Who Is Boo?
Welcome to The Barktender’s Guide. This is where you can find out more about the great new recipe book of Dogtails (the doggy version of cocktails) and Pupcakes (OK, that one’s really obvious) by muttster mixologist and culinary canine, Boo zeHound.
Trained at the CIA (Culinary Institute for Animals), Mr zeHound comes from a long line of canine gourmutts and claims as a distant ancestor the famous bartender dog that was in service at the Bowser Hotel in British Columbia during the 1930s, serving beer to patrons, collecting their money and returning with change.
Boo first developed his nose for canine cuisine by sniffing out crumbs on the kitchen floor of his pet parents’ home in Labrador, Alaska. Growing up on the coast, Boo loved that his diet sometimes included wild salmon and cod. But it was hard to scratch a living in such a remote part of the world, so when Boo was just one year old the family moved to Dog Bluff, South Carolina, which unfortunately was almost as quiet as Labrador. So with nothing much to do but play dead dog, Boo decided it was time to go walkies on his own.
He worked his way through the garbage cans of some of the finest restaurants in the finest cities, took a licking from the best gourmutt chefs in the country and eventually earned admission into the prestigious CIA, graduating later with the school’s highest honors of five bones.
Mr zeHound is recognized as one of the pawmost experts in the field of doggy dishes and drinks and now he has joined forces with Elizabeth Dodwell to produce The BARKtender’s Guide of Dogtails and Pupcakes, the first in a planned trilogy of recipe books for the discriminating dog.
From her earliest remembrances Elizabeth Dodwell has had an affinity with animals. The elegant Regency town of Cheltenham, England, was her birthplace and, as a kid, if you’d asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up she would have told you a vet or an actress.
Elizabeth will also tell you, “Life has been a most amazing instructional journey. I’ve worked in fields of insurance, sales, administration, food and beverage. I’ve owned and operated businesses as diverse as bookkeeping, construction cleaning, canon making (full-size fiberglass replicas, mostly Civil War era), antiques and even worked with a shipwreck treasure hunter.”
As for animals, you can be sure that dogs and cats have always been a major part of Elizabeth’s life and she has actively rescued many critters though, ironically never had a paying job that involved animals.
Now-a-days Elizabeth writes full-time, often with an animal theme and claims inspiration from Muttley. She states, “We used to call Muttley the hairless wonder. Battered and horribly abused he was so sick for the longest time that his hair wouldn’t grow. When wet he looked like a big pink rat. But a giant spirit in the little body of our maltese/poodle mix kept him going to a happy and healthy old age and encouraged me to do the same.”
Now-a-days, Elizabeth and husband, Alex share their home with Angel, a pit bull mix, two poodles: Vinny and Coco, and six cats: Taz, Ditto, Amber, Lief, Cappy and Oliver, collectively known as “the kids” and who are a constant source of insight and motivation.
In addition to creating tasty recipes for dogs, Elizabeth utilizes humor to speak on topics relating to how you can learn success strategies and life lessons from your dog, and healthy food choices for your dog. She will tell you, “I gladly suffer the luxury of working from home where I’m able to interact with my “kids” and toss in a load of laundry in between radio interviews, writing, editing, general office work or baking pupcakes while still in my PJs and hoping no-one comes to the door. I love what I do and know how lucky I am to be able to do it. Oh, and if you asked me what my hobbies are, I’d probably say reading murder mysteries, drinking champagne, romantic dinners with my husband and yodeling (just joking about that last one).”