Hi, it’s me, Bear, and my friend, Belle. Most of the time, we shop dogs are hard at work in the store — counting books, inhaling the scent of our customers’ shoes, and checking under the children’s shelves for stray popcorn. Occasionally, we also like to hop online and click around to see what’s happening in the publishing world, and when we do, well . . . we’ve been known to get sidetracked. Who knew the other creatures of the world were so talented? For example, we’re fascinated by this pair of hamsters on a date.
Look at the little-bitty spaghetti and meatballs. We want tiny meatballs! If we had a hamster, we could probably have hamster dinner parties all the time. We asked Andy if we could get a store hamster, but he said no, it’s not safe with all of us dogs around, and also hamsters are known for their terrible taste in books, so it’s “not a good fit at this time.”
<– Belle likes to watch the hamster show upside down. She says all good videos are best enjoyed through one’s upturned nostrils.
Does anyone else watch videos upside down?
We also love this one where the puppy fights a water bottle.
We never get tired of #SharkCat. We tried to put Gracie on a Roomba and send her around the store dressed like a butterfly, but she was having none of it.
Some videos are educational. We enjoyed this video about the history of dog food.
We never get tired of Maymo the beagle and her sister Penny.
Speaking of beagles, here’s a clip of our fellow shop dog Eleanor Roosevelt. When you tell her to “get in bed,” she gets all the way inside the dog bed and hides. It drives her brother Woodstock crazy.
Some videos are too scary. Tristan tried to make Sparky look at these spooky trees, so Sparky had to climb up on Tristan’s head.
Sparky prefers videos where Ann makes an appearance. Like this one, from back when she took a turn speaking as part of the Salon@615 author series last year.
Karen says we need to put in a little less screen time and a little more floor time, so we have to go now. But let us know if you have a favorite animal video, and we’ll watch it. A dozen times.
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Do you like bookish videos as much as Sparky does? Then check out the Salon@615 archive lineup. If you’re in Nashville, we hope you’ll come to one of the events in the Salon@615 series for a face-to-face author experience you’ll remember forever. (And remember, anyone who purchases the book from Parnassus is invited to join the signing line for an autograph, too.) If you can’t get to Nashville, don’t fret: You can watch by video later!
Musing 