I interview Emilio Ortiz accompanied by his inseparable dog Spook in a restaurant in Valencia. Emilio Ortiz was born in Barakaldo, Vizcaya, in September 1974. He has a degree in History. Started posting on 2015, year in which he won second prize in the I International Spring Muses Contest with the story A Smile. Just a year later, won first prize in the XI Edition of the ANADE Short Story Awards with The anguish of a drawing. After publishing Through my little eyes, in 2016, I ask him about his next book. Life with a dog is happier (Today's Topics). Dedicated to Isi, who accidentally traveled to a bigger and hopefully more beautiful place. GINÉS J. VERA
How did the idea of writing this second book come about?, Life with a dog is happier?
How do you know, we come from a fictional story based on the life of a guide dog, Through my little eyes, which is a made up story that could be perfectly real, because it is Mario's life in itself, a young blind man whose guide dog tells his story and his adventures, What is happening to this dog and human couple?.
And after this book there were things out there that kept floating in my head, ideas that I thought should not stay floating there, in my head, but they should take shape and the shape they have taken is the shape of this book that the name itself says.: life with a dog is happier.
I also don't want the title to say it all, so I invite readers to discover it for themselves., if you want them to check it, indeed, “Life with a dog is happier”; There are people who do not share life with a dog, But those who do share it give them the opportunity to corroborate it through the pages of this book and also give them my point of view., that they can have fun, especially with many anecdotes that people who live with dogs have told me and also with professional stories about guide dogs, police dogs, etc.
I see that there are curiosities in the book, For example, that the faithful canine companion of Simón Bolívar, snowy, He even has a statue in his honor in a town in Venezuela.
Bueno, that is a part in which apart from telling the historical part of the canine domestication process, how the dog approached primitive man until today, until we live in our homes with a very advanced functional intelligence, and within that part dedicated to the historical process of domestication there is a small section that I dedicate to what certain dogs have influenced some political leaders, religious, historical figures, How dogs have influenced their lives and therefore in making very important decisions. We talk about Simón Bolívar's dog but also about Hitler himself, a historical figure capable of exterminating millions of people, of having persecuted them for their political ideology, because of his sexual orientation, because of a terrible hatred towards the Jews, Besides that, he was capable of loving Blondie the way he wanted., his mascot, to a dog. Even Hitler, who would be the closest thing to the contemporary devil, had that loophole of I don't know what to call him..
What do we still have to learn from our four-legged friends despite having lived with them for thousands of years??
I think we should improve our ability to capture the messages that dogs give us.. When they are physical needs we understand them very well., a dog barks at us when he is hungry or licks his lips too much when he is thirsty, but then we are not fully capable and that is what I talk about in the book of capturing the messages when they are asking us for affective and emotional needs.. Dogs need affection, sometimes they are asking you for a caress or sometimes just the opposite, that you leave them alone, I also talk in the book about how there are times when we think that because they have developed a lot as a species and have developed emotional intelligence, they are like us and they are not like us.. There are times when you go to give a dog a hug and you are overwhelming him., Those types of messages are what I think we should learn.
