National Network for Equitable Library Service

My mom used to be somebody, but she doesn't want to remember who that was. She was in movies, on T.V., she made records, and was an underwear model. My dad is a writer — or at least he sleeps at the computer a lot. "Jinky's "mom" and "dad" might be complainers, but Jinky is just happy to be alive. He enjoys every minute and he can't understand why his lucky, pampered Hollywood parents and their show business friends are such miserable whiners. After all, Jinky's life started badly: My life began in a cage in San Pedro, California. Some creepy guy bought me for his stupid wife and she didn't want me. . . . One night, the guy took me to the pound. They threw me into a cold, wet crate and slammed the gate. . . . I was scheduled to be 'put down' or, as I like to say, murdered. But I got lucky." Now Jinky lives in a beautiful house in the Hollywood Hills. He has a pool and a Jacuzzi and sports cars and a fat blond terrier girlfriend named Finley who loves to lick his ears. Jinky went from an unloved and abandoned pet to sleeping in bed with his mom (a former Pet herself, in Penthouse — she looks good) and eating delicious food off his dad's plate (his mom cooks good, too). Jinky knows what's important in life, and he wishes his mom and dad could stop worrying about their status in Hollywood and enjoy life as much as he does. He can't understand why show business people are always so unhappy, especially the funny ones. Every "pitch" meeting Jinky overhears, every Hollywood dinner he eavesdrops on, every Hollywood barbecue, lunch and casual encounter in coffee shops is another chance for these people to bitch and moan about "the business."But Jinky's "tail" is not just about his hilariously self-obsessed parents and their friends. And his message is not just that happiness is not about how much we have, but how we love. His is a tale about how hope, perseverance and even one small act of kindness can change a life.