Man’s Best Friend

We’re animal lovers in this family and our beloved dog, Pippin, is a part of our family.  I got him just before I met my husband at a shelter.  In today’s post you’ll see four different stories all showing a different way a dog comes to his family.

Piper, by Emma Chichester Clark, is about  Piper, a dog who is eager to please, a little nervous to leave his mother, but willing and ready to be a good dog to his new owner.  Unfortunately his new owner is a nasty man who treats him cruelly.  Through a good deed being repaid a group of bunnies helps Piper run away.  He runs and runs and eventually makes it to a city.  In the city he rescues an elderly lady, but gets hurt himself in the process.  This was such a touching story, with a very satisfying ending.

 

The Old Woman Who Named Things by Cynthia Rylant, illustrated by Kathryn Brown, is one of my very favorite picture books.  I cannot read it aloud with out getting chocked up and teary at the end.  It’s got some very mature concepts in it, but I kind of like it that Rylant put them in a picture book. The titular old lady is so old that all of her dear friends have died.  This makes her sad and lonely and so she only names those things in her life that are guaranteed to outlive her-her chair, her bed, her car.  Then one day a puppy shows up at her gate.  She gives him some food and he returns the next day.  This goes on for a long time until one day the puppy doesn’t show up.  The old woman thinks and realizes that she has grown to love the dog, and that fear of loss has kept her closed off from loving.  The ending is so beautifully written and so touching I could cry just thinking about it!

 

The Stray Dog by Marc Simont is such a simple story about a stray dog bringing joy and love to a family, but I think what makes it wonderful is how the pictures convey half the story. A family (who live in a city) spend a day at the park one weekend.  A stray dog visits them and they have a lot of fun playing with it. But at the end of the day they must say good-bye.  The children would love to keep him, but their mother says he must belong to someone.  They go home, but that week they all think about the dog.  This is my favorite spread as it shows just how they are all thinking about the dog and being distracted (spilling coffee.) I especially like it that the parents are every bit as captivated as the kids are. The next Saturday they return to the park and hope that the dog will return. This is a sweet story that we have read many, many times.

 

“Let’s Get a Pup!” Said Kate by Bob Graham shows a more conventional way of a family acquiring a dog-going to the shelter.  I love the typical Bob Graham illustrations, showing a cheerful family with a messy house, some tattoos and nose rings.  One day they decide to go ahead and get a dog and troop off to the shelter to check out all the dogs.  But what kind to get? A bouncy puppy seems just right for them, until they see Rosie at the end. She’s old and broad, but there’s just something about her.  They head home with the puppy but once at home, just like in The Stray Dog, the whole family, including the adults, can’t stop thinking about the dog they left behind.  I’ll bet you can guess how that turns out 🙂