Long time Tripawds followers and viewers of Nature's Why We Love Cats and Dogs are well aware of a certain Mutts cartoon that summarized my outlook on life. What they may not know is that this strip was inspired by the teachings of Eckhart Tolle. Well, him and the creator's Jack Russell Terrier, Earl.

My pack was lucky enough to meet Mutts creator Patrick McDonnell at the Tattered Cover book store in Denver, CO recently. He was doing his first signing for the new book Guardians of Being, featuring Mutts artwork, the words of Eckhart Tolle, and that strip we love so much.

Patrick read passages from Guardians of Being and his new children's book Wag! He also drew some favorite Mutts characters for the crowd and took some time to chat with Jim about the Mutts strip and the Nature program in which Jim mentioned it. René caught it all on video …

As you can see, that lucky dog Wyatt got some good belly rubs from Patrick. Jim and René got their books signed, and owe Patrick a special thanks for the signed drawing of Guard Dog running free. We'll be publishing a detailed review for Guardians of Being soon in the Tripawds Amazon Selections blog, so stay tuned for that. We just need Jim to put the book down long enough to write a review. But he just keeps reading it from cover to cover, again and again, with a big serene grin on his face!