Throughout her career, Alison Pace's stories have been graced with the moniker of “dog lit”. But for Alison, many of the years spent writing novels about dogs, and essays about dogs, and book reviews about books about dogs were years spent without a dog of her own. Growing up in a house with no less than four dogs at a time, Alison is a lifelong lover of the animal with a wealth of memories for all the dogs she’s known. Living in New York City, though, has its dog-related difficulties, and pursuing the presence of dogs in her adult life found a way of becoming a lingering dream. In her new memoir, You Tell Your Dog First, Alison recounts, among other things, her decision to finally get a dog of her own: including the hunt for the perfect dog-friendly apartment, the extensive search for the appropriate breed, and the many adventures that come with dog-ownership.