Did Michael Vick inspire Berkeley Breathed?
In a way, yes. Breathed, the Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist and children's book author, has a new illustrated novel, "Flawed Dogs: The Shocking Raid on Westminster," about a Dachshund, Sam the Lion, who is thrown into a pound and fights to be reunited with his human friend Heidy.
The story is about Sam's plan to infiltrate the Westminster Dog Show, but it explains the fate that some dogs are forced to experience - everything from being shot at to being sold to research labs to being put in horrible shelters. Seeing what happened to some of Vick's dogs gave Breathed the inspiration for his book, published by Philomel Books.
In an interview with CNN, he said, "The book happened because I came across both a picture and a quote at about the same time -- a picture of one of Michael Vick's fight dogs. It was set to be put down, but a shelter in Utah decided to take the dog and a few others at the same time and try to rehabilitate them. ...
"This was the first time the dog had ever received any affection in its life. ... It's the most moving picture of a dog I've ever seen, having gone through an impossible transition and fallen back to where dogs naturally go, which is just loving people."
Breathed, who produced the "Bloom County" and "Opus," cartoon strips, has rescued a number of dogs over the years with his wife, Jody. He expresses that love in "Flawed Dogs."
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