TRIXIE KOONTZ: DOG OR ANGEL?

Koontz has written suspense novels, thrillers and science fiction [; HE WRITTEN 100 BOKS AND SOLD 400 MILLION COPIES!]. But a few years ago, he wrote his first nonfiction book - about a 60-pound golden retriever.

"She arrived with her name, Trixie. I joked sometimes that it sounded more like a stripper than a dog," Koontz reads.

"A Big Little Life" was Koontz's tribute to his dog, who lived less than 12 years.

"The more I watched her she seemed to be the embodiment of grace and more," reads Koontz.

The 65-year-old writer rarely does television interviews, but he granted this one in part because he wanted to talk about Trixie.

"And I kept being changed by this dog, by her exuberance," he says. "And it opened my eyes to how much I started turning off the beauty of the world out of busy-ness."

Trixie came to Koontz and his wife Gerda when she was three years old, from Canine Companions for Independence, an organization that trains assistance dogs. Trixie had helped a young woman who had lost both her legs before a joint injury forced her into retirement.

Koontz recalls a mystical moment with his dog, when they were lying in the hall staring into each others' eyes.

"And I said, 'I know what you really are.' And she raised her head up and gave me this strange expression," Koontz says. "And I said, you're not a dog. You're an angel.' And she shot to her feet and ran the length of this hall and stood at the far end."

"I actually had to get down on the floor and coax her to me," Koontz continues. "And I brought her to me and it had put the hairs up in the back of my neck. And I said, 'all right. I'll never say that to you again."

"I say in the book, I think she was a theophony, an entrance of God into my life."