My wife, Peggy, answered the telephone and a serious voice on the other end of the line inquired, "I'd like to reserve a room for a camel. Do you have one?"

"Boy, are you lucky," she cheerfully replied. "We just happened to have a cancellation. We can board anything that walks, creeps, crawls, swims, flies, slithers, or hops, as long as its not vicious or poisonous."

It was just another day at the American Pet Motel where dogs can sleep in brass beds and talk to their owners on Snoopy telephones. Where animals have midday cookie breaks and listen to piped-in "elevator" music. 

Where, if a German shepherd normally has a half-glass of beer at bedtime, beer will be provided and, if bacon and eggs is a Saint Bernard's breakfast fare, that's what he'll have as a guest at the pet motel. 

Leeds installed a soft-ice cream machine and sold 1,200 fat-free doggy ice cream - sundaes the first week. 

It's all done to make a pet's stay away from home safe and stress-free. Deluxe digs for pets have sprung up in many parts of the country, but Leeds's concept was the leader of the pack.

In 1968, Robert X. Leeds was an engineer with General Motors. Improved boarding care for animals was furthest from his mind. It was the death of his own pet in a kennel through carelessness that triggered his crusade to bring the pet-boarding industry into the twentieth century. 

After four years of research, he resigned his position as Director of Industrial Engineering and moved to Chicago to begin a frustrating search for funding and to experience the reluctance of those in the pet industry to accept change.

In 1972, Robert met Ray Kroc, founder of McDonalds Hamburgers, and together they built America's first multi-million dollar Pet Motel. 

Since then he has cared for over 250,000 pets of every kind. Here he has accumulated the wonderfully funny, and sometimes tragic, tales of America's love affair with the animal world. 

It is the story of a great dream and a greater betrayal. In "Love Is A Four Legged Word" he tells his story and theirs.

Jacket Design by Patrick J. Stoehr

Distributed to the trade by Biblio Distribution  -  a division of NBN  (800) 462-6420

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