Famous Journalist Dog Names

Yes, Marley is more likely named after a famous musician or famous Rastafarian than he is after a famous journalist and many people may know him better as the Lab that plays opposite Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson in the 2008 film, but few know that Marley’s story was based on truth, written by journalist John Grogan. 

The book, aptly titled, Marley and Me: Life and Love with the World’s Worst Dog, was a New York Times bestseller and for good reason. It chronicles the 13-year relationship between Grogan, his wife Jenny, and their habitually misbehaving Labrador, Marley. While at its surface both the film and book seem like entertaining tributes to over a decade of human-canine friendship, the narrative and emotional content underneath is what truly makes the story both relatable and memorable. 

Marley and Me highlights much of what there is to tell about dog ownership in serious depth. In the early stages, Grogan and his new wife seem to approach owning Marley as somewhat of a test run for their impending parenthood but they quickly find out that their dog is unlike others — he’s a complete menace with destructive tendencies and all. In great detail, Grogan describes the intricacies of Marley’s rambunctious nature and calamitous behavior, including his drive to eat just about everything within a reasonable proximity, both of which provide he and his wife nearly daily setbacks to overcome. He is so good at not listening and misbehaving that he even flunks out of obedience school. 

But the story’s most redeeming values don’t come from the entertainment of watching his owners handle the inevitable drama that ensues, it’s that despite his wild character, Marley seems to show his true character in the most important of moments, sharing in the loss of a miscarriage, welcoming children into the family, and being good company at times in between. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that Grogan’s first-person narrative is often brutally honest, that he and Jenny were not consistent and did not provide the ideal circumstances for Marley to become a better-behaved dog, regardless of his reckless nature — something many owners never truly come to terms with. 

Overall, it provides a much more life-like dynamic than many other more idyllic human-canine narratives, one that tends to champion truth more than it asserts maintained responsibility and in doing so, provides a real setting to appreciate the truth of dog ownership. We may never fully understand our dogs or get the best out of them when we truly want it, but at the end of the day, most dogs will stop at nothing to return the same amount of love and attention we give them, if not more, in the best way that they know how, and that in itself, is one of the greatest aspects of having a dog — despite their flaws (and ours for that matter), their love is unconditional. And who better to tell that story than one trained to remove bias and tell it how it is.