Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
5
The Shell Game
. . . the foundation ceremony can be seen as a recognition that building is both an act of memory
and also a fresh start.
—Tracy Kidder,
House
, 1999
Solo stood in Nancy Hook's training yard, brow wrinkled, staring at five identical white buck-
ets lined up with military precision. One of them had a cadaver “hide” in it—a little bit of
something from somebody who died, or from someone kind enough to donate part of him-
self to Nancy for a moment like this. One canine trainer shared a portion of his rib, removed
in a surgery. As he explained to me years later, he didn't want his own dogs wandering around
confused about what they should be indicating on—the rib outside the handler or the ribs
inside him.
For this particular exercise, Nancy was using one of her soon-to-be-ex-husband's wisdom
teeth, packed with a bit of bloody gauze. Now nearly six months old, Solo was fifty-five
