The Beat of 16 Dog-Gone Feet (part 2)
The History of Dogs
Scientists have been unable to pinpoint where or when Canis famliaris became domesticated. However, they agree that today’s domesticated dogs originated in China, the Middle East and Eastern Europe. It is also known that all dogs descended from wolves.
The first domesticated wolves appeared around 15,000 years ago in the Middle East. Canine domestication may have occurred 27,000 to 40,000 years ago. As human society developed, man realized the usefulness of the wolf-dog, who became a valuable member of the family. Physical changes in Canis familiaris followed a pattern over time of a process called “self-domestication.” (Brian Hare) Dogs were often selectively bred to meet the needs and whims of their owners.
“The domestication of dogs was one of the most extraordinary events in human history. — Brian Hare, Director of Duke University’s Canine Cognition Center
Dog (n.) “quadruped of genus Canis”
Expressions
A dog’s life (c. 1600)
Go to the dogs (c. 1620s)
Dog-cheap (1520s)
Dog’s age (1863)
Dog-eat-dog (1850’s)
Put on the dog (1934) get dressed up
Can I Be Your Dog?, written and illustrated by Troy Cummings, is a funny, heart-warming story told through letters. Arfy is a homeless mutt who lives in a cardboard box and writes letters to every house and business on Butternut Street, looking for a home. He writes that he would make a perfect pet, that he is housebroken, has his own squeaky bone, and can learn to live with cats.
Arfy’s persuasive letters, signed with his paw print, were written to Mrs. Honeywell, then the butcher, the fire station, and the junk yard. Each reply letter rejecting Arfy is written in a different style. This story is written in an epistolary style, a work in the form of letters. A great teaching point for kids.
Kirkus Reviews describes
“persuasive writing by a persistently persuasive pooch”
The first stop on Butternut Street, the Honeywells, reply in a friendly note, the butcher replies on butcher paper that “I have a bone to pick with you”. The fire station replies with a business letter to “Dear Applicant”, they already have a fire dog. Arfy’s last hope, the junk yard guy, wrote “dear mutt. get lost!”
The mail carrier delivers all these letters, and worries about Arfy. In a surprising conclusion the mail carrier writes her own letter to Arfy offering to “be your person.” The illustrations tell it all.
On the back page Arfy tells us how we can help a homeless animal.
Troy Cummings, the author and illustrator of Can I Be Your Dog, writes that as a kid he spent all his time writing stories, drawing pictures and “keeping an eye out for monsters”. As a grownup he does pretty much the same thing.
In this book the intense neutral colors and detailed backgrounds follow the hopelessness of Arfy and concern of the mail carrier as he searches for a home and is unsuccessful. Arfy is cartoon-like, with large eyes filled with expression and a bushy black tail that shows his mood by its’ movement. Readers will love this adorable, clever dog.
Troy Cummings has written and illustrated more than 40 children’s books, such as
The Notebook of Doom series
The Binder of Doom Series
The Eensy Weensy Spider Freaks Out (Big-Time)
A few books, written by other authors, that Cummings has illustrated:
Caring for Your Lion by Tammi Sauer
Little Red Gliding Hood by Tara Lazar
Mighty Truck by Chris Barton
Vroom Vroom Garbage Truck by Asia Citro
His illustrations have appeared in magazines, newspapers, greeting cards, board games, jigsaw puzzles, a French opera and on the back of a box of fish sticks
“Dharma” by Billy Collins (1st stanza)
The way the dog trots out the front door
every morning
without a hat or an umbrella,
without any money
or the keys to her doghouse
never fails to fill the saucer of my heart
with milky admiration.
“If you have ever been lucky enough to have a special dog in your life, then you know there is a place called Dog Heaven.” From the inside flap of the book Dog Heaven, written and illustrated by Cynthia Rylant.
I had recently lost my 11-year-old beloved golden retriever to cancer, and longed for some deep spiritual comfort. I was browsing the bookstore with my kids and came across DOG HEAVEN by Cynthia Rylant. It provided great solace, as it has done for nieces and nephews, and sons and daughters who have lost beloved dogs. God and angels watch over dogs in dog heaven. Whether you believe or not, it is comforting for a child, or an adult, to believe that their cherished pet will go to a dog heaven when they die. Here your dog will run in fields, romp beside water and bark at geese, play with children, eat plenty of dog biscuits, and sleep on fluffy clouds.
These magical images will comfort a child as she grieves her loss.
Cynthia Rylant is the author of over 100 children’s books, including works of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, picture books and novels.
She grew up in a depression era in West Virginia without electricity, running water or a car. She only read comic books as a child, never any children’s books.
She never planned to be a writer, but “thought she had to do something meaningful with her life.”
All of her books are based on and inspired by childhood memories of growing up in the Appalachian Mountains. She designed and illustrated a good portion of her books. He painted Dog Heaven in 3 weeks, and had never painted before.
Books Written and Illustrated by Cynthia Rylant
But I’ll Be Back Again (1989) – about coming of age and how her past experiences shaped her to be the person she is.
God Went to Beauty School (2003) – for teens
The Van Gogh Café (1995)—where broken hearts are fixed and dreams come true
Awards
Newbery Honor – A Fine White Dust (1987)
Newbery Medal – Missing May (1993)
Caldecott Honors – When I Was Young in the Mountains (1982)
The Relatives Came (1985)
Boston Globe/Horn Book of Honor Books –
The Relatives Came (1991)
Appalachia: The voices of Sleeping Birds ((1991)
Missing May (1993)
Best Book of the Year for Young Adults –
A Kindness (1988)
Soda Jerk (1990)
A Couple of Kooks and Other Stories About Love (1990)
We have enjoyed the rhythm, heard the beat, of 16 feet as they tell of the warmth and humor of their lives and their relationships. Arfy, Gloria, Old Dog and Dog in Heaven, I hope, will be among your favorite pups.
