Chris Czajkowski’s new book, Harry: A Wilderness Dog Saga, surprised me with every turn of its pages. I’m not a huge fan of dogs in general, but when I started to read the book, I quickly felt like I was reading something out of the excellent Redwall series by Brian Jacques.
Harry is told from a dog’s point of view, in the form of an unfolding saga being passed down to the newest dog in the pack. Czajkowski’s book is full of real adventures from her life with her dogs right here in beautiful British Columbia.
Harry, who is the newest dog in his pack, is a lovable and very handsome golden dog. He has an insatiable hunger for knowledge and adventure and is told the saga of the previous dogs by his packmate Badger. Badger tells the tales of the dogs’ lives with Czajkowski from each dog’s own perspective, giving the reader a very direct account of what has happened in the last 30 years.
Telling the stories from a canine’s perspective proves to be a very good way to inject some humour into some of the more serious accounts of life in the mountains of BC. Often the dogs make remarks about odd human behaviours, such as cooking meat, or about how human noses are pretty much useless compared to a canine’s superior sense of smell. Some of the dogs’ anecdotes also give insightful reasons for their own behaviours, such as marking their territory.
Czajkowski would usually find her dogs at the SPCA and through ads in the paper; more often than not, the dogs were in rough shape. But, from the dogs’ view, the readers can see how much she loved them and how much they appreciated the life Czajkowski gave them. Even when a dog had to be put down or was injured, the reader can feel that they lived a fulfilling life and that there was nothing but love involved.
From the dogs’ adventures of life with Czajkowski I found a new respect for the companionship humans and canines have. I really recommend this book to dog lovers, and to readers who love adventures; it’s an excellent read.