Red's Wrap
Happiness. It's relative.
Write Like a Dog
It’s not as easy as it looks to give a dog a literary personality. Especially if you’re going beyond “Woof” to create narrative that reveals a dog’s inner self.
Dogs, and I stick up for them in this way because, really, who else will, are minimized and marginalized in literature. They are treated as props for human emotion. So, if a dog is given a voice, the voice is typically that of a human speaking through a dog rather than the carefully imagined voice of the dog himself or herself.
I know this because I have now given three dogs a voice: BowWow, a cheeky, puffed up male Bichon; Minnie, a gentle, but mildly disapproving Beagle/Collie mix, and now Swirl, an exceptionally handsome but naïve to the world Alaskan Husky.
The voices of Minnie and BowWow are memorialized in a series of conversations I “overheard” and then published. Their exchanges are very political and funny and caustic and filled with BowWow’s profanity and Minnie’s gentle chiding. I don’t know this to be true because, really, how could we ever know, but I believe that the voices I gave my two old dogs represented them well. They had depth and integrity.
By now, you think I am crazy.
Giving voice to Swirl has been extremely difficult. First off, he is apolitical. I believe he would be a progressive dog if forced to choose but right now he is more akin to a wild rabbit than a political commentator. So, his voice can’t be political. Second, he doesn’t swear. This is because he never gets angry, aggressive, or perturbed in any way. Third, he avoids conflict. He leaves where there is conflict brewing and goes into the woods where he chews on wood stumps sticking out of the snow.
So, crafting Swirl’s voice has been very challenging. I want him to have a voice of naivete mixed with curiosity and a wee bit of humor. I want him to sound smart (because he is) but not presumptuous, strong but unassuming, and disarmingly honest. I think I’m getting there.
Are there weightier things to do as a writer? Of course. I will get to those things next year.
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Photo credit: Photo by Jamie Street on Unsplash
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Snow Door | wisconsinacademy.org
Listen to Jan read her essay “Billy” presented on WUWM’s Lake Effect
Jan’s essay “At the Breakfast Bar” on WUWM Lake Effect
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“Fury Cannot Touch Me,” Modern Love, NYT, 9/29/11
Ruff hasn’t developed his voice yet – he’s just a noisy kid who thinks I ought to get up as soon as it’s daylight. (I’m hoping we can convince him otherwise before summer brings sunrise at 4am.)
Smidgeon is only a year older than Ruff but grew up quickly when Pickle, her friend and mentor, died last summer. She is quieter now than she once was (except when playing with ruff). She is calmer now and can sleep almost as soundly as old Pickle did, as if Pickle had inhabited her.
Some years ago I had a lot of fun on my blog despatchesfromtimbuktu.wordpress.com creating a voice (and posts) for my Burmese cat, Chocolat. Because dogs have owners and Cats have Staff, it wasn’t difficult at all! Cats have well defined priorites in life: food, warmth and comfort. Anything else is peripheral. Alas, Chocolat died 3 years ago, and I miss her demanding, self-centred voice. And her purring.
Where have I been? Just discovered your posts with Minnie and BowWow discussing matters important to the world and us as their keepers. I look forward to going back, reading all of them as I am starved of intelligent reading material right now.
Thank You!