Author Fayhee throws us to the dogs Colorado Mountain Dogs

Like most Colorado mountain towns, Crested Butte loves its pooches. They’re treated to doggie spas, play dates, daycare, have their own rager parties and birthday celebrations and when they leave us, the town mourns.
Crested Butte dogs are toughened athletes, romping through rugged terrain and beautiful high alpine meadows, swimming in cold rivers, and just being an integral part of the family. They are definitely some of the happiest dogs in the known universe.
As part of his whirlwind ten-day mountain town tour, author John Fayhee, former long-time editor of the Mountain Gazette, will read from his new release, Colorado Mountain Dogs, on Friday, June 27 at 5 p.m. at Townie Books/Rumors Tea and Coffee House on Elk Avenue.
The reading will also include slideshows, dog adoptions, and dog treats from Zuke’s, and, of course, Fayhee will be autographing copies of his book. The tour is, in part, a fundraiser to bring awareness of homeless dogs. Some of the proceeds from the event will be donated to Oh-Be-Dogful animal rescue. You can also donate to the cause at Townie Books.
The book is a tribute and reflection on dogs’ lives at altitude portrayed in heartwarming, silly, and astounding photos taken during every season, various environments and climates.
Every breed you would expect to see in a mountain setting is represented—funny-faced labs doing what they do best, huskies and malamutes buried up to their eyeballs in powder and tiny pups in backpacks. There are canines perched precariously on rocky summits and frolicking in wildflowers. Crested Butte is well represented as quite a few Buttian bowsers are pictured, some of whom have passed on.
It’s a dog’s-eye-view of the backcountry, ski slopes, and resort towns in the Colorado mountains with 150 photos of happy canines, heartwarming stories and sidebars on how to photograph dogs, reasons why people have dogs, the naming of dogs, and more.
The photos are a culmination of the Mountain Gazette’s favorite annual dog issue. Every year for the five years the beloved dog issue ran, Fayhee had literally thousands of owner-submitted entries of their dogs. He culled from those some of the favorites and many of the very best, adding his tales and thoughts along with contributions of several of the Mountain Gazette feature writers, like local George Sibley.
The result is a fun read complemented by some very entertaining and unleashed dogs. Fayhee notes that the book is about 60 percent photos and 40 percent verbiage, and that the concept came about when his publishers asked if had any more ideas for a book.
“I had 2,500 dog photos. Everyone thinks their dog is the greatest in the world. It took a lot of corralling and organizing, having to contact everyone. I wrote the introduction, how to take photos, and naming and training dogs. There’s a reasonable amount of text. It sort of looks dirt-baggish,” he laughs.
But the end result is charming and, important for mountain folk, affordable and definitely a subject they can relate to. “There are a fair number of photos of Crested Butte dogs. I wanted to make sure I had different kinds of dogs, mutts, big and small, and featured in geo-diversity.”
Fayhee comments that the Mountain Gazette dog issue’s success was a surprise. “I thought it was going to be a one-time deal but it turned out to be annual,” he says of its popularity and adds, “It became a mainstay. It didn’t suck to do it. We didn’t make it look like an LL Bean catalog. The ghost of the Mountain Gazette is apparent in the pages of this book.”
M. John Fayhee is a two-time Colorado Book Award finalist, former contributing editor of Backpacker magazine and author of many books, including the Colorado Mountain Companion, Smoke Signals, Bottoms Up, and Along The Colorado Trail. He was editor and contributor for the Mountain Gazette for well over a decade. Fayhee’s hope is that readers will enjoy this book and be inspired to adopt a dog or donate to a shelter.
Check out a preview and Fayhee’s tour schedule by searching Colorado Mountain Dogs on Facebook. Colorado Mountain Dogs by M. John Fayhee, WestWinds Press, 126 pages with color photographs, $16.99.