Book Review ~ Lonesome

When I joined John Mutford's Great Canadian Book Challenge last summer, I pledged to read and review 13 Canadian books about dogs over the course of a year. John himself made some book suggestions, but it's always a pleasure when I just stumble across a suitable book. I found Chris Czajkowski's Lonesome: Memoirs of a Wilderness Dog at a used bookstore. Serendipitously - or not - I was on a trip to a specific pet store, and decided on a whim to pop into the used bookstore next door. I had never heard of Czajkowski before.

Czajkowski has lived in the B.C. wilderness for more than 2 decades and has published other books about her experiences. Lonesome is unique because it's creative non-fiction, a memoir told from a dog's point of view. The dog in question is Lonesome herself, named after B.C.'s Lonesome Lake. Lonesome the dog is smart and polite; and I'm not sure if it's that persona that inspired Czajkowski's narrative voice or if Czajkowski always writes like this, but I often felt like I was reading a 19th-century tome. Some of the writing is a little formal, interspersed with words like "perforce;" and the descriptions tend towards the flowery.

Flowery, however, is not the way Czajkowski treats Lonesome. When I was growing up on a farm (30ish years ago), attitudes towards dogs were much like the ones Czajkowski has. Granted, Lonesome is a working dog in a harsh climate, and Czajkowski has few luxuries herself. I have to give Czajkowski props for admitting her own flaws, such as being quick to anger; but I question whether it is "tmi" to share that she smacked Lonesome so hard that the dog flew off the table the first (and last) time she tried to help herself to Czajkowski's food. Like Jack London's Call of the Wild, I really wouldn't recommend this for younger readers.

The book offers a unique perspective on living in B.C.'s interior - the harsh climates, the beautiful but punishing landscapes, the frequent meetings with wildlife, and the isolation. Lonesome has a beautiful voice; Czajkowski has done a bang-up job of portraying a dog's point of view. All in all, a worthy read; and one that should appeal to several different types of readers.

This is my tenth (yay!) book for the Challenge. Just three to go; and I'm saving Linda Bailey's and Bill Slavin's Stanley's Party and Stanley's Wild Ride for the home stretch.

Games Dogs Play

Wrestling, keep-away, and fetch are games my dogs love to play outside. But what do you do when it's -35C (-31F) outside and you've got two frisky dogs on your hands?

Gabe n Arch n I have a few ball games we play indoors. I will stick the ball under a blanket or quilt, and they have to figure out how to get it out. Or, I will march around the house, waving the ball around, and then suddenly, through a nifty slight of hand, the ball is gone, tucked into a laundry basket or an open drawer. The second game has two purposes, really - entertainment and confidence building. I try to put the ball places Arch is scared to go, hoping he learns as he bravely retrieves it that that place (under the ironing board, on the chair) isn't going to fall down on his head or trap him after all.

We also have a few games that are a little more sophisticated. One, I got the idea from youtube. I have an extra-large muffin tin with just 6 cups. I put a small treat (a piece of kibble or a part of cookie) into each cup and then cover each treat with a ball. It's more difficult than it at first appears, as the dogs cannot simply pick up the ball with their mouths. Gabe has learned that the fuzzy balls can be carefully picked up by grasping the fuzz; but overall the ball have to be nosed out or pawed out. This takes each dog perhaps a minute or two.

Last winter, I splurged on a couple Nina Ottenson games. We have the DogBox. This one perplexes Gabe n Arch a little bit. The basic premise is that the dog has to drop something into the top of the box, in order to eject a treat from the bottom. Two wooden "spools" are included; but because Arch is a ball guy, he uses a ball. Any object that fits in the top would work. Both dogs seem to understand that getting the object into the box will eject the treat BUT they are confused about how to get the object into the box in the first place (or, more likely, too excited about the treat to think straight). I keep hoping for an eureka moment, but for the time being, I let Gabe knock the wooden spools off the top of the box with his nose; and I bounce the ball towards Archie, and then steer the box towards him so that he can deposit it as needed. This is the game that takes us the longest. Depending on how many treats you use and how well your dogs "get" the concept of the game, this one can easily last 5 minutes or better.

The other Nina Ottenson game we have is the wooden Tornado. This one has four round pieces of MDF stacked on top of each other, and held together with a central bolt. The top three pieces spin. The bottom three pieces have little compartments carved in them, where treats can be hidden. The dogs need to spin the layers around, to try and figure out how to uncover the compartments. Both dogs love this one BUT (1) I have to hold it down or they would just push it all over the place and (2) dogs with small noses will be able to cheat, as Archie demonstrates time and time again. He is able to fish treats out of the bottom compartment without having to line the layers up correctly (you can see him trying this out in the second picture). Like the muffin tin game, this one takes only a minute or two, as well.

I chose the wooden toys because I thought they would last my dogs longer than the plastic ones. My dogs are chewers and they think it's great fun to steal things (like the plastic parts) and then parade around with them. Wood is harder to clean, so it's a bit of a toss up that each dog guardian needs to consider before purchasing.

And then the old standbys - our beloved molecule balls, which are also marketed as "atomic" balls. This is one of many variations of a treat ball - you insert kibble and the dog has to figure out how to get it out. Gabe has had his since he was a puppy. He figured it out lickedty-split with no help from anyone. He has some trouble picking it up, but he can do it, and he carries it around a bit. It's indestructable. Archie had no idea what to do with his when he was introduced to it at the age of one. I pushed it around for him, and when a kibble fell out, I cheered raucously. He still tends to simply push it with his nose, not really sure how (or not comfortable) to bat it hard enough with the old noz to make it tumble. He is pretty fair at using his paws for that purpose though. I do think these are their favourites. These probably take 3-5 minutes, depending on the amount of kibble, and how often the balls get stuck and need to be retrieved by moi. One caveat - these are noisy.

So that's us in the wintertime. What do you do to keep your dogs busy, and, more importantly, out of trouble in inclement weather?

Book Review ~ Wally's World

Wally's World by Marsha Boulton is book #9 in my quest to read and review 13 Canadian books about dogs in a year, as part of John Mutford's Great Canadian Book Challenge. I've been struggling to finish Erika Ritter's The Dog by the Cradle, the Serpent Beneath for about 6 weeks. I decided to take a break with Wally.

Wally is a lovable bull terrier that Boulton and her husband - author Stephen Williams - purchase as a puppy. Wally is always up to something and his antics are sprinkled throughout the book. Carrying pails loaded with balls, undergoing surgery to remove ingested underpants, wrecking a hotel room by humping a feather pillow, and hogging the covers, Wally is clearly a rascal, and one who is likely loved all the more for his rascally behaviour. However, Boulton herself sums up her approach to the book about three pages from the end: "How could I have managed through [the problems of the past 10 years] without having [Wally's] mug to smile at every morning?" While the stories about Wally are fun to read, the book's focus is the legal wrangles that Boulton and Willimas went through following the publication of his two books about Paul Bernardo and Karla Holmolka. Some Wally stories - such as the underpants - stand on their own; but many others are only tangential to the main plot.

Boulton previously won the Stephen Leacock Award for Humour for Letters from the Country. While Wally's World didn't elicit any guffaws from me, I did have to smile a lot at that Wally Boy. Boulton is an engaging writer and this read was definitely easier than Ritter's. Some things made me uncomfortable - I wearied of reading how nasty the police were to Boulton and Williams (I get it already!); and some comments Boulton made about her mother seemed cutting rather than funny. The book's cover boasts snippets of several glowing reviews, including one from The Globe and Mail on the front: "A gripping memoir." If you're in the market for a light memoir, this is it. If you're looking for a "dog book" you might find the main plot a disappointment. For me, it's not a keeper. If you want my copy, shoot me an email; otherwise I will release it as part of the bookcrossing program.

Book Review ~ Great Dog Stories

Month Six of John Mutford's Great Canadian Book Challenge was not a productive one for me. December is one of my busiest months at work and with the seasonal festivities as well, I just didn't get much reading done. I'm hoping to make amends in Month Seven, and am kicking off with a review of Roxanne Willems Snopek's Great Dog Stories: Inspirational Tales about Exceptional Dogs. It is one of the "Amazing Stories" books from Altitude Publishing. This read clocks in as #8 in my quest to read and review 13 Canadian dog books within a year.

This is a short book, just over 100 pages long. There are nine chapters; except for the last, each is devoted to one dog, or to one person's dogs. In most chapters, either the dog or the person overcomes obstacles; and in a couple chapters, the dogs perform amazing feats of courage or assist in solving crimes. All the dogs and owners are Canadian until Chapter Nine. For inexplicable reasons, the last chapter is a two-parter, with the second part showcasing an American guardian and dog who travel regularly to Canada to compete in CKC competitions, since the dog's disability disallows her from competing in AKC competitions.

The book is easy to read - I would recommend it for someone who doesn't read a lot; or perhaps for an early teen reader who likes dogs. It might be a good book for a vacation. I finished it in a couple hours. The author has an engaging writing style and she writes well. With the stories themselves, two things annoyed me. First, there is a great deal of emphasis on disability. I am disabled myself and I work with people who have disabilities. I get tired of the media focus on "inspirational" stories about disability. In five chapters, the people have disabilities; in Chapter Nine, one of the dogs has a disability. Two other dogs in the book overcome behavioural issues. Perhaps refocussing the other three chapters, and retitling the book to reference disability would have been a better way to go.

I was also mildly annoyed that every single dog was either purebred or had certification of some sort (obedience, agility, canine freestyle, herding, Police Service, tracking, draft, therapy dog, water dog, and even a "Canine Good Citizen" - good grief!). The blind American Collie - Bonnie - in Chapter Nine passed her "Canine Good Citizen" test and became a certified therapy dog, but still her guardian "worried that this would be the extent of Bonnie's achievements." Clearly I am an under-achiever when it comes to my dogs! Getting through puppy school, meeting strangers politely, and not pulling at the leash are pretty much my highest expectations. Plus, wouldn't it have been more inspirational if a rescued Heinz 57 mutt had done something amazing that no one had trained him to do?

It was a fast, easy read, and mostly enjoyable. The things that annoyed me might not annoy other people - it's just my own life experiences reflecting off the author's choices. The book is not a keeper - one read is definitely sufficient. If anyone would like my copy, shoot me a note with your address. Otherwise, I will release it as part of the bookcrossings program.

Book Review ~ The Hidden Life of Humans

And now for something completely different.

I'm in my fifth month of John Mutford's Great Canadian Book Challenge. My own personal challenge has been to read and review 13 Canadian books about dogs over the course of a year. Erika Ritter's The Hidden Live of Humans is my most recent read, and clocks in as book #7 of my 13.

I was kicking myself when I realized that this book would qualify for the challenge. My friend Tracy has a book swap each spring, and wouldn't you know it, I passed up my chance to score this book for free at this year's swap. It was also recently for sale on chapters.indigo.com for one lousy buck. gah! Eh well, it was worth the $14.56 CAD I paid at amazon.ca. But, still, free or close-to-free would have been lovely.

Erika Ritter is a Canadian wordsmith extraordinaire. Hidden Life is her sole novel - a Canadian bestseller when it was published in 1997 - but she has also penned a few collections of essays, as well as nonfiction. She is also a playwright, public speaker, and well-known CBC commentator. She grew up in my home province (SK) but now resides in Ontario.

Okay, so, Hidden Life. The basic premise is that the main character - a single 40-something woman named Dana Jaeger - unwittingly ends up taking care of an ex-boyfriend's dog while the ex is cavorting around Finland with his ice-princess Finnish dentist girlfriend. Murphy - the dog - has strong opinions, and pieces of the book are told from Murphy's point of view. Before I realized that the book was published in 1997, I thought either Ritter ripped off Garth Stein's idea from The Art of Racing in the Rain, or this was one of those synchronicity thingamajiggies. Kudos to Ritter for being about a decade ahead of Stein.

Overall, I enjoyed the book; I read from start to finish in about a week, and my reading time is pretty fragmented, so a week is good. It's sort of chick lit with an edge. It has some dark bits, including Dana's ex-husband, who is dying of AIDS; a graphic account of an accident Dana endures; and some uncomfortable childhood memories Dana dredges up. The humour is a little dry, which is just fine. Some of the narrative devices are not my cup of tea, though. Dreams are one device that allow us to see things we wouldn't otherwise be able to see from the narrators' viewpoints. It was a little fantastical for me. Also, Murphy is really very smart - so smart that I'm skeptical, and that's saying a lot. Much is made about Murphy's inherent dog-ness - he humps the laundry bag, for example - but at the same time, he is incredibly philosophical. In Stein's Racing in the Rain, Enzo acquires his smarts through watching t.v. Murphy's smarts are not explained, and we are expected to believe he has his moments of deep thought interspersed with his laundry-bag exploits. I dunno if it works. Maybe it's just me. Maybe that's what Ritter was trying to say - dogs are dogs, but they also have moments of insight that would blow our socks off (all the better to get their grimy little paws on said socks!).

If I did star reviews, I would probably give this 3.5 out of 5. A good read, not too heavy, keeps the reader interested. That said, it didn't really speak to me, and I really doubt I will ever re-read it. I'm on the fence about whether to shelve it or give it away.

Beagles, Beagles, Halloweiners!

Okay, fess up! How many of you dress your dogs up for Halloween? I did for the first time last year, when Gabe was 4 and Archie was 3. I was ordering a bunch of dog toys online for Christmas, for all the dogs in my life (there are many besides my two - Emma and Patsy, Lennox, Farley, Kavanna, Lucky, Kona, Kody, and now Luca and Rowan too). The store I was shopping at had $5 "costumes" - a two-dimensional hat, a bandana, and a collar decoration. Gabe was a tough and very serious sheriff (cowboy hat, red and black bandana, and sheriff's badge) and Archie was a Mexican, complete with sombraro and fringed purple bandana (appropriate costume for my jumping bean).

This year, we got more creative. Gabe's swim instructor suggested he go as Michael Phelps, and together we brainstormed how to make a costume that would work. And Archie was finally my hot dog - I've coveted that costume for years!

How about your canines?

Book Review ~ Call of the Wild

I'm into Month Five of the Great Canadian Book Challenge. Participants are to read and review 13 Canadian books over the course of a year, and since this is a dog blog, all 13 of my books will be about dogs. John Mutford, organizer of the Challenge, suggested I give Jack London's The Call of the Wild a go. I remember having this book as a child. I never did read it, though, and it's probably good that I didn't. I would have been scarred for life. I have no idea why it is marketed as a children's book.

The Call of the Wild lays claim to its Canadian-ness through its geography. London himself, of course, was American, and the book's main character, a Shepherd/St. Bernard cross named Buck, is also American. However, except for the opening pages, the book is set in the Canadian Yukon, during the Klondike Gold Rush. Although I have my master's degree in history, most of my knowledge of the gold rush comes from a history reality program, called "Klondike: Quest for the Gold" which aired on History TV and PBS in 2003. Having some background knowledge is helpful as London doesn't spend a lot time describing the the gold rush itself. Buck's journey is absolutely heartbreaking, but without the background, it seems as though this story is being told because it is exceptional - "a remarkable journey of courage" or some such hackneyed Disneyfied expression. But the sad truth is that most sled dogs probably experienced the same hardships as Buck during this era.

The book opens with Buck being dognapped from his comfortable home in California. He is sold to work as a sled dog in the far north. Buck is a quick learner, and adapts quickly to life on the trail. However, he experiences much hardship, including the frigid northern cold, vicious dog fights, brutal beatings from humans, starvation, overwork, and the loss of his comrades. It is above all an adventure story, a tale of adapting in order to survive harsh experiences.

Although the narration is in the omniscient third person, the bulk of the story is about Buck and his relationships with other dogs and a few humans. Because of this, there is very little dialogue. I appreciated reading a "dog book" that actually focussed on dogs for once!

My final analysis: I can understand why this is considered London's masterpiece. But that doesn't mean I have to like it. I'll probably keep my copy because it is a classic, but I won't be reading it again. It's just too harsh.

I've googled without success to find out how many copies of this book have been sold over the past century. The best I can do is assure you that it is in the "millions." The full text is also available online, if you are comfortable reading at your computer screen. I read the TOR edition pictured above (4 Canadian dollars, new).