Therapy, self-help groups, religion, meditation: All these techniques and more can help us get rid of our inner demons. But all of them put together can’t equal the healing impact of our pets – their effortless lust for life and untiring devotion. At least that’s what Ed Breslin discovered in his dog Dutchie. While struggling with clinical depression and addiction, Breslin discovered the black Lab to be a powerful role model and teacher. She made such a difference in his life that he decided to write a book about her. The result is his memoir, Drinking with Miss Dutchie. Breslin will read excerpts from his book at the Kleinert/James Art Center this Sunday, July 31 at 3 p.m. The event is being sponsored by the Golden Notebook.

Raised in North Philadelphia in a large Irish Catholic family, Breslin recounts his lifelong struggles with alcoholism and depression, as well as his loving 30-year-marriage to his wife Lynn. A former editor and publisher, Breslin now writes and edits full-time. He and Lynn, who teaches Design at Parsons, split their time between New York City and Coxsackie.

Here’s what a reviewer at the Los Angeles Times had to say about Breslin’s memoir: “Her absence is the greatest presence in my life,” writes Ed Breslin of the dog who saved him from so many of his demons. In April 1994, Breslin brought Miss Dutchie, a Lab puppy, home as a present for his wife Lynn. The love that this larger-than-life Irishman had (and has) for the dog he and his wife lived and played with for 12 ½ years transformed him. Not only did Miss Dutchie’s distaste for cigarette smoke help him quit, but her flair for fun chased away an old and lumbering darkness in his soul – perhaps the result of being one of 12 children and not getting enough affection, perhaps the result of a career in the collapsing world of publishing. It was a darkness that 34 years of therapy could not dispel. But from the moment Breslin turned his considerable tenderness on this little wailing puppy, life was different. Breslin writes with an elegant simplicity, still raw from Miss Dutchie’s death (he begins this memoir just four weeks after he and Lynn are forced to euthanize his ailing ‘girlfriend.’) The book is a sweet, sad tribute to that purest of all relationships.”

For more on this Sunday’s reading, call the Golden Notebook at (845) 679-8000 or write to info.goldennotebook@gmail.com.