Perino - Let me tell you about Jasper ...: how my best friend became Americas dog

GREG : Actress Eva Mendes tells New York magazine that she wishes the tabloids would blur the faces of her dog Hugo, like British rags do with celebrities kids.

She says, Ill go somewhere and theyll be like, Hey, Hugo. And Im like, How do you know Hugos name? Thats so creepy.

To throw off the paparazzi, she now has someone else walk Hugo.

Dana, I go to you first for no particular reason whatsoever. Why must your friends, family, and Twitter followers be kept abreast of everything your precious Jasper does?

DANA : I know that Im a dog bore, but I embrace it. It gives me great joy. I love all the pictures. And you know what? Ill make Jasper Americas Dog. He is for everybody, and Ill share him with the world.

Look at that face! And hes got that little ear and hes so cute!

People adore Jasper and they say, dont stop tweeting pictures of Jasper just because Greg Gutfeld makes fun of you.

GREG : Would you want your dogs face blurred?

DANA : No. Actually, you know what? People recognize Jasper more than they recognize me at the park, and I love that.

Theyre like, OMG is that Jasper!? We love Jasper.

So I think I have finally achieved something in life. Finally!

W hen I wrote And the Good News Is, I had an entire chapter about dogsthe ones I grew up with in Wyoming and Colorado, the one I had to give away at college, and the ones Ive raised with my husband. I loved that chapter. I was proud of it, too. It had great detail, funny stories, and descriptions of the life lessons Id learned from being around dogs (more, I think, than Ive learned from humans). I thought it fit perfectly into my book that blended my memoir with my best career advice.

The problem was, my editor, Sean Desmond, needed me to cut about ten thousand words from the draft manuscript. I spent a weekend trying to trim off that length, but the text was pretty tight. I got frustrated. I couldnt find a way to delete that much copy.

Finally, I stepped back and took a long look at the dog chapter. It was several thousand words long. I eyed it for the chopping block, but I couldnt bring down the hatchet. I slept on it (the book, not the hatchet). The deadline loomed.

I used my foolproof method of decision-making, praying for a clear idea of how to solve my problem. When I woke up, I knew what I needed to do.

I printed the dog chapter and took it with me to Seans office near Grand Central Station in Manhattan.

This may be the hardest thing I do, and it is breaking my heart, I said. But here you go. You can have the dog chapter. Without it, we can make the word count.

I tossed the chapter onto his desk.

While Sean isnt a dog person, he knew it was quite a sacrifice.

I think this is the right decision, he said. And I promise you, one day there will be a dog book.

And true to his word, here we are.

So let me tell you about Jasperhow my best friend became Americas Dog.