The question of the week is:

Who is the most cruel? The gods or the dogs?

Please post your comments in the comment box below.
You can also check the youtube "teaser" for the book
Teaser for Fifteen Dogs

as well as the longer CBC podcast on Ideas with Tom Kennedy.
CBC Podcast

Find the poem for your dog among these 3 poems, and feel free to add yours:

Is the name hidden Max, Roxy, Treble, Frank, Scarlett, Ozzie, Cindy, Billy, Freckles, Bunny, Gibson, Duke, or Indy?
Please respond in the comment box and/or add your own poem (you could win treats for your dog!!!!).

1.
The elders of the pack,
the wise grizzled ones never ask
themselves the question:
"to be or not to be".
"Listen, they say instead, listen
to the wind and to the river! Look, they add,
look at the fields and the sky and the clouds!
Because you are all that surrounds you!"

2.
When I decide to rest, I look
for shelter under a clump of cedars
because, even in the darkness of dusk, 
my eyes will shine, two piercing lights
that could betray my presence until
I fall asleep and my shadow melts 
in the shadows of the night.

3.
Some have seen me galloping by,
and afterwards, they could not say if
I was a wolf, or a deer, or a ghost.
I run through the night
rebel without a cause,
my dusty coat shimmering in the moonlight.

I took your challenge, Tricia:

Here are two poems for your dogs:

My humans had a party today
With famous guests:  Justin T.
and a certain Madame de...
Glasses of Champagne, laughter...
I licked a puddle on the floor,
it smelled like old apples, delicious
fruits rotting on the ground, after they fall...
Blurry eyes, trembling paws,
I fell on the way to my bed.
Tullamore Dew, they call this brew,
Irish Whiskey.
What did I do?


My human likes poetry,
opera, drama,
guitar and flamenco.
Her music makes me sing,
makes me howl, and she laughs...
so I howl louder because
I like to make her happy.

From our resident poet. Tricia, a contribution to the Dog Poetry Challenge:


What Rhymes with Flu?

Oh, to live up to your designation,
Resident poet,
Embedding my dogs’ names in gleaming verse
just so I could show it.

But despite my best efforts
(the fistfuls of hair yanked),
The handles Maggie and Douglas
Will not bend to such pranks.

I’ve racked my brain,
(think I’m coming down with a bug),
There’s no friggin’ word in the English language
That ends with the syllable Doug!

So I offer here instead,
My thanks for a great game,
Other entrants, I assure you,
Will be nowhere near as lame.

And just for the record,
My next dogs’ names I’ve already got,
Would it be so wrong to call Westies
Sal and Spot?

- Tricia McCallum

Jon Vacher is our winner, he found that the dogs named were:


Luna,












Teddy,













and Murphy.














Now check Sue Wilson's poems and find her dogs' name hidden in the poetic verses.

Roving endlessly through
the inky darkness
buffeted by wind and sleet.
Desperately seeking warmth
perhaps a discarded morsel to fill the belly,
at minimum access to
shelter from the storm.

With yelps and growls
a growing vocabulary develops
Prince with infinite patience
encourages our voices
to form a chorus
teaching us to echo his sounds
Yet some reject his wisdom.
Poetry is not for us.

Dog Poetry

In the book "Fifteen Dogs", Prince, the dog with the artistic mind, creates oral poems for dogs. The trick is to have the name of the dog hidden in the poem in order to get the dog interested. Here is the poem about Atticus which is, incidentally, the one where it is easiest to find the dog's name (the others are much more challenging):

In the sunny world, with its small
things moving too fast,
I shy away from light
and in the attic cuss the dark.

Here are 3 short poems that Prince could have written, but the dog's names included are dogs belonging to Whitevale residents. 

• Write a comment on this blog if you find them. The price is a special treat for your dog if you are the first one to respond. 
• You can also, if you are inspired, write a poem with your dog's name hidden and post it in the blog to win a special prize for your dog.

1. In the moonlight, your ears stand up:
    the lonely cry of the loon,

    a capella, like an ancient

    sacred song in the dark.    

2. This forest is my hood, my domain,

    my homestead, even.

   Here I can run free

   and find delight in

   the aromatic pestilence of

   mouldy autumn leaves.

3. The crescent moon lights the path.

    No sound is heard but 

    of the leaves

    the trembling murmur.

    Fear not, little one,

    run with your pack!

"Fifteen Dogs" is the first book chosen by the WACC for Whitevale Reads.
Written by Andre Alexis, it won the prestigious Giller Prize in 2015.

Says Alexis, "The idea for Fifteen Dogs came to me after watching Pier Paolo Pasolini's film Teorema. In Teorema, a god comes down to earth, interacts with and influences a family and then leaves them, and we watch the result of that bereavement. I really, really liked that, and I wanted to re-write that story in some way. The situation that Fifteen Dogs describes, the gods influencing the dogs, was one that was particularly vivid to me because I have a love for animals, but maybe even more particularly because I have a love for animal stories."

As the parable begins, Hermes and Apollo bet on the outcome of giving animals human consciousness. They choose to test their bet 15 dogs spending the night in the back of a Toronto animal clinic.

“ I wonder, said Hermes, what it would be like if animals had human intelligence.
– I wonder if they’d be as unhappy as humans, Apollo answered.
– Some humans are unhappy; others aren’t. Their intelligence is a difficult gift.
– I’ll wager a year’s servitude, said Apollo, that animals – any animal you choose – would be even more unhappy than humans are, if they had human intelligence.
– An earth year? I’ll take that bet, said Hermes, but on condition that if, at the end of its life, even one of the creatures is happy, I win.”

The canine creatures they have chosen for their bet are 15 dogs, who for different reasons, have had to spend the night in a veterinary clinic. As described by Alexis, these dogs are different in breed, size and personality:

AGATHA, an old Labradoodle
ATHENA, a brown teacup Poodle
ATTICUS, an imposing Neapolitan Mastiff, with cascading jowls
BELLA, a Great Dane, Athena’s closest pack mate
BENJY, a resourceful and conniving Beagle
BOBBIE, an unfortunate Duck Toller
DOUGIE, a Schnauzer, friend to Benjy
FRICK, a Labrador Retriever
FRACK, a Labrador Retriever, Frick’s litter mate
LYDIA, a Whippet and Weimaraner cross, tormented and nervous
MAJNOUN, a black Poodle, briefly referred to as ‘Lord Jim’ or simply ‘Jim’
“MAX, a mutt who detests poetry
PRINCE, a mutt who composes poetry, also called Russell or Elvis
RONALDINHO, a mutt who deplores the condescension of humans
ROSIE, a German Shepherd bitch, close to Atticus”

The book is an easy read but has deeper layers and implications that one first realizes. The author makes us see (and smell) well-known Toronto landmarks through the eyes and noses of the dogs, and  their newly acquired consciousness and intelligence seem to create more problems than they solve. Some dogs start to question their dependence on humans; one even starts to write poetry, shocking those in the group intent on continuing to live the traditional life of dogs. Survival instinct and acceptance of the domination of the strongest,  which are fundamental in highly hierarchical dogs' groups, are now threatened by new, too human, feelings: jealousy, competition, contempt and hate that lead to the formation of alliances and friendships, and ultimately to betrayals and murders.

I will add links and additional comments but I invite you in the meantime to contribute your comments, positive or not, with some explanations of why you are enjoying/enjoyed the book or not.
We will meet in the evening of April 16 at the WACC for discussion and refreshment.
Check www.whitevaleacc.ca for more information.