Mornings with Barney: The True Story of an Extraordinary Beagle Book

“I enrolled Barney in obedience school. If I had known how being ‘bad’ would be part of his charm and would add to his success on camera, I might have given this more thought. I was impressed with the legendary school’s sales pitch, including their money-back guarantee. But when I said my dog was a beagle, there was dead silence on her end of the phone . . . then a good-natured laugh. ‘I was just kidding about the guarantee.’”

Television reporter Dick Wolfsie was walking out his front door on the way to the studio one wintry morning when he found a shivering beagle pup on his front steps. Dick placed the stray inside the house and was off to work. When he returned four hours later, his wife and young son were cleaning up what remained of the shredded couch, the living room curtains, and his wife’s favorite high heels.

The family would soon demand that Dick either take the dog to work with him each day or find the troublemaker a minimum security facility. So, off to the station they went. And ultimately Barney nosed his way in front of the camera with Dick. Soon the dynamic duo would make TV history.

For ten years—more than 2,500 morning news shows—fans watched the renegade pooch chew, howl, and dig his way through every one of Dick’s reports. But he also burrowed his way into everybody’s heart, becoming a beloved media star.

Mornings with Barney is a hoot from start to finish, but more than this, it is the moving story of a mischievous pooch who touched and brightened the lives of an entire community.

Publishers Weekly

Syndicated humor columnist Wolfsie pens an insightful and delightfully unsentimental biography of his dog, Barney, who became a legendary figure in central Indiana. When Wolfsie was a television feature reporter during the 1970s, he awoke one morning to the sounds of a howling stray beagle. After taking him in-and coming home from work to find that the dog had shredded a good deal of his house-Wolfsie began taking the newly named Barney to work with him, where his on- and off-set antics became the hit of the show, leading to a new "human/canine team" whose adventures lasted for more than a decade (the station management especially liked it when Barney, on-air, relieved himself on a competing station's advertising). Barney appeared at schools and state fairs, fulfilling the mission that Wolfsie describes as the unique ability "to touch lives." In the end, while it is deeply moving when Barney dies, it is sadder still-for both author and reader-as Wolfsie cogently observes how corporate cutbacks in news operations have ended the era when such features as the onscreen antics of a lovable beagle were an integral part of local newscasts. (Feb.)