. Steinberg had meticulously mapped their route to account for this, they did not book motels in advance, and they quickly discovered that most motels do not accept large pets as guests. Fortunately, they discovered early on that Hampton Inns are pet-friendly, so that became their chain of choice.
Simba’s many health problems included breathing difficulties caused by laryngeal paralysis. Despite that, he was still a happy tail-wagging dog at home in Marin County, Calif., and on the long ride. Ultimately the book becomes a bit of a mystery: Will Simba live long enough to be reunited with his family in Manhattan?
I don’t want to give away the ending, so I asked Mr. Cohen, in a telephone interview, how to handle that. Here’s what he said:
“All dog books end with a death, so the question is: How did the dog die? In this case, the death was a poetic death.”
In “The Wrong Dog,” Mr. Cohen muses on the difference between a “good death” and a “bad death.” His mother’s death fell into the latter category, and he writes about it in the book.
Mr. Cohen grew up in Erie, where his parents, Norman and Hannah Cohen, owned Erie Reliable Home Furnishings. When he was 20, the family moved to Pittsburgh, where they owned a furniture store, Workbench, at Station Square. His brother, Dan, is an attorney who was a Pittsburgh city councilman for 12 years.
Mr. Cohen has written or co-written more than 70 books. Most were part of the “Day in the Life” and “America 24/7” photography book series. Seven were bestsellers, including his 1999 travelogue, “One Year Off.”
An yet when Mr. Cohen loaded Simba into the station wagon, he said he didn’t plan on writing a book about the trip. That idea came later after his mother died.
“The book helped me deal with my mother’s death,” Mr. Cohen said.
So, why is the book called “The Wrong Dog”? That’s explained in the very first sentence and chapter, so I don’t think we need a spoiler alert here.
In November 2000, Ms. Seeger extensively researched breeds and breeders in her search for the perfect family pet. After spending months on a waiting list, Ms. Seeger and a Labrador retriever breeder agreed that a small, low-key female puppy would be best. Ms. Seeger sent her then-husband (they later divorced and she married Mr. Cohen in 2006) to pick up the 8-week-old puppy. He came home with “a hyperkinetic, testosterone-infused” male that they named Simba.
Despite the book’s title, Simba turned out to be the right dog for every member of that family.
Mr. Cohen and his book will be at the Penguin Bookshop, 417 Beaver St., Sewickley, at 6 p.m. Thursday.
Linda Wilson Fuoco: lfuoco@post-gazette.com or 412-263-3064 or on Facebook.
First Published: January 14, 2017, 5:00 a.m.
