QUENTIN, the basenji mix that made national headlines by surviving the euthanasia chamber at the city's pound last August, has a book in the works. Randy Grim of Stray Rescue, who adopted Quentin, reports that he has signed an agreement with Brindle & Glass, a Canadian publishing company, to pen the pooch's story. Tentatively titled "Miracle Dog," the book is scheduled for release in the fall.

Also, Grim said, Quentin will soon be seen on posters in a national pet-adoption campaign by Stray Rescue and In Defense of Animals. The "Adopt and Save a Life" posters will begin appearing on city buses on Feb. 2.

Good News

The Humane Society of the United States has announced its choices for the best animal stories of 2003. Here's a sampling:

* After a number of high-profile maulings involving pet tigers, Congress passed, and President George W. Bush signed into law, the Captive Wildlife Safety Act, which bans interstate and foreign commerce in exotic cats.
* The discovery of more than 180 dogs and cats in a couple's unventilated 18-wheeler helped spur Montana to toughen its animal-cruelty laws.
* After a traffic stop in Tennessee resulted in the killing of a couple's dog, law enforcement officials around the nation began to add training in dog-bite prevention and in how to deal with potentially dangerous dogs.
* A lawsuit by environmental and animal groups prompted the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to back out of a plan to allow states to kill nearly 67 percent of the more than 12,000 mute swans living in the Atlantic flyway.
* A consortium of animal-protection groups launched the Certified Humane label for products from animals that have received no unnecessary antibiotics or hormones and that have been humanely raised, transported and slaughtered.