Maggie Dog, by way of Sally Deneen and Robert McClure

Maggie Dog’s lifelong pursuit of the most hound-hospitable parks, beaches, lodgings, and restaurants in Florida has sent her far and wide—from the nation’s southernmost Point in Key West to the broad beaches of Greater Jacksonville, from the state’s tallest “mountain” in the Panhandle to the sidewalk cafes of South Beach. As part of her research, Maggie Dog felt the wind brush her black-and-tan fur during rides in airboats, canoes, and shuttle buses. She also snoozed in historic lodgings and stared at her human companions’ knees from her below-table vantage point at some of Florida’s best restaurants.

Maggie never managed to learn to drive, so native Floridian and Pulitzer Prize finalist Robert McClure gladly took the wheel. As an award-winning reporter for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, he wrote about Florida’s environment for a decade and helped cover legislative sessions in Tallahassee. He sometimes turned over the driving task to his wife, Sally Deneen, who writes a weekly cost-cutting column for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and serves as a contributing editor for Dog Fancy magazine. She is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in a few dozen magazines and books, and she has won several awards from the Florida Magazine Association, including Writer of the Year (1998).

The couple provided some research for another Avalon Travel Publishing guidebook—Foghorn Outdoors Florida Camping, considered the state’s camping bible. Its offerings include hundreds of campgrounds that permit pets. The authors lived in Florida a combined 55 years before trading the Sunshine State for Washington state, where they now live near a dog park in Seattle.