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Oct 17, 2005 10:52 pm US/Eastern
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Chronicles Of A Good Bad Dog
by Carol Erickson
PHILADELPHIA (CBS 3) ―
Every dog owner thinks their dog is the best, but one local columnist says his was the worst and he wrote about it all the time. His new book is set to be released Tuesday. It is about the "Life and Love of the World's Worst Dog."
CBS 3's Carol Erickson reports on the story of the best bad dog a family could ever have.
What a face, for this kind of headline.
"I call him the world's worst dog," described Inquirer columnist John Grogan.
Family videos only show the good times with labrador Marley and the ever growing Grogan family. What you do not see is the other side of their 13-years.
"Marley destroyed one couch, three mattreses, he went thru our dry wall several times right down to the studs, he took the door jamb off the laundry room door," listed Grogan.
Marley, you see, had panic attacks. He was most afraid of thunderstorms and of not being with his family.
While many families might have focused solely on the destruction, Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Grogan began picking up on something else about his dog after his wife's miscarriage.
"He put his head in her lap, whimpering, with his tail flat behind him. It was so amazing the empathy this dog had for human sadness," said Grogan.
Grogan wrote it all down in the new book "Marley and Me," about how the dog taught the family about relationships and what really matters.
"Such as devotion, unqualified love and loyalty, and all these things that come easily to a dog," he said.
In between those lessons, Marley managed to start a brief, unpaid acting career playing, what else, a family dog in a feature film "The Last Home Run."
As you might expect, this unpaid canine actor slowed down filming with his joy for life.
"He messed it up every time," stated Grogan.
But what the dog never messed up was putting his family first.
"I do miss him," said Grogan, adding, "I'm embarrassed how sad I was after I lost him."
Marley died almost two years ago at the age of 13.
"It was like losing a member of the family," described Grogan.
Marley is buried in the Grogan's backyard.
Now another yellow dog is walking where Marley walked and laying a soft head where Marley laid his. It is not the same for the Grogans and maybe it is not supposed to be.
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