Main Street

Upcoming book caters to canines and their owners

By Mary Ann Cook

HELP FOR FIDO: Martha Alderson is more than halfway up the rocky road to publication. She's found an agent to help her market the book she's written in collaboration with animal behaviorist/therapist Angeline Siegel. Siegel specializes in anxiety and aggression problems in dogs.

The two met when Alderson and her husband, Bob, were asked by their vet to accept into their home a 2-year-old retriever with significant behavioral problems. They agreed and consulted Siegel for advice on training a dog with attitude. Since then, they have raised an 8-week-old rottweiler/golden retriever and a 7-month-old German shepherd using Siegel's methods. They already had a non-anxious cocker spaniel.

Martha Alderson was so taken with Siegel's methods and so frustrated with the lack of information about the developmental stages of dogs that she proposed a collaboration. She would write a book about dog development, armed with Siegel's experience and savvy.

And thus The Zen of Fido was born. Its subhead is "A Developmental Guide to a Happier and Healthier Canine Companionship." Their agent is Michael Snell, who is adroit in placing animal books, they hear.

Siegel lives in the Santa Cruz mountains with her husband and six dogs. She has a bachelor's degree in psychology, and her dog-training methods combine psychological tools, such as behavior modification, with homeopathy and other medicines.

AN ANCIENT ARGUMENT: An article in Scientific American in September titled "Scientists and Religion in America" drew an outpouring of letters to the editor, and Los Gatan Charlie Walton's response led all the rest when they were printed in the January issue.

An excerpt from his letter: "Belief means what you can bet on. I will bet on the theory of relativity, I will bet on evolution and natural selection. One cannot bet that God will protect the innocent, or that God will save a deserving life, or that God answers prayers.

"The best thing for us to do is get on with our daily work and creatively advance humankind's understanding. In that way we can hope to find the truth about God or whatever is behind it all."

Walton's own life reflects this credo. He's the one who made bar codes possible, leading to the creation of such innovations as cards used for entry into hotel rooms.

NOT A WHIT A BRIT: Apologies to Chris Christianson for labeling him a Brit. In reality, he was born in Chicago. It's his wife, Audrey, who's the Brit. His forebears were Vikings, traditional enemies of the Anglos and the Saxons.

Christianson was a nuclear engineer for GE until his retirement in 1985. He and Audrey met in Switzerland, where he was working and where she was living. The Christiansons were two who took advantage of the millennium trip to Victoria, British Columbia, sponsored by the Los Gatos-Saratoga Recreation Department.

The first night in Seattle brought a wonderful dinner aboard the Spirit of Washington Dinner Train. Then three nights at the Empress Hotel in Victoria and a trip to the Butchart Gardens with their lavish display of lights. It was absolutely magical, reports Audrey. Everything was well organized. The food was excellent, and people were friendly. The Empress is known for its high tea and that got high praise. The hotel is both luxurious and vast. Bessie Zachariou, another Los Gatan, said she and her sister, Dottie Lathuras, even got lost in it at first.

Other highlights: viewing the British Columbia Museum's exhibit of Native American culture of the region, and horse-drawn carriage rides around Victoria. New Year's Eve dinner at the hotel with big-band music for dancing was splendid, and the entertainment included plenty of good-natured Canada-U.S. rivalry.

Other Los Gatans attached to the Empress were Frank and Alice Schwoob, Merrill Wolfe and Frederick Albe. There may be others who signed on: These are the ones who registered through the rec department. Golden Gate Adventures is the tour sponsor. A commemorative cedar box was presented to each participant, to be used for holding mementos or burying, perhaps, in time-capsule fashion.

SHARKS COVER: Los Gatan Mark Gray has been commissioned to paint the first Sharks Magazine cover for the new year. He has done five covers for the Sharks thus far, and the oil originals hang in the team's executive office.

He has a natural proclivity for painting ice hockey because of the intensity and energy of the sport, to say nothing of the fact that he played the game himself. The current cover depicts Niklas Sundstrom, No. 24.

Gray has executed sports murals for sports clubs across the country, including one in the Mall of America in Minnesota. The magazine will be available at all Sharks games through January and at Bruni Gallery, 394 E. Campbell, Campbell, where other Gray paintings are to be found.

HAIL TO NEBRASKA: Here's to the University of Nebraska. Its football team was one of the tops in the nation this season. This note pays homage to my much-beloved predecessor in this newspaper niche, Bob Aldrich. Nebraska was his alma mater, and he always kept us up to date on its successes.

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