Judged On Choice Probably The Most Stupidest Library Book I've Ever Borrowed

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Regular readers will know that as I'm a domestic wolf a phobic my only real interest in dogs is how to avoid them because I was chased by an Alsatian (I'll never call then German shepherds) as a child. So when I looked at the library for the next choice to borrow in my daft ambition to read as many books as possible there I thought long and hard before picking it up being next on the shelf.

But I did.

Yes I Know....

So let's start with the bad news. This is a readable book (published in 2016)about the "partnership between humans and dogs". Ms Humble not only obviously loves her subject matter (she has three of the wolves), she can write about it interestingly as well. Furthermore living in Wales (well certainly at the time of the book's publication) she shows credible respect for the history and the Welsh language.

It was odd reading this how other books that I've chatted about in this blog come back into play. Ms Humble trains as a shepherdess, one of the reasons being to teach her border collie to be a sheep dog. I remembered Emma Grey's amiable book (with the all too glamorous cover) of doing the same thing in Northumbria. Similarly when discussing how dogs can help some people with addition (along with the chapter regarding guide dogs a point I really cannot argue with) I recalled the artist's John Dolan's  John & George.

But let's be clear about sheepdogs they are also guard dogs confining the sheep from escaping the farm. Ms Humble recounts how a group of sheep escaped and became feral. And when I mean I mean feral I mean getting as far away from humans as possible given that you don't have any money for a bus ticket and quietly just eating grass. Of course feral when applied to dogs would mean them reverting to wolves.

A plan was drawn up to capture these dangerous sheep. You know what it was called? Operation mint sauce. No wonder they wanted to escape.

Reading this chapter did make me wonder whether there is a parallel world where the sheep have taken over and dogs plead their innocence by saying "I was only following orders".

I should mention in passing that this book did emphasise my ignorance of the animal world. Apparently there's a Wolf Science Centre in Vienna. Good. Keep it there.

But ultimately for those of us who are afraid of dogs one thing above all comes into play.

They bite.

So if you love dogs read it. You will like it.

If you don't love dogs you'll pass it anyway.

If you don't love dogs but have this mad wish to read every book in your local library (whilst they still exist) then don't bother. I've done that job for you.

Until the next time.