Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
2
Death and the Dog
Although they have been cherished for their good qualities—hunter, guard, herder, friend, work-
er—the inverse dog is the spoiler of human graves and eater of corpses, the keeper of hell's gates. . . .
—Paul Shepard,
The Others: How Animals Made Us Human
, 1997
Two months after Solo's arrival, I found myself in Nancy Hook's backyard in Zebulon,
perched on the edge of an aluminum folding chair. Nancy slumped back in her sturdy canvas
chair, her hand wrapped around a foam beer insulator wrapped around a Gatorade. She was
mellow except for the warning she occasionally gave the dogs quarreling in the kennels next
to the yard: “Don't make me come over there.” They stopped. It was mid-July and too hot to
fight, in any case. Japanese beetles clattered past. Tent caterpillars had wrapped up and skel-
etonized half the leaves of the huge pecan tree we sat under.
I knew Nancy from when I'd taken Zev to her parking-lot obedience class some years be-
fore. She had been welcoming and kind to both of us, though not particularly interested in
Zev. He had been so mild-mannered that he tended to disappear in a dog crowd.
