Thurber's Dogs

I bought this book at the last library book sale, in the hope that it would teach me more about dogs. I'm still trying to understand, Dusti, the latest addition to our family. James Thurber (for those of you who haven't come across him before), wrote and illustrated humorous tales, typically reflecting upon life, many featuring various animals. He's reknown for having had dozens of dogs in his lifetime. His humor, like that of P. G. Wodehouse, is ageless. Thurber's Dogs is a collection of his dog related stories. It's profusely illustrated with dog cartoons, although most of his dogs look like a cross between a basset and a blood hound. I didn't learn too much that will help me with Dusti, (although I did read that Thurber's dogs are given chocolate and I always thought that was a no-no), but I did read a wonderful observation.

Standard poodles and the way they look. You've all seen how poodles have been groomed so they resemble something that most men would never want to take for a walk in public. Well, it doesn't need to be that way. Here's how they really should be. Thurber goes on to write:

The poodle actually gets its name from the German word "pud(d)el", meaning to splash in water, for these dogs, originally German, were used to retrieve wild ducks shot down over lakes. Legend has it that a hunting dog would swim around all night in a lake hunting for a lost duck, which brings us to an ingenious explanation for the so-called Continental trim of the poodle, familiar to everybody and ridiculous to many. It seems that the back part of the poodle's body was clipped to give it greater agility and speed in the water, that the "bracelets" on the front legs and the pompons or epaulettes near the hip bones were left there to prevent joints from becoming stiff after a long cold patrol of the fowling waters.

The story goes to say that the pompon on the end of the dogs tail is there to act like a periscope and allow the owner to locate the dog in the water, which frankly sends the credibility meter into the red zone for me.

My favorite story in the book is "The White Rabbit Caper", which is an animal based spoof of the old Ellery Queen mystery stories with some really funny puns.

In googling around to try to find an image of the book cover, I found that there is a Thurber's Dogs CD (1/2 a CD actually), by Peter Schickele, inspired by Thurber’s own dog drawings. If it's anything like the P.D.Q. Bach CD's by Schickele, it'll be wonderful.

You can also find many Thurber web site links here, plus a place to buy a Thurber's Dogs t-shirt.

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( Sep 26 2004, 03:38:57 AM PDT ) [Listen] Permalink Comments [2]