John Grogan: Turning the Ordinary into Extraordinary

06 Oct 2012

Author(s)	John Grogan

We all love our dogs, but there’s always that one dog who has a profound effect on our lives. For John Grogan, that dog was Marley.

Marley came into John’s life when he and his wife, Jenny, were living in Florida. Before John and Jenny knew it, their adorable yellow lab puppy had evolved into a destructive, unpredictable 100 pound dog, who would eat everything in his path — from sofas to 18-carat gold necklaces. In fact, Marley’s behavior was so out of line he was expelled from obedience class, earning himself the title of “World’s Worst Dog” by John. Despite all of Marley’s destruction, John still describes him as extraordinarily loyal and lovable.  He was truly man’s best friend.

Marley had a profound impact on the Grogans’ lives and shaped their family dynamic, so when he passed away in December 2003 of bloat, he left a hole in their hearts.

“Your rational side can say, ‘it’s just a dog, it’s just an animal’ but really, anyone who’s owned a dog knows you don’t just replace them like you replace an appliance that breaks — they are a part of the family,” said John. “They are so loyal that it’s hard not to return that sense of loyalty. And so saying goodbye is very hard, it’s a struggle.”

But when John started writing Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World’s Worst Dog, he thought it would be just a funny dog story. As he wrote, he realized that it was more than that. The book evolved into a story about the early stages of his marriage and how Marley, a rambunctious labrador retriever, became the catalyst who would help shape his family. The book later became an international bestseller and a feature film.

For John, Marley and Me was a work of heart. He wasn’t expecting the book to have the huge audience it received. “I guess it’s very hard, especially for a first time author, to think anyone is going to want to read about my life. I’m just an average guy,” he said.

Not surprisingly, the book has since sold millions of copies and was #1 on the New York Times bestseller list for 23 weeks. Marley & Me has become an industry phenomenon and in December 2008, as a tribute to the book’s success, Marley and Me became a hit movie starring Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson.

“Your rational side can say, ‘it’s just a dog, it’s just an animal’ but really, anyone who’s owned a dog knows you don’t just replace them like you replace an appliance that breaks — they are a part of the family,”

According to John, pets and humans are so intertwined that it is impossible to separate them from each other. From the very first page of his book, he realized it would be impossible to tell the story of Marley without telling the story of his marriage. “Before I knew it, I was writing a book about a couple growing up together and figuring life out and figuring out responsibilities with Marley, this crazy dog in the midst of it all,” he said.

Nine months after Marley passed away, John and his family brought Gracie, another yellow lab, into their home and into their hearts. “She was the opposite of Marley. She was a very calm, focused hunting stock labrador,” he said. She accompanied John on various tv appearances such as Good Morning America and the Today Show. She also appeared on the back cover of many copies of John’s children’s books. On his website and blog, JohnGroganBooks.com, he lovingly described her as the “anti-Marley,” she was “well-behaved to the point of being a little boring.” Boring or not, the Grogan family adored her.

A few years later the producer and director of the movie, Marley and Me gave the Grogan family, Woodson, one of the puppies that played Marley in the movie. “I like to joke that he got his fifteen minutes of fame and he was retired at the age of 15 weeks old. He’s a very happy-go-lucky kind of dog and he just makes us laugh; he’s such a funny, lovable dog,” John said. “At this stage in our lives, he is the perfect dog for us; he likes to sit on our laps and nap with us.”

Unfortunately, Gracie passed away last year due to a rare antibody reaction to Lyme disease that caused her to go into kidney failure. “She was only six so it was particularly sad for us because she was so young,” John remembered.

After Gracie died, Woodson also felt the pang of loss. “He kind of just became lazy and I really do think that dogs get depressed when they lose a partner; he was just lying around the house. We could not get him to exercise and he didn’t want to walk on a leash,” John recalled.

Wallace, their newest addition, (who is also a yellow lab) has changed that. John describes him as an “adorably cute puppy — he’s funny and he’s got a real lively personality.” Now Woodson has a new partner in crime to keep him company. “It actually feels like he’s got his mojo back. He’s got his little friend and it’s all good,” said John. Wallace and Woodson are cousins (they share the same grandfather) and are definitely two peas in a pod.

Since the book came out, John’s viewpoint on dogs has taken a more philosophical approach. “I realized that my very bad dog, who cost me thousands of dollars, really provided me with what I needed to write the book I wanted to write. So as I like to joke, ‘he paid me back in the end’,” John said. “It’s a reminder that the rewards are very great and far outpace any cost associated with dogs in our lives.”

Following the success of Marley and Me, John also wrote The Longest Trip Home, a book about John’s upbringing in a large and loving, yet conservative Catholic family. “The Longest Trip Home was really a story I knew for a long time I needed to tell. Somewhat like how Marley and Me was,” John said.
The Longest Trip Home follows John from his childhood to becoming a married man with children and finally to the end of his father’s life. “In a way it’s closer to my heart than Marley and Me just because it deals with my parents and my growing up years and that painful period that we all go through as children when we break away from our parents’ sphere of influence as young adults and go our own way,” explains John.

Thanks to the success of Marley and Me, John has become a self-employed writer. “I try to work on my own stuff, be there for my family and just try to live a balanced life,” John said. Currently, he has another Marley-themed children’s book coming out and is working on a new adult piece. He is also an adjunct professor at Lehigh University, where he teaches one non-fiction writing class per semester.

We are faced with challenges everyday and how we handle these challenges defines who we are as people. Instead of giving up on Marley when things got hard, John chose to embrace the challenges Marley threw his way and allowed himself to learn from the lessons presented in those challenges.

By looking at the big picture, his ‘ordinary’ life struck a chord with millions of readers and created a platform that is no less than extraordinary. “Take a deep breath and look for the humor in their hard-to-control behavior. Who knows, you might get a book out of it someday!,” John advises.

John now lives on 20 acres in the Pennsylvania countryside in a restored 18th century farmhouse the success of the book and movie helped provide. Everyday is a constant reminder to John about the one very special and unique labrador retriever who changed his life forever, demonstrating with the right outlook what others might consider ordinary can be turned into something extraordinary.