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Stanley & Sophie Book Review

Posted on Friday, April 17th, 2009

 

Here is a great book review written exclusively for the Star Pets Blog. This book is available from Amazon

Book: STANLEY & SOPHIE
Author: Kate Jennings
Review by: Jeffrey Phillips SC

 

The Australian expatriate writer, Kate Jennings, living in New York, has penned a delightful memoire about keeping two border terriers in her New York apartment. The first was Stanley who arrived in 2001 whom she describes as an “aristocratic alpha male border terrier” and the second, who arrived to keep Stanley company in 2004 was Sophie. She describes Sophie as “a streetwise, scrappy orphaned alpha female, also a border terrier, not to be confused with a border collie, an altogether different kind of dog.” In relation to dog owners in New York, she said this of their dogs: “The dogs in this town don’t just resemble their owners, they act like them. If it is possible for a dog to have attitude, in the sense of studied, defiant approach to one’s environment, then New York city dogs have it in spades.”
The author had grown up on a farm with sheep dogs and as far as she was concerned, dogs were meant to work. It was difficult therefore in having such dogs in an apartment and these dogs needed plenty of walking and attention. Whilst in the apartment, the dogs were downbeat if not depressed whereas when their walker turned up, both Stanley and Sophie greeted the walker with enthusiastic joy. After having been in New York for some time, Kate Jennings did not want a dog and never even thought of having a dog until a friend of hers offered her Stanley with whom she fell in love on first sight when he sniffed around her apartment. Some time later, Sophie arrived as company for Stanley which in the circumstances, had to be a good idea.

These were two tough little dogs. Stanley took on the large ones and Sophie the small. It transpired that dog owners of the neighbourhood crossed the street when they saw both Stanley and Sophie coming. The author’s acute observations of the dogs provides an anthropomorphic interpretation of their lives, that is ascribing human attributes to these two canines. The author neatly dissects their distinct and deep personalities. She accepts “dogs are dogs, humans are humans, different species but all of us are animals, more alike than dissimilar, not so far apart on the evolutionary scale as we think, wanting the same basics from life: food, love, tenderness, sex, shelter, fun, purpose, companionship.” For anybody who has had dogs or cats, the truth in this statement that we do see so many human characteristics in our pets is most apt.

Unfortunately, the owner and author realised that she cold not keep these energetic, inquisitive dogs for too long. She found it was like keeping “bees in a bottle” in her two bedroom apartment and ultimately had to give them up.

This book is in a long line of books written by serious authors about their pets such as “Bashan and I” by Thomas Mann or “My dog Tulip” by J. R. Ackerley. It would be a welcome addition to any dog or pet lover’s library.

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“Stanley & Sophie Book Review”

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