J.R. Ackerly’s Memoir My Dog Tulip has just been re-released in anticipation of the new animated film based on the book.

The distinguished British man of letters, Ackerley hardly thought of himself as a dog lover when, well into middle age, he came to adopt Tulip – a beautiful, yet intolerable 18-month-old German shepherd. To his surprise, she turned out to be the love of his life, the “ideal friend” he had been searching for in vain for so many years. In vivid and sometimes startling detail, the film reveals Tulip’s sassy, often erratic behavior (and very canine tastes) and Ackerley’s fumbling but determined efforts to ensure an existence of perfect happiness for her.

The movie will be coming to Boston’s Kendall Square Cinema in October. Featuring the voices of Lynn Redgrave, Christopher Plummer and Isabella Rossellini, the film was drawn by hand, but on a computer. Check out this article in the New York Times, to find out how that is possible.