{"id":23531,"date":"2014-03-24T01:02:23","date_gmt":"2014-03-24T09:02:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sparselysageandtimely.com\/blog\/?p=23531"},"modified":"2014-03-28T00:24:36","modified_gmt":"2014-03-28T08:24:36","slug":"save-a-spaniel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/?p=23531","title":{"rendered":"Save a Spaniel"},"content":{"rendered":"

After my former wife Cathy Mitchell<\/strong> and I went our separate ways in 1981, she began teaching at the University of North Carolina at Asheville and became the school’s first full-time professor of Mass Communications. She earned a doctorate at the University of Tennessee and with an Economics professor, Pamela Nickless, founded UNC’s Women’s Studies program.<\/p>\n

In 1995, she wrote a book about the pioneering newswoman Margaret Fuller, who had worked for Horace Greeley at The New York Herald Tribune<\/em> beginning in 1844. I’ve read the book, Margaret Fuller’s New York Journalism<\/em>, which is first rate. Five years ago, Cathy published another book that I only just now had a chance to read.<\/p>\n

(After my book, The Light on the Coast: 65 Years of News Big and Small as Reported in The Point Reyes Light<\/em>, was published at the end of last year, she and I traded books cross country.)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Cathy’s latest book <\/strong>is called Save a Spaniel<\/em>, and like Franz Kafka’s story Investigations of a Dog<\/em>, it’s told in the first person (first animal?) by a canine narrator.<\/p>\n

Kafka’s dog spends its time contemplating the nature of existence but pays no attention to the role of man.<\/p>\n

In his world, humans don’t feed dogs. Rather dogs through incantation, dance, and song “call down” food “from above.”<\/p>\n

Unlike Kafka’s dog, the Boykin spaniel named Star, who narrates Cathy’s book, is fixated on how to get along with humans.<\/p>\n

She is terrified when she angers humans, whom she calls “leaders,” rejoices when one calls her a “good dog,” and is ecstatic when one gives her a treat of yummy food.<\/p>\n

Now retired, Cathy volunteers<\/strong> with Boykin Spaniel Rescue and has a spaniel of her own named Lily (seen below with Cathy in a Verve Magazine<\/strong><\/a> photo<\/em>). Lily inspired her story, Cathy notes, “but this book is a work of fiction.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Star is a dog that every leader calls “pretty,” but she requires training. She pees indoors when she’s scared, and she lightly nips leaders a couple of times.<\/p>\n

Rather than train her, first one family and then another puts her up for adoption.<\/p>\n

The first time it happens, an animal shelter comes close to having her euthanized.<\/p>\n

Finally, a woman with more patience<\/strong> adopts Star, takes her to obedience school, and eventually trains her how to stay out of trouble.<\/p>\n

Although she likes to chase rabbits, Star ultimately saves a pet rabbit she finds injured in the woods, and this cements her reputation as a “good dog.”<\/p>\n

“No one dog could have as many adventures as little Star does,” Cathy writes in the book’s acknowledgements. “However, my Lily really did save a pet rabbit’s life.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Sonora, 1971. Cathy (upper right) sitting with Bruce McKenzie of Berkeley and his wife Brigitta while I hold Andy<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Although she doesn’t mention it<\/strong>, I’m fairly certain one of Star’s other adventures is based on another dog in Cathy’s life.<\/p>\n

When Cathy and I lived in Sonora, she teaching at Columbia Junior College and me reporting for The Daily Union Democrat<\/em>, we got a cockapoo from the Berkeley pound.<\/p>\n

A cross between a spaniel and a poodle, she looked like a small sheep dog. We named her Andromache after the wife of Hector in the Trojan War, but we called her Andy for everyday purposes.<\/p>\n

One day Andy and the neighbor’s dog spotted a rattlesnake<\/strong> in our carport. When the neighbor’s dog started to inspect the snake, I quickly pulled the dog away only to have Andy get close enough to be bit.<\/p>\n

Cathy and I rushed Andy to a veterinarian who didn’t sound particularly concerned. He didn’t administer any serum but did give her a shot of antibiotics. You never know what the last thing was that snake bit, he said.<\/p>\n

With some uncertainty, we took Andy home. A goiter the size of an orange had formed on her neck, and she appeared to be drugged. It took a couple of days for her to recover, but she did.<\/p>\n

In the book, Star is similarly bit by a rattlesnake and is taken to a vet who says almost word for word what the vet in Sonora had told us. Star too recovers. Cathy notes she discussed snake-bitten dogs with veterinarians at All Pets Animal Hospital, but Andy must have provided the inspiration.<\/p>\n

The dominant theme of Save a Spaniel<\/em><\/strong> is the problem dogs and humans have understanding each other, but the problem can be solved. By the end of the book, Star has evolved into a therapy dog that regularly visits an old folks home where everybody wants to spend time with her, and she wants to spend time with everybody.<\/p>\n

Save a Spaniel<\/em> is an excellent book, and I’m hardly the first reviewer to say so. It’s available from Amazon<\/a><\/strong> for $13.46.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After my former wife Cathy Mitchell and I went our separate ways in 1981, she began teaching at the University of North Carolina at Asheville and became the school’s first full-time professor of Mass Communications. She earned a doctorate at the University of Tennessee and with an Economics professor, Pamela Nickless, founded UNC’s Women’s Studies […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":623,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6],"tags":[785,787,786,788],"class_list":["post-23531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-news","category-personal","tag-cathy-mitchell","tag-margaret-fuller","tag-save-a-spaniel","tag-university-of-north-carolina-at-asheville"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/623"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23531"}],"version-history":[{"count":61,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23531\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23596,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23531\/revisions\/23596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}