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I left my career as a newspaper features writer behind in 2001 to write the first of my four books, "Cookoff: Recipe Fever in America". For a year I crisscrossed the country interviewing chili heads, cowboys, state fair cooking champs, and a few cheats. Next I headed to Moorpark Community College in southern California, where the top school for exotic animal trainers can be found, for "Kicked Bitten and Scratched".
My book chronicles the year I shadowed students through this improbable, magical, grueling program. I met my first binturong. I went on walks with the baboons, the cougars and the wolf. I learned a lot about every species, including our own, which became apparent when I wrote a column for the New York Times on how I improved my marriage by using animal training techniques I had learned at the school. That column became the basis for my next book, "What Shamu Taught Me About Life, Love and Marriage."
With my most recent book I returned again to the intersection of animal and human behavior. In "Rescuing Penny Jane" I wrote about my many years as a shelter volunteer working with dogs and what it would take to find all these lovely critters the homes they deserve. I never had to look far for inspiration as my two canine assistants, Walter Joe and Penny Jane, kept me company in my office everyday.
