Tales from a Dog Catcher

Tales from a Dog Catcher


"In the tradition of James Herriot's All Creatures Great and Small and John Grogan's Marley & Me, Tales from a Dog Catcher is a humorous and heartwarming collection about love, laughter, loss, acceptance, and fate, in the world of an animal control officer."
- Publishers Marketplace"

...Writing in a style reminiscent of James Herriot’s All Creatures Great and Small, she recalls her experiences in 22 vignettes that dispel and replace stereotypes with an image of a compassionate individual concerned with animals and people alike. Like Herriot, she is a gifted storyteller and an astute observer.... At times amusing and heart-wrenching, this memorable book deserves wide readership. Highly recommended for public libraries. "
- Library Journal (starred review)

... In Tales from a Dog Catcher, she brings together these experiences in a magical book that is funny, touching, and heartrending by turns." - Amazon.com

"This is a wonderful book. I had a hard time putting it down. I was laughing and tearing up, sometimes at the same time! I didn't want it to end..."-Nina Killham, Bestselling Author of Believe Me, How to Cook a Tart, and Mounting Desire

"Having good writing skills isn't a prerequisite for getting a job as a dog catcher, but the two certainly make a good combination for the author of Tales from a Dog Catcher...Some stories are funny - some may move you to tears. I may be barking up the wrong tree, but I think they will appeal to animal lover's and even those who don't care for pets will enjoy reading about the eccentric people involved in these tales from a dog catcher." ...Phyliss Davidson - INFO Metropolitan Library System Magazine. Oklahoma

"Summer reading! Enjoy tales about hero hounds, crazy cats. Great dog books just made for Summer Reading! ... Here's a list of some of our favorite books ... Tales from a Dog Catcher by Lisa Duffy-Korpics is a collection of real stories about people and the animals they encounter...this book is in the tradition of "All Creatures Great and Small" by James Herriot. The stories are funny, sad, uplifting and even silly." ...Laurie Denger - Dayton Daily News. Ohio

"...In Tales from a Dog Catcher," author Lisa Duffy-Korpics recounts her years as an animal control officer in a series of fascinating and engaging stories...the stories can be funny and heartbreaking, often simultaneously...However, there is no shortage of entertaining encounters. Animal lovers will appreciate the candid tales, and enjoy a new perspective on an often unexamined profession."...Dog Channel.com

"Lisa's numerous on-the-job adventures are compiled in this collection of sad, charming, delightful and humorous short stories. ...Animal lovers of all ages will appreciate Lisa’s recollections of her memorable encounters with domestic animals and injured wildlife in the beautiful Hudson Valley." ...Rachelle Nones - Tri County WOMAN magazine. New York



Sunday, January 1, 2012

Dogs Riding in Cars

photo courtesy of animalclinic.ca
On New Year's Day it's probably common to reflect on years past...or look optimistically towards the future.
Maybe to reevaluate old habits and forge new paths. Today, however, something struck me that just needed to be addressed here.

Dogs.

Dogs riding in cars.

While driving to pick up my daughter from her friend's house, I saw something that made me hesitate and struck me much the way odd things sometimes tend to strike people.

Thoughts like these are probably more common than you would think. As a matter of fact, if I were capable of seeing people's thoughts in bubbles over their heads like in a comic strip, I bet I would see a lot of thoughts like this. An awareness that some of the things we do in this era are so far removed from what is natural that if you thought about anything completely objectively you would have cause to stop for a moment and say "Hmmm, okay"

This goes against the grain, the nature of things. Like the dog riding in the passenger seat of a rusty old Trans-Am, (they stopped making those didn't they? Probably a good thing.), sitting up in the front looking quite dignified and entitled. A large Pit Bull Great Dane type of dog who, if it had been summer, might've had his paw leaning out the open window, wearing sunglasses. That's when

I thought. Dogs...descendants of wolves, pack animals, capable of hunting dinner and devouring it raw in a matter of moments...these powerful animals who rely on instinct and a keen sense of smell, are now riding shotgun in Trans-Am's.

What would his canine ancestors think? I wonder if the dog had his own presets on the radio station or played some of his own music....probably on an 8-track player given the year of the car, but I digress....still, the thought of humans driving around highways with dogs seemed to me at that moment to be really funny. It was like one of those thoughts I have sitting in the parking lot at Target when I think that somewhere, someone among the crowd of people getting swallowed up and spit out by those automatic doors has just purchased a chia-pet.

Perhaps this will make sense to some of you, or not. However I know out there that there are those of you who may think the way I do. That the next time you see a poodle wearing rain boots and a hat you may find yourself wanting to scream "Oh...the humanity!!".

The comic genius Charles Schultz was the master of this type of thinking. His characters often looked at life in a way that cut through the expected and right to the crux of the matter. One of my favorites is a line where Linus is sitting still, then makes an uncomfortable face followed by a look of fear and puts his hand over his mouth and says "Suddenly, I'm aware of my tongue!"

I guess you could say I had one of those Linus moments. The dog in the car probably feels as natural there as he would running through a field...maybe even more so. Who knows....as I look around my home with its microwave, convection oven, toaster and crock pot I think to myself that all these things do is provide a way to heat food to eat, and I feel a little like that dog...that I should shed some of these trappings meant to make life easier because maybe they're entrapping me?

 But then I realize that these are just thoughts and that the best way to handle these would be to go on my computer and blog about it, because after-all, in the human world I am the equivalent of small terrier.....I think I'm big and strong but in reality I'm small and weak and maybe a tad neurotic with a bit of an attitude....and I love my iPad and laptop and the internet. I'm not about to go outside and chop wood and carry water - although somewhere in my psyche I understand how far removed I've become from my ancestors who would likely look at me strangely.

Like a dog riding in a Trans-Am.
The Lyon Press, Guilford,Connecticut
The Lyons Press is an imprint of The Globe Pequot Press
Cover design by Georgiana Goodwin
Cover photographs © Shutterstock

Printed in the United States of America
US $16.95 / CAN $19.95
Tales from a Dog CatcherDuffy-Korpics © 2009
Dewey: 636.7
ISBN:1599214989
Subject:
Dogs — New York (State) — New York — Anecdotes. Dog rescue — New York (State) — New York — Anecdotes. Duffy-Korpics, Lisa