ToP  DoG

Carl the Rottweiler took off with the baby and became a literary star

   Avid collectors of old books and just about everything else, Harold and Sandra Darling were browsing in a Zurich bookshop in 1984 when they spotted a beguiling 19th century cartoon. Although the text was in German, the illustrations were easy to follow. A poodle is left alone with an infant; the baby escapes from its cradle; the dog brings it toys, keeps it from falling out of a window and gently places it back in the cradle before its mother returns. "Maybe you could expand that into a really good children's book," Harold told Sandra, who already had illustrated two other volumes for kids.

Seven years later, Sandra, or rather Alexandra Day (her nom de plume), is known to millions as the creator of Carl — the Rottweiler who shepherds his infant mistress through wild romps as soon as her parents turn their backs. The first book, Good Dog, Carl, was published by the Darlings' own Green Tiger Press, which they sold in 1986; the three sequels, including Carl's Afternoon in the Park, which hits bookstores this month, have been published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Nearly textless, all four volumes have the look of classics: The illustrations, in lustrous oils, are a handsome counterpoint to the whimsy of the narratives. Book buyers are captivated. Sales of Good Dog, Carl have hit the half-million mark; 1989's Carl Goes Shopping sold 255,000 copies; and Carlís Christmas, published in 1990, sold 250,000 in just 10 weeks.

Carlmania could reach even greater heights next year when Columbia Pictures is scheduled to release a film now titled Carl's Big Adventure - complete with live Rottweiler and toddler.

Although Darling can't quite explain her success, she says, "The relationship between dogs and humans is very powerful. The way this big dog has devoted himself to this little mistress . . . I think the fantasy has just extended the expression of the love between dogs and children."

An energetic, no-nonsense woman of 50, Sandra also works with Harold, 58, at the Blue Lantern Studio - a children's book-packaging business in San Diego, which they began after selling Green Tiger.

    Among its seven employees are Harold's son Benjamin, 25 (one of three children from a previous marriage), and the Darlingsí oldest sons, Chev, 21, and Binder, 20 (both named for writers). In all, the Darlings' extended family includes seven kids, plus a foster son, Jack, 21, and a permanent houseguest: former Green Tiger employee Elizabeth Ratisseau, seventy something. Passionate collectors all, family members have stocked the Darlings' five-bedroom house with everything from antique stuffed animals to folk art.

Harold, Sandra says, began collecting books at age 15 and was "determined to make a living doing something he wanted to do." He has even managed to make some money following his favorite sport, jai alai. All the Darlings are avid fans and make frequent outings to the fronton in Tijuana. Harold and the boys pore over players' stats and usually clear a few thousand a year on bets.

Sandra met the Connecticut-born Darling in 1966 while on a trip to San Diego. He was running a bookstore and an art cinema, and she was teaching art. Raised in Cincinnati, she had studied art in New York City - her father was a commercial artist, and a sister is a successful still-life painter - after graduating from Swarthmore. But she put her paints aside to run the business and start a family. Together they launched Green Tiger Press in 1970. When someone suggested that they hire an artist to illustrate the children's song "The Teddy Bears' Picnic," Sandra decided to try it herself. A string of books followed, including Paddy's PayDay, a book about the Darlings' Irish terrier, Paddy.

A self-described "realistic artist," Sandra has put the faces of both friends and relatives into her books. Her most important model was the late Toby — the family Rottweiler who became the image of Carl. His successor, Arambarri, now serves as a stand-in, and for her last book she recruited a friend's baby to pose astride the dog. After teaching Arambarri to sit still with sacks of flour on his back, she substituted the infant, who would have none of it. Eventually, Sandra had to work from photos of the baby sitting on a large toy elephant.

For several years Sandra tried to keep her connection to Alexandra Day under wraps. "We've never courted publicity," she says. These days, though, she is becoming accustomed to the notion that she is unlikely to remain incognito. Not long ago, fans began appearing at her doorstep. "One day I went out to work on my garden, and standing on my sidewalk were five people and two rottweilers," she laughs. "They had their Good Dog, Carls' under their arms, and they wanted their books signed." Even adults, it seems, aren't immune to the charms of the gallant Carl.