Leading a dog’s life

Danette Goulet

Lexi has been to 15 Broadway shows. She has been to Paris and Italy

and travels to New York every month.

Lexi is a 1 1/2-year-old pug.

This sweet, quiet pup is the companion of 8-year-old Kelsey Woo of

Newport Beach and the subject of her recently published book, “The

Adventures of Lexi: Lexi Goes to Paris.”

Both clearly are living a dream.

As a second-grader at Harbor Day School, Kelsey does not yet quite

realize that she has accomplished something others spend a lifetime

working toward.

“She was never really excited until a box arrived at the front door

with the first 50 books in it,” said her mother, JoLynne Woo, who has

been her daughter’s partner in the project. “When she saw the first book,

she started screaming.”

Before that, Woo said, it was just as if she had written a story for

school.

The book chronicles the dog’s trip to France with the family last

summer but tells a fictitious story. Publishers set the story up as a

child’s scrap book of the adventure using pictures the family had taken.

The idea to write a book came after the mother and daughter read books

about Felix, a stuffed cat whose owner takes it everywhere. From each

place, Felix writes a letter home, Kelsey said.

“I said you should get a stuffed animal and write a book,” Woo said.

Instead, for her tale, Kelsey drew upon her own rather charmed life.

Since she was 10 months old, Kelsey’s parents have taken her with them

to Europe every year.

But she always missed the two family dogs, Dahli, a Lhasa apso, and

Carly, a boxer. So on one of the family’s monthly trips to New York, they

bought Lexi as a Christmas present for Kelsey.

Since then, Lexi has gone everywhere with the trio and the book idea

resurfaced.

Three weeks after they started, the first book was done.

“We had a rhyming book, and we made [“Lexi Goes to Paris”] rhyme a

little,” Kelsey said.

With the first one such a success, they started writing the next book,

“Lexi goes to Italy,” on the plane ride home. The duo already has plans

for a third book -- “Lexi Goes to New York.”

Beyond a July 8 book signing planned at Barnes & Noble Booksellers in

Newport Beach and her next several books, Kelsey is not sure what it all

means or what her future is.

As for Lexi, she has traveled more places and seen more things than

most people -- she even has a mink coat.

When they are not traveling, Kelsey still sees to Lexi’s excitement.

“I usually just play with her,” Kelsey said. “Sometimes we give her a

bath and we dress her up. Sometimes when I go [skateboarding], I put her

in front of me and she goes down the hill with me.”