In this memoir by author Glenn Plaskin, Katie, an adorable cocker spaniel, brings together a group of strangers into a loving family in New York City. Through trials including the September 11 attacks, five neighbors from three generations are united with the help of this queenly, affectionate and happily spoiled pup. Here, Plaskin tells the story in pictures.

Home sweet home: A view of Battery Park City on the tip of Mahattan, with the glass dome of the Winter Garden on the left, the marina in the middle, and the high-rise where I live on the right. The World Trade Center once stood across the street.

This is our first picture together. Katie was my first dog ever.

As a journalist, I'm often at the computer, typing. And so was Katie!

I often brought her into the office when I was working as a celebrity journalist for the New York Daily News. Here she is, asleep on the job.

I got to know my neighbor, Pearl, because I had so many questions about raising a dog, and Pearl and her husband had recently lost their own cocker spaniel. When Ryan and his father, John, moved in, Pearl became Ryan's adoptive grandmother. Here, she's about to referee one of Katie and Ryan's hallway races.

Katie and Ryan would snuggle together in his own bedroom in Pearl's apartment when John and I worked late.

Katie and Ryan at Katie's fifth birthday party.

In 2000, I wrote a cover story for Family Circle about how Katie brought hallway neighbors together as a family. From left: John, his son, Ryan, Pearl, Katie, and me.

Photo copyright ScottJonesPhotography.com

Katie never missed a kernel!

Ready for winter, with her favorite duck.

Ready for her close up on a chintz chair by famed interior designer Mario Buatta.

Katie reigning over her kingdom in the living room.

Katie watching TV in her favorite chair.

The birthday cakes got bigger and better every year. This is me and Katie outside in Battery Park City.

Katie in her Disney World T-shirt, wearing my favorite expression ever -- those eyes!

Having fun at the Family Circle photo shoot in Pearl's apartment

Photo copyright ScottJonesPhotography.com

Katie enjoyed indulging in the occasional sip of Champagne.

For families and animal lovers everywhere, Katie Up and Down the Hall is the transcendent tale of how three generations of strangers and an astutely intelligent dog create their own little family in a waterside community along the Hudson River.

Veteran journalist and celebrity interviewer Glenn Plaskin is the bestselling author of Horowitz: The Biography of Vladimir Horowitz and Turning Point: Pivotal Moments in the Lives of America's Celebrities. His profiles and columns have appeared in the New York Times, Daily News, San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Family Circle, US Weekly, Ladies Home Journal, Cosmopolitan, W, and Playboy.

Visit the author's web sites at glennplaskin.com and katiebook.com