Book Review: Every Which Way but Home

Title: Every Which Way but Home

Author: Kit James

Quote: "I'm just a dog who's got himself lost."

Barney is an Australian mixed-breed dog who loses his scent trail in the rain and can't find his way home. This is the story of his adventures getting to know other dogs in the pound. In Australia, at least, these chapters are part of a novel about how Barney becomes a television star, but the free e-book ends with Barney leaving the pound along with a set of rich, showy Young Things. 

The story doesn't specify a time of year but, since being rescued is a gift to a shelter pet, it fits into our Christmas theme. (I received only a few Christmas-theme books this year and can squeeze in a few books that were written to be read at an time of year.) 

Of course, lovely as the idea of a living gift may be, it has some hazards, and the biggest one is described in this story. At first Barney shows no interest in the visitor who volunteers to take him for a short walk. She's not his type. He belonged to a young man, though the young man's had to move in with a sister who doesn't like dogs, and the young man intentionally loosened the rope when the sister made him tie Barney. Barney didn't intend to move out, though, and misses his man. He realizes that the man's not looking for him, though, and other dogs warn him that he has to make a good impression even on the volunteers if he wants to be recommended to a good home. Next he's cautioned about making too good an impression on everybody he sees. He doesn't want to be a "boomerang" dog--returned to the pound.

My guess would be that "fostering" is the best way to keep an adorable shelter pet from being a boomerang. Foster arrangements vary; some shelters' idea of "fostering' is very venal, but the standard arrangement is that the foster family gets to keep an animal at their home free of charge, with free veterinary care and sometimes free food, in exchange for letting the animal be advertised for "adoption." If foster families really like an animal, they have ways to impede adoptions while they scramble to pay the adoption fees themselves. 

Children have a hard time understanding about "fostering," though, so the next best alternative might be described as mentoring the adoptive family. I'll always regret that nobody did this for my brother and me--my brother really wanted to have been able to train and keep the puppy someone gave us, and wanted to find another, more congenial dog all his life. I've done it with some Cat Sanctuary "graduates"--visiting the home, encouraging the adopters, recommending vet visits if needed; not much mentoring is needed for cats, but a lot of mentoring may be needed to ensure that people can live with the sort of dog they've always wanted. 

In the story Barney is destined for stardom because he has a special talent. He's a Listening Dog, and more intelligent than the average dog, too. He doesn't want to see the Treeing Jack Russell Terrier in the shelter be euthanized, so he advises the dog to learn to play with frisbees rather than showing off his unusual talent, which nobody seems to want. (Because of their relatively small and very muscular build, some terriers really can climb a short way up the right kind of tree.) He feels sorry for the big watchdog, too, so he advises that dog to be friendlier. Then he grumbles, "Everybody gets adopted but me," but then, a few days later...

You can't not love Barney and it would be fun to watch a movie or TV show about a clever mutt who's told early on that he's "not cute, or even handsome," and learns to use what he has at the dog pound.