About the Real Joe Paw Dog

Before Joe Paw Dog was an interactive adventure story, there was a real Joe Paw Dog.

Joe is a Boston Terrier and the dog who inspired the character at the center of this story.

Long before he was disappearing through mysterious mirrors or dragging anyone into another world, Joe had his own website. The original Joe Paw Dog was a dog blog about life with Joe, told partly from Joe's point of view and partly by his human. The site even described him as a "Boston Terrier Extraordinaire."

Joe Before the Adventure

The real Joe has already had a few adventures of his own. He loves apples. He once decided an unattended cup of coffee was apparently meant for him. He also became fascinated with a Wobble Wag Giggle Ball, though the humans in the house got a lot less fascinated with its constant giggling.

Those old Joe Paw Dog stories were about having a dog — finding things Joe liked, trying products with him, making him treats, documenting the strange little things that happen when a Boston Terrier is part of your household. The new Joe Paw Dog is something different. But Joe is still Joe.

From Real Dog to Story Character

The fictional Joe Paw Dog begins where reality ends. In the story, Joe is your dog. One day something impossible happens — he goes through a mirror, and you follow him. What you find on the other side is a lot more complicated than figuring out where your dog went.

The story version of Joe has secrets that the real Joe probably doesn't have. Probably. Some parts of fictional Joe come straight from the real dog — his appearance, his role as your dog, and most importantly, the relationship at the center of the story. You're not following Joe through the mirror because someone handed you a quest. You follow him because he's your dog.

Why Joe?

Dogs have an inconvenient ability to make perfectly unreasonable decisions seem mandatory.

If Joe runs through a mysterious mirror, you are going after him.

That's the premise.

Everything else comes afterward.