Books Review-Dogs of War by Francess Pauli

A few months ago Francess Pauli was kind enough to contact me and ask me to review her book Dogs of War: Vertigo.  The novel is a sort of romance, time-travel, science fiction, and dog book mash up.  I explained to Ms. Pauli that I am not a romance reader, honestly I've never read a romance novel in my life and usually find myself gagging during the romantic parts of any movies and if there are romantic parts in the movies I see they are sub plots because you would have to hog tie me and drag me to a theatre to get me to see a straight romance.  Still I recognize that romance is a very popular genre and I knew from talking with Ms. Pauli that this book had many more elements then plan romance so I agreed to read and review it.  (Ms. Pauli was also very sweet about my lack of affinity for romance).

 The book starts out with the main character, Viv, going to pick up her new puppy Flora, a hairless dog.  I loved how excited Viv was about getting her new pup and the importance the book put on their developing relationship.  Anyone who reads positive dog training books, such as the works of Patricia McConnell, will recognize some of the language of the texts in Viv's interactions with Flora and in her communication with Flora's breeder.  I think its wonderful that a fictional book that is not entirely focused on dog training is communicating current positive training methods, rather then the old school dominance approach.  

This is not a dog training book though, and the plot quickly moves in the direction of time travel and romance.  Viv finds herself inexplicably flashing back in time to WWI where she is experiencing life through the eyes of a soldier who is working on training dogs to help in combat.  At the same time she develops a strong attraction to a local cop.   I don't want to give too much of the plot away, but there is a demon about who is bent on destroying Viv's budding relationship, and what with the past lives and all its not the first time this has happened.  Thankfully dogs and demons don't get on well, and with Flora around Viv has at least some protection.  As someone who adores dogs and knows how powerful the dog/human bond is I really appreciate how Pauli portrays Flora's ability to protect Viv.  

Romance readers who are also dog lovers and history buffs will really enjoy this book, and I think in particular they will love learning more about the role of dog soldiers in World War I.  Sadly, not enough people know about the amazing sacrifices these dogs made.

My favorite part of the book is Pauli's characterizations of "dog people."  You can tell she has been involved in the dog show and training world.  I  particularly liked her development of the character Angel, a somewhat prickly dog breeder.  The portrayal was so true to life I feel like I may have met her at one of the dog shows I've attended.  All in all I would not hesitate to recommend this book to any dog loving romance fan, or anyone interested in the role dogs played during World War 1.  Its the first book in a series so readers will have more to look forward too.   The other books in the series will also explore the role of dogs in war so there will be plenty of opportunities to learn even more about canine heroes.  

 

 

 

Book Review: Still Point of The Turning World

This book review is not about a dog focused book. Its about a loss focused book, a state that all of us humans, pet owners and not pet owners will face.  The author, Emily Rapp, includes this quote C.S. Lewis:

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.”

― C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

I decided to read Emily Rapp's book when I read her article in Bark magazine (a version of the article is here on the blog Little Seal that is the basis for much of the book).  Ms. Rapp visited the Kindred Spirits Animal Sanctuary  with her baby son Ronan.  The animals all have significant physical disabilities and illnesses and the sanctuary is meant to be a peaceful place where they can live out their final days.     Ronan, though a baby, was also near the end of his life.  He had Tay Sachs disease, a brutal disorder that causes babies to stop developing at about the age of 6 months and then regress losing all their skills, suffering seizures, blindness, paralysis, difficulty eating and swallowing, and finally inevitably death.

The book is not written in a linear fashion, its more of a collection of Rapp's thoughts and experiences as she parents Ronan and confronts her grief and thinks about the meaning of mortality.   Its also refreshingly unsentimental.   She is not overtly religious, but is spiritual and respects the religious beliefs of others and participates in a number of religious ceremonies and activiites with Ronan.   She regularly takes Ronan to a Mexican Catholic shrine, for example.  As someone who does not subscribe to a particular belief system myself I liked this aspect of the book.  I am neither an atheist nor religious and Rapp seems to match my mindset in that way.  I am fairly content with the mystery of it all.

Throughout the book Rapp points out that parenting Ronan is not all misery and heartbreak.  She talks about experiencing moments of great joy.   Ronan lives in the moment, and he forces his parents to do the same thing.   Rapp acknowledges that due to his disability her son experiences the world in much the same way as a dog, one reason that she brings him to the animal sanctuary.   She knows his experience is sensory rather then introspective so she tries to appreciate that with him.

The book is certainly heartbreaking and  I've read comments on Good Reads 
by reviewers saying it was simply to depressing to read, but in a way I thought it was rather hopeful too.  There is so much emphasis in our culture about living longer and stretching out our life as much as possible, but Rapp asks what happens to just appreciating our lives rather then obsessing over extending them.

While I am by no means relating the loss of a baby to the loss of a dog, although Rapp herself says there is no hierarchy of pain and loss,  I can related a bit to what Rapp is saying.  When you fall in love with a dog you are in love with a creature whose life span is undeniably abbreviated when compared to your own.   As the owner of 3 senior dogs, I often find myself  fixating on how much time I have left with them.  I regularly wake up on Monday morning and feel so depressed at the thought another weekend is over.  On each birthday and Holiday I can't shake the nagging fear that it is their last.   I know plenty of pet owners feel the same way and to all of them I would enthusiastically recommend the book.

Below is a picture from the blog of baby Ronan with a dog at the sanctuary: 

Image link

My Dog Tulip-A Love Story for Dog Lovers

“Unable to love each other, the English turn to dogs.”

                                                                              J.R. Ackerly

With love in the air for the month of February I finally got around to reading My Dog Tulip  by J.R. Ackerly .   The book is controversial among dog lovers,  due to to Ackerly's rather old fashioned style of dog rearing and his tendency to describe his dogs bathroom and sexual habits in detail.  For every person who loves the book and declares it one of the best literary works about animals of the twentieth century there are a dozen people describing Ackerly as a dreadful owner with rather bizarre interests in his dog. I really liked the 2009 animated feature, so I inspected to enjoy the book, and I did.

To appreciate Ackerly's work I think you have to remember that the book was published in 1956 and deals with events in England in the 1940s and 50s. Considering the time the book was written Ackerly's attitude toward picking up after his dog (he didn't) and breeding his dog (he worked desperately hard to do so because he believed she needed the experience of motherhood to be happy) is more understandable.   At one point Ackerly considers drowning Tulip's puppies, the fruit of months of efforts to find her a mate that she would except, of course this a horrible thought and I was relieved when Ackerly decided against the monstrous deed.  It definitely speaks to his depressive and misanthropic nature, which he does not attempt to hide in this book.  Ackerly was a bitter man who loved his dog and little else.  He also feared that Tulip's puppies would never find loving homes like the one Tulip and he shared.  In the end Ackerly finds the puppies homes, although for the most part they are entirely unsuitable and meet sad ends.

What I like about My Dog Tulip is that it is a love story about a man and his dog who care for each other deeply, and who are both deeply flawed individuals.  Ackerly is a curmudgeonly old British eccentric and Tulip (in real life she was named Queenie) is an utterly ordinary dog with significant flaws in behavior, that do not endure her to many other people then Ackerly.   One of the many gripes against the book is that Ackerly describes Tulip's bathroom habits in detail, which I agree can be a bit over the top, but I do think this is his attempt to make Tulip even more prosaic.   He wants to make sure the reader understands that Tulip is utterly unexceptional, to everyone but himself (and of course Ackerly was more then a little eccentric).  

A very large portion of the book focuses in great detail on Tulip's sexuality and Ackerly's desperate attempts to find her a mate that she will approve of, with Tulip rejecting suitors by the dozen for no apparent reason.  Ackerly was convinced that Tulip could not live a full life without the experience of sex and motherhood.   This aspect of their relationship says more about Ackerly then it does about Tulip of course.  He was an openly gay man at a time when homosexuality was still considered a serious mental illness.  He wrote that he searched his entire life for a romantic relationship with an "ideal friend."  Of course in the end that ideal friend turned out to be Tulip.

I did find the book fairly uneven, when Ackerly is describing Brittish eccentrics like himself, or the wonderful lady vet who cares for Tulip, or the Colonel who owns an Alsatian male Tulip is mated too his writing sings.  His descriptions of Tulip walking and playing are charming and his devotion to her and hers to him is touching.  However, his constant writings about her sexuality and trying to mate her get rather tiresome and are a bit to Freudian for my taste.  I found myself skimming sections of the very short book.   

Throughout, the book the threat of inevitable loss that all dog owners must face lingers.  Towards the end of the book Ackerly describes walking with Tulip in the woods and finding a broken bottle she could have stepped on, of course this bottle represents the inevitable threat at the heart of every loving relationship: loss.
"One pounce upon this bottle, with both front feet perhaps… I pick it up. I pick it all up, every tiny fragment. I seek it out, I root it up, this lurking threat to our security, our happiness, in the heart of the wood; day after day I uncover it and root it up, this disease in the heart of life."

Queenie, the real life inspiration for Tulip,  lived to be 16 and a half, a truly noble age for an Alsatian.  After her death Ackerly said:

"I would have immolated myself as a suttee when Queenie died. For no human would I ever have done such a thing, but by my love for Queenie I would have been irresistibly compelled."

Ackerly outlived Tulip by 6 years but he never got over her loss and his increased drinking after her death may have shortened his life.  Whatever flaws Ackerly had as a man and an owner he enjoyed a truly special bond with his dog.

Book Review-Travels with Charley

"A dog is a bond between strangers."

John Steinbeck

 

Today marks the birthday of famed author John Steinbeck (February 27, 1902-December 20, 1968) creator of three of my favorite novels East of Eden, 

The Red Pony, and Of Mice and Men.    Steinbeck also wrote another lesser known book, Travels with Charley, which somehow I never got around to reading.   Since the book is a dog lover classic I decided it was past time I read it.   

 The book details a 1960 road trip that Steinbeck took with his beloved poodle, Charley.  He was in ill health at the time, suffering from a serious heart condition, and decided he need to make the trip so he could see America, perhaps for the last time.  Charley too, is older, at ten years old Steinbeck refers to him as "an older gentleman."  Though still clearly in robust shape and able to enjoy the adventure, he suffers some health problems along the journey.  Reading one definitely gets the sense that the trip is the last hurrah of two old men.

Charley and Steinbeck travel 10,000 miles from Long, Island NY through Maine, The Pacific Northwest, California, Texas, and the South.   They make the voyage in their camper which Steinbeck calls Rocinante after Don Quixote's horse.   

 

 Along the way they stops to talk to a variety of people meant to represent a cross section of "ordinary" Americans.  Steinbeck is always somewhat of a chauvinistic author and nearly everyone he speaks to is a man.   His political opinions and perspective are also clear in the text.  Steinbeck crafts a very harsh portrait of a Canadian border official highlighting the man's pompous devotion to protocol and romanticizes the freedom of a family of migrant workers.    In some cases he seems to admire advances in technology,  for example he marvels over mobile homes which were evidently a new thing in 1960.  Steinbeck seems to relish the freedom they provide their owners.   On the other hand he is baffled by the various food dispensing machines he encounters in rest stops and mourns for the lost art of home cooking and the sort of food he enjoyed years ago in Europe.

Of course I was more interested in Steinbeck's relationship with Charley then his descriptions of the people and the country side.  Its clear he adores his dog and admires his intelligence, regularly assigning to Charley human levels of understanding.    Steinbeck's conversations with Charley are used as a literacy device to express his feelings about what he sees on the trip and his understanding of America.   He also uses Charlie to reach out to people around him, regularly commenting on Charley's friendliness and ability to make people comfortable.   The encounter with the migrant workers that Steinbeck so admires is prompted by Charley.   Steinbeck's flares of temper at officious bureaucrats are nearly all the result of their attempts to stop Charley from doing something, such as when the Canadian Border guard does not want to let Charley across the border because he doesn't have his rabies certificate.

In all the book is rather dated, it simply does not stand the test of time as well as Steinbeck's novels and today seems to exist mostly as a relic of a lost period in American history.   The writing too, though good enough, is not on-par with his other works.   Still for a dog lover it is a nice story and certainly motivation to take your own dog on a journey, whether around the country or to the local park.  Here are my own little Charley's preparing for a trip in their "Rocinante" or more accurately our Honda.

Book Review-Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend

   

Often times when you wait for something for a long time it doesn't live up to your expectations.   That is not the case with Susan Orlean's wonderful Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend, which I have been looking forward to reading for the past two years, ever since I read an interview with Orlean in Bark magazine two years ago in which she mentioned the project.

I bought the book immediately when it come out but didn't get around to reading it until recently.    The book is not just about Rin Tin Tin and his owner/trainer/companion, Lee Duncan, but about how the role of dogs in American culture changed during the twentieth century.  From that of a working animal to that of a family member.


The story begins when soldier Lee Duncan a fervent animal lover finds a litter of puppies in a bombed out kennel in France during WW1.  He took two puppies and named them Rin Tin Tin and Nanette, after popular french children's toys.  From the moment he found the puppies Duncan felt lucky and he was determined to stay with them.  When the war ended he went to considerable effort to bring Rin Tin Tin and Nanette home with him.  Sadly, Nanette passed away and Duncan became even more committed to Rin Tin Tin, or Rinty.


America after WW1 was fascinated with silent movies and Duncan became interested in Rin Tin Tin becoming a performer.  He trained him to jump blockades and climb walls and then brought him around film studios.  Rin Tin Tin made his debut in 1922 in the Man From Hells River, playing a wolf.   He continued to make many other films and became one of the most popular film starts of the 1920s.  Warner Bros.  referred to Rinty as the "mortgage lifter" since his films never failed to make a large profit.   

Interestingly, Duncan preferred to put Rin Tin Tin in the spotlight rather then himself.  He repeatedly expressed that Rin Tin Tin was an exceptional dog, rather then presenting himself as an exceptional trainer.  When Rin Tin Tin passed away in 1932 radio programs where interrupted with the announcement "Rin Tin Tin, greatest  of animal motion picture actors, pursued a ghostly villian in a canine happy hunting ground today."  Imagine TV shows today being interrupted to announce the death of human or canine actor and you get an idea of how famous Rin Tin Tin was.  Here he is in Clash of the Wolves, from 1925 (unfortunately the titles are in Dutch).

The next part of the book, and my favorite, discussed the role of dogs in WWII from Hitler's disturbing commitment to animal rights, to the amazing Canine Corps project, Dogs for Defense, in the United States.   Dogs for defense was established in 1942 and encourage ordinary Americans to send their pet dogs, most with only basic training, to the army for training as military dogs.  

Thousands of Americans sent their dogs to the corps and the dogs who were accepted where trained and prepared for serving in the war.  Lee Duncan donated several dogs to the effort and worked to train the canine corps and to promote the program.   One particularly touching part of the book details the thousands of cards and letters people sent their dogs who where serving in the military.  I was particularly touched by the following letter for obvious reasons having to do with the dogs name.  (Note: please don't take offense at the term Japs, its taken from the letter written from a marine to the family of a canine casualty:)

"Now I have to tell you the worst Tubby was shot and killed on the night of August 31.  He has to his credit eight Japs....he behaved like a true Marine at all times and didn't even whimper when he died.  He was shot through the heart and died instantly.  We have buried him in the Marine cemetery along with the other real heroes of this campaign and if it is at all possible I'll send you a picture of his grave.  He has a cross with his name and rank.  He was a corporal."

The later middle and end portion of the book deals with the popular  1950's Rin Tin Tin TV show, which didn't actually star one of Lee's dogs, but was rather inspired by them.  The show was so popular that Rin Tin Tin became a very successful sales person for all sorts of dog products:

  It also discusses the efforts of Rin Tin Tin's supporters to preserve the legacy.  Here is the current Rin Tin Tin:




A gorgeous dog, just like his predecessors.  Their is currently a campaign at Change.org to petition The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences to award  the current Rin Tin Tin the Oscar that the orginal Rin Tin was meant to receive, but never did, in 1929.    I signed it and I hope you will too.  All in all we give Rin Tin Tin: The Life and The Legend four paws up, our highest rating!

Book Review-Mark Twain's Book of Animals

The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual superiority to the other creatures; but the fact that he can do wrong proves his moralinferiority to any creatures that cannot.  ~Mark Twain, What Is Man, 1906


My favorite American author









 had a birthday anniversary on November 30, so in honor of his birthday I am reviewing the most recent of the many posthumous collections of his works:  Mark Twain's Book of Animals.

All of his life Twain was committed animal lover and a champion for animal rights. He was particularly fond of cats, one often sited quote:  "Some people scorn a cat and think it not an essential; but the Clemens tribe are not of these."

Twain's cats.  Photo taken from Twain Quotes 

Twain attributed his love of animals to his mother whom he was very close too and who made a great habit of taking in strays while he was growing up.

The Mark Twain Book of Animals is a collection of Twain's writing on animals taken from his novels, travelogues, and magazine articles.  Some of the pieces are longer stories, but many are brief essays of less then half a page.  However, even in the briefest of essays Twain's brilliance shines through.  The animals that appear range from bugs, to dogs, cats, camels, and of course frogs in the famous The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.  Many of the pieces showcase Twain's reputation as the greatest American humorist, but others are more serious.  One short essays deals with dog fighting and Twain describes his disgust at the suffering of the animals and the cruelty of man.  In nearly all of the essays humans appear in a far less favorable light then the animals.  In the short stories animals often take on some of the ridiculous airs of humans, such as in the story A Dogs Tail in which a dog embarks on a long drawn out description of his social class and religious background.  The text of the story can be read here.

My favorite part of the collection was an excerpt from Twain's unfinished sequel to his greatest book Huckleberry Finn.  In the excerpt Huck shoots a bird and is over come with remorse.   The incident was based on actual occurrence in Twain's childhood which he describes in the following quote:



 I shot a bird that sat in a high tree, with its head tilted back, and pouring out a grateful song from an innocent heart. It toppled from its perch and came floating down limp and forlorn and fell at my feet, its song quenched and its unoffending life extinguished. I had not needed that harmless creature, I had destroyed it wantonly, and I felt all that an assassin feels, of grief and remorse when his deed comes home to him and he wishes he could undo it and have his hands and his soul clean again from accusing blood.

Read more: http://www.utne.com/GreatWriting/Mark-Twain-Animal-Rights-Activist-5341.aspx#ixzz1fKhWKOWJ


In summary we give the book four paws up.   As a bonus the woodcut illustrations by Barry Moser are really beautiful:

Book Review-Love in Infant Monkeys by Lydia Millet hosted by Dr. Zira

Dr. Zira...Monkey Dog

Dr. Zira is the perfect hostess for this weeks book review Love in Infant Monkeys by Lydia Millet.  Afterall,  she is a Brussels Griffon, affectionately known as a monkey dog.  Unfortunately she wouldn't stand next to the book for her photo.  I'm not sure if she was displeased with the text or simply didn't like the noise of the book falling over when I tried to stand it up next to her.  Oh well...




Love in Infant Monkeys is a work of fiction, specifically short stories.  Millet is a very funny woman and I really enjoyed her earlier book George Bush, Dark Prince of Love (about president 41 and a crazy woman who is obsessed with him.) Very weird, but very funny.   Love in Infant Monkeys is definitely a more mature and  serious book, though funny in parts.    In fact the  collection was a finalist for the 2010 Pulitzer Prize  for fiction.  (I read it because I like Millet's other books and I figured a Pulitzer finalist couldn't be bad).



All of the stories in Love in Infant Monkeys focus on animals or actually the interaction between famous people and animals, definitely another odd premise which seems to be Millet's thing.  Madonna, Sharon Stone, David Hassellhoff, Thomas Edison and Noam Chomsky all make appearances. Please be forewarned that this is not really a book for a pet lover, its more for the fan of experimental well crafted short stories.  The people, rather then the animals, are the focus here.  

 The stories are all fictions sprung form a factual incident.  The title story refers to the infamous "wire mother" experiments of Harry Harlow, a watershed moment for animal rights.   Another story is about Thomas Edison.  On January 4, 1903 Edison electrocuted Topsy a circus elephant who had killed two abusive trainers.  Over the years Topsy has become something of a patron saint of the animal rights movement.  In Millet's story Edison is tormented by guilt and repeatedly views footage of the electrocution and talks to Topsy, eventually seeing her as a sort of Christ figure.   


Overall, I thought the collection was fairly uneven.  The first story, Sexing the Pheasant, about Madonna on a pheasant hunt is basically one long not very good joke.   Another story, Sir Henry, begins as a very sweet account of a dog walker who is pretty down on human nature until he begins walking the dog of a dying man.  For some reason I can not fathom David Hassellhoff is thrown into the mix appearing as the owner of another dog in walkers care.

  I did really like one story about Nikola Tesla, a famous inventor.  The story focused on him as an old man living in a hotel surrounded by his beloved pigeons.  I have never heard of Tesla before but when I looked him up I found that he did indeed adore pigeons.  


All in all I would give the book a three star rating because I do think Millet can pen a beautiful phrase, and a few of the stories are excellent.  I can definitely see these stories being discussed in college classrooms for years to come.  Dr. Zira, however, thought the   book was a bit over blown and decided to take a nap. I promised her next time we would pick something less serious.