Jim Castelize III
Author • Ghostwriter • Dog Dad
Bulldog Books
My Story
I never set out to become a dog-book author.
Honestly, I didn’t even set out to have these dogs.
Xena arrived first — smart, watchful, absurdly capable, and eventually trained as my diabetic-alert service dog. She became my partner in a way I never expected.
Then Roxi showed up: an Olde English Bulldogge with a complicated past, a giant personality, absolutely no respect for household policy, and the firm belief that every situation can be improved with food.
Somewhere along the way, they stopped being “the dogs.”
They became the girls.
And apparently, the girls had material.
Life with Roxi and Xena is a constant collision between competence and chaos. Xena approaches the world like she has a security clearance. Roxi approaches it like she has retained counsel. One monitors my blood sugar, travels with me, and takes her responsibilities very seriously. The other has strong opinions about breakfast schedules, delivery drivers, vegetables, household appliances, and basically anything occurring within her jurisdiction.
I started writing their stories because there were simply too many of them not to.
Those stories eventually became the heart of Bulldog Books, an AQ-BOOKS imprint built for humor, dogs, chosen family, messy life, and the kind of stories that leave paw prints all over everything.
My first Bulldog Books project, Everything We Know About Humans Is Wrong, lets Roxi and Xena tell their version of events — which is brave of me, considering neither of them believes I am particularly qualified to run the household.
And there are more stories coming.
Roxi’s Guide to Midlife Reinvention explores life according to a bulldog who has somehow confused surviving adversity with earning an MBA in human behavior. Beauty & The Beefcake looks at the strange, funny, deeply loving relationship between two dogs who could not be more different. And somewhere down the road, Love Me, Love My Dogs may finally document what happens when you try dating while two extremely opinionated dogs conduct the interview.
I’m technically the author.
Sometimes the ghostwriter.
Frequently the chauffeur.
Always Dad.
And if Roxi and Xena have anything to say about it — and God knows they do — this is only the beginning.
“I thought I was adopting dogs. Apparently, I was hiring two extremely opinionated co-authors.” - Jim Castelize III
“Xena keeps me alive. Roxi makes sure I remember why that matters.”- Jim Castelize III
“The best stories in my life usually involve dog hair, bad decisions, and somebody barking at me.” - Jim Castelize III
WHAT JIM CASTELIZE III BELIEVES
-
Dogs are family.
Not accessories. Not property with paws. Family — with needs, personalities, trauma, boundaries, and occasionally very aggressive opinions about breakfast. -
Adoption changes two lives.
Giving an animal a second chance can completely rewrite their story. Sometimes, without warning, they rewrite yours too. -
Humor is survival equipment.
Life gets heavy. Grief gets ugly. Sometimes healing looks profound. Sometimes it looks like a bulldog farting herself awake. -
Different doesn’t mean less.
Xena and Roxi could not be more different, and neither needs to become the other. The things that make them wildly incompatible on paper are exactly what make them work as a family. -
Love is usually inconvenient.
It sheds. It drools. It steals your pillow, rearranges your schedule, destroys expensive things, and somehow convinces you that six inches of mattress is plenty. -
The best families aren't always planned.
Some are born. Some are chosen. Some show up unexpectedly, sit on your foot, refuse to leave, and eventually become the entire story.