In preparation for my e-book “The Story Of Rose” I’m reading some of the timeless dog-human stories. I think of “Call Of The Wild,” “Lassie,” “Rin Tin-Tin,”and “Old Yeller.” All of these stories are different, yet all are also very similiar. Dog enters the life of a human, changes it, saves it, defines it. Of these stories my favorite by far is “Call Of The Wild” by Jack London. It is the most raw, the best written, the most wrenching and it goes right to the heart of what it means to be an animal, where animals like dogs really come from, and how they intersect so powerfully with human beings. Buck journeys through the spectrum of dog’s interactions with human – a pet, abused, challenged, and finally, called up to reach back in time, his wild and mythic roots. “Rose In A Storm,” in some ways.

This, to me, echoes my life with Rose. Our story is not so savage, not so wild for sure. The other stories, although I think they are weaker and less focused, also touch me and I see some of my own life with dogs in them. To me, Rose was on the level of these mythic dogs. She was a remarkable creature, and did some remarkable things, and they saved, changed and shaped my life. I don’t want to write more about it, because I’m saving it for the E-book. I re-read London yesterday and it touches  me as deeply now as it did when I first read it. We have so emotionalized and infanticized the experience of having dogs, London reminds us of what the experience has always been about.

Day of rest. See you later.