If all dogs go to heaven, did these come back as angels?
When it comes to her inspiration for writing, Arlington Heights author Joan Wester Anderson says she looks for “little signals.” The first sign came in the 1970s shortly after she and her husband, Bill, bought their home.
“The house came with mustard yellow paint in every room and I wanted to get rid of it, so I started writing,” Joan recalls.
She sold her first story in 1973 to a diaper magazine for $25 and bought paint.
“Two gallons of paint cost $18.75 and the yellow paint was really hard to cover, so I had to write more,” says Joan, who mostly wrote humorous family-related stories or pieces about women for newspapers and Catholic publications. Her $300 share from a book written with a friend bought a washing machine. Her career grew in the 1980s with stories for national magazines and regular column gigs.
In the 1990s, Joan landed on The New York Times best-seller list, transported, in a sense, on the wings of angels. The author started compiling angel stories after one of her five children told about his car breaking down on a snowy night around Christmas, and a tow truck appearing out of nowhere to pull him to safety and then disappearing without leaving tire tracks. While she remembers being skeptical that anyone would buy a book of angel stories, her 1993 book, “Where Angels Walk: True Stories of Heavenly Visitors,” spent 55 weeks on The New York Times best-seller list, sold more than 2 million copies and was translated into 17 languages.
Suddenly, angels were hot. Joan appeared on Oprah's TV show and others. She was in demand as an inspirational speaker. “Touched By An Angel” came to TV. An entire cottage industry started hawking books, statues, gifts and anything with a halo. And Joan wrote seven more books about angels.
Now 73, the grandmother of five started getting signs for a new book that, once again, struck her as a dubious topic.
“I just rolled my eyes and said, ‘Dog Angels?'” Joan recalls, after hearing about a “dog angel” helping someone. Then she started thinking how a dog, which is God spelled backward, gives unconditional love, is man's best friend and lifts spirits.
“Dogs are beloved creatures and they have the same attributes angels do,” says Joan, who researched the story of 19th Century Saint John Bosco, who is said to have been protected for three decades by a large, mysterious dog that would appear whenever he was threatened. Joan compiled stories from newspapers and interviewed dozens of people who told about dogs showing up to save lost children, alerting parents to a baby in danger, fending off potential rapists and murderers, taking part in miraculous survival stories and helping people cope with problems.
Her latest book, “Angelic Tails: True Stories of Heavenly Canine Companions,” published by Loyola Press, was named a finalist Tuesday in the USA Book News “Best Books 2011” Awards. Fans are giving her more stories of dogs that people insist are heaven-sent.
It's well-documented that dogs can pull people from burning houses, warn of earthquakes and help people heal. Fiction has given us the “hounds of hell” and the cartoon movie “All Dogs Go To Heaven.” But dog angels?
Whether you believe in canine angels, regular old angels, God or dogs doesn't really matter to Joan.
“It's not up to me, saying yes or no,” says Joan, who has used her books to promote charities and good deeds.
The Catholic Church has decreed that dogs don't have souls, so it doesn't spend time contemplating the concept of doggy heaven or an angelic pooch.
“There is no official proclamation about whether dogs go to heaven,” says Father Jerry Jacob, pastor of the St. Edna Parish in Arlington Heights, where Joan is a member. “There are many ways we can experience God's love, and for many people that comes from pets. God speaks to us through all creations, whether it's a beautiful sunset, the color of the leaves or animals.”
While Jacob admits to bypassing last month's annual “Blessing of the Pets” at his church due to a heavy wedding schedule, the priest says he likes the message of Joan's book.
“What are angels? They are messengers from God,” Jacob says. “God can use all kinds of ways to communicate with us. I certainly don't want to limit God.”
Joan certainly will have enough material for a sequel if she desires. She currently posts stories on her www.joanwanderson.com website, and will be signing her latest book from noon to 2 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 12, at The Christian Shop, 325 E. Dundee Road in Palatine.
“She's a joy and a good draw,” says shop manager Michael Rheaume. He adds that dogs are allowed in the store — provided their behavior is angelic.