By the light of the dog

Dean Koontz chronicles the struggle between good and evil in his string of bestsellers. But in dogs, the author finds only good.

By Kyra Kirkwood

Trixie the Golden Retriever probably couldn't care less that she lives in a breathtaking mansion with panoramic views. Or, that the person rubbing her velvety ears is Dean Koontz, one of the most popular and praised authors of recent history.

All she seems to care about is that her dad is showering her with enough love to blanket that vast Pacific Ocean sparkling right outside the window.

Even before Koontz adopted Trixie more than five years ago, he had a profound fondness for dogs, along with a love of words and storytelling. Throughout his prolific career – he's up to popular novel number 43 and counting -- Koontz has given dogs main-character status in many of his mainstream and horror-genre novels, including Midnight, One Door Away From Heaven, and Watchers, to name a few.

"I have so much fun writing about the dog," Koontz says. "I just have an affinity for a dog point of view and for understanding how a dog looks at the world."

He put that to work in Dragon Tears, in which he wrote scenes in a dog's voice and viewpoint.

"When I finished, I thought I would love to write a book in which the whole book is written in the dog's point of view, in that special language I adapted for him," Koontz says. "That would be fun, but I don't know what a publisher would think of it."

Surprisingly, it took Koontz and his wife years to have a pup of their own. They were both so busy, they kept putting it off, afraid they didn't have the time.

"Then one day, I said to [my wife] Gerda, 'You know, we're going to be 90 and saying we can't take one yet, but we'll take one soon. We might as well plunge in and do it.' "

Before she became a Koontz, Trixie, now 8 years old, was a hard-working service dog trained at the Santa Rosa, Calif.-based Canine Companions for Independence. The organization provides service dogs—and a new leash on life—to scores of challenged individuals, some of whom are represented in the book Love Heels: Tales from Canine Companions for Independence, for which Koontz wrote the foreword. The pups often assist in mainstreaming the disabled, helping draw out autistic children and giving wheelchair-bound adults freedoms abound.

CCI showed up in Koontz' bestseller, Midnight, and for nearly 18 years, he has been deeply involved with CCI, donating his time, money and support to a cause he believes in wholeheartedly. A CCI campus in Oceanside, Calif., bears the Koontz name.

"It's been one of the more satisfying things we've ever done," he says of his and Gerda's involvement with CCI. "These dogs utterly change the lives of the people they're placed with."

He's doing his part, too. Inspired by a disabled fan who needed help providing medical care for her dog, Koontz is now working with CCI in creating a program to help fund surgery and major medical treatments for dogs—service and companion—of disabled people unable to afford such care.

"It combined our two areas of interests: disabled [people] and doggies."

On another personal level, CCI brought Trixie into their lives. After completing a rigorous training program, the personality-infused Golden was assigned to a Los Angeles woman who lost her legs in a traffic accident. But when Trixie began to limp and then needed surgery to correct a leg problem, she officially entered retirement. It was then that she came to live with Koontz and Gerda, high-school sweethearts, at the Southern California coast.

"She certainly changed our lives in a week," says Koontz, gazing at the honey-haired Trixie, sprawled out contentedly on the rug in his expansive, yet orderly, office. "She's more like a child than a child could be – a child who never grows up and is always innocent and sweet."

You might think that Trixie has gained the most from this relationship. After all, she enjoys lengthy grooming sessions akin to meditation for both dog and man, multiple walks each day, trips to restaurants, weekly baths, romps in the park, and modeling sessions for the dust jacket of her dad's latest novel. She even gets her fair share of fan mail.

But Koontz swears he and Gerda are the blessed ones.

"[Trixie] makes us stop and appreciate the smallest things in life," he says. "You find yourself noticing things more, paying more attention, instead of breezing by. That's a lesson [dogs] teach you.

"They reorient your head as to what's important. They teach you that little things, like tummy rubs, are important."

Like her dad, Trixie has a sharp sense of humor. Dealing with a mouse problem years ago, Koontz had a beast of a time setting those ever-snapping traps. But his concentration—and serious mood—shattered as he watched Trixie teasingly and dramatically back away from him lest she get nipped by a disobedient rodent catcher.

"Now, I know that was a joke," says Koontz with a boyish chuckle, noting how Trixie backpedaled for a span of 40 feet. "[It was like,] 'You can't be trusted with those traps, so I'm going way back here.' "

Another time, on one of their regular walks, Trixie became infatuated with a gardeners' truck. Koontz tried to keep her moving, but Trixie only ping-ponged her puzzled gaze between the truck and Koontz…until he finally understood.

Covering the large pile of yard clippings was a big blue tarp, in the exact shade of blue as Trixie's waste bags.

"It was like, 'Dad! How big is that dog?' I swear that's what she was thinking," says Koontz, a firm believer that dogs see colors.

It's also possible Trixie knows what Koontz is thinking. As he writes about in One Door Away from Heaven, dogs are more connected to us and this universe than we may believe. For example, Trixie always, always knows when she's invited out to dinner, even if no one utters a word or varies behavior.

"She just knows. And she's never wrong. It fascinates me," Koontz says. "It implies some rudimentary telepathic thing. People think you're nuts if you say that, but I've just seen too much evidence of it."

That dogs are feeling, loving beings, able to enhance our lives, is an issue Koontz finds vitally important. Unwaveringly modest, he refuses to harp on his contributions to society. But in true Dickensian fashion, he uses his literary prowess to educate people and make them think, especially on matters that are near and dear to his heart.

Take Watchers, for example. The main character, battling his own demons, meets a genetically enhanced dog that dramatically alters his path in life.

"This dog was going to change him," Koontz says.

As Trixie has changed him.

"We've been busier than ever, but yet in a curious way, she slows us down because [we] have to do things for her and take the time for her," he says. Koontz reaches down to stroke Trixie's silky head — she's never far from his side – and she gives him a grateful lick in return, gazing up at him with her ever-adoring, soulful eyes.

"If you dedicate yourself to a dog, it does make you a better person," Koontz says. "The joy they have, it's contagious."

Kyra Kirkwood is a DOG FANCY contributing editor and lives in Fullerton, Calif.

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Koontz's novels, which have been translated into more than 38 languages, have sold in excess of 250 million copies worldwide. This makes him one of the most popular and successful authors of all time.