Dog Tales

The Dog Park in Marquette is open for the season. Located at Tourist Park, area dogs sniff, chase, and make lots of friends while their responsible person exercises, meets neighbors, and shares laughs at their pet’s antics. Permits are required and are available in the City Clerk’s office (228-0430). If you love dogs, you probably never tire of dog things. Here are a few books and a movie, to read, listen to or watch while your dog sleeps, tired out after playing at the park.

An Unexpected Grace by Kristin Von Kreisler tells the story of Lila Elliot who survived a shooting in her workplace that took the lives of several of her colleagues. A friend asks her to care for Grace, a rescued golden retriever. As Lila teaches Grace to trust, Grace pushes Lila to reach for the courage to do the same.

To help dog owners better understand their pet’s behaviors, experts from the American College of Veterinary Behaviorists examine common problems and offer suggestions on how they can be prevented or treated. The science-based essays in Decoding Your Dog give advice on choosing the best dog for your family, how dogs learn, socialization, housetraining, diet, exercise, kids and dogs, and other topics. They offer remedies for behavioral problems such as OCD, aggression, separation anxiety, sound phobias and others. Their goal is to help owners train their dogs to be happy, healthy, and obedient companions.

Mary Oliver, a National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize winning poet, gives us Dog Songs, a collection of new and selected poems that tell of her companionship with several dogs she has loved over the years. Both sad and joyous, these poems are a testament to the strength and depth of the bond we feel for our dogs.

In Mo Hayder’s Wolf, a wandering dog is found with the message "Help Us" attached to his collar. Walking

Man, a recurrent character in Hayder’s thrillers, offers a trade with Detective Inspector Jack Caffery. In return for investigating who needs help, the Walking Man will provide information about Caffery’s older brother, Ewan, who disappeared at age nine, kidnapped by a pedophile ring. In this complex home invasion tale, storylines lead from the old murder, from the present, as the Anchor-Ferrers are held captive and tortured in their country home, and from the mind of Caffery, our angst-driven hero, as he searches out his own demons.

Mr. Peabody, inventor, scientist, Olympic medalist and genius, and his adopted boy Sherman, travel back in time to experience world-changing events and meet some of their favorite characters of all time. When Sherman breaks the rules of time travel, they find themselves in a race to repair history. Check out Mr. Peabody and Sherman, available in both DVD and Blu-Ray, to find out how they save the future.

Jeff Miller loves dogs. He and his partner Dean, with their dogs, left a corporate lifestyle in London to purchase West’s Dairy in Hayward, WI in 2005. They also bought and remodeled the McCormick House, located a few blocks from the dairy, which they turned into a B&B. Readers of Scoop: Notes from a Small Ice Cream Shop discover how much work, decision making, new ice cream flavors and fun it took to make a go of the dairy their first year. We meet some of the colorful characters who helped the young men feel at home in this small town in the north woods. My family stopped at West’s Dairy on our way through Hayward last month. Yes, the ice cream is delicious and the staff welcoming and talkative.

In Paw and Order, Spenser Quinn’s seventh Chet and Bernie mystery, partners Chet (dog) and Bernie (human) drive to Washington, D.C. to visit Bernie’s longtime love Suzie, a reporter for the Washington Post. Along the way, the pair takes possession of a pink-handled pistol. Bernie jumps to the wrong conclusion when he sees Eben St. John leaving Suzie’s home when they arrive. When Eben is found shot dead with the pink-handled pistol, Bernie is arrested then released. Chet and Bernie must investigate the murder without stepping on the toes of the police and, at the same time, avoid a shadowy government agent and a strange bird which Chet recognizes as a drone. Chet narrates this smart and funny mystery.

See you at the dog park.  I'll be with Sophie and Tillie (when we’re not busy reading one of these dog-gone good books).

--Cathy Seblonka (with assistance from Sophie and Tillie)

Collections and Reference Librarian