Dogs Don’t Send Flowers and other stories

In Dogs Don’t Send Flowers by Gary Beck, Ken Kensington is a professor of theater who broke away from his family’s long line of pre-arranged occupations for the first two born sons. He left his distraught family and inheritance behind to make a go of it alone in New York City. Good luck found him when he obtained a well-to-do apartment, due to an error by the landlord, and he adopted a puppy from his neighbors, naming him Pard. Pard became the epitome of man’s best friend for Ken.
Eventually, almost everything starts going right for Ken. He gets a wonderful girlfriend after many duds, his job as a professor at the theater college is on the upswing, and his “other job” as a clown along the sidewalk is still proving to be very profitable. One thing remains amiss though: Pard’s desire to “sate his appetite.”

Beck’s book reads very smoothly, with each chapter having the option of being read independently as its own short story. The nature of each story could be seen as offensive since Beck focuses most of his attention on sex for Ken and Pard.