Many years ago, when I was a small child, my family’s dog, Grendel, chased a cat down in our yard and slaughtered it right in front of my eyes. I have never seen a look so terrible as the haunting, wide eyes of the cat which quickly disappeared in an explosion of caterwauling and orange, tabby fur. At the tender age of three this was extraordinarily unnerving, and I consigned myself to the indoors for the next eighteen months of my life. During this self-imposed imprisonment I became familiar with what I now know are called “books”.

One of my first reads was a small hard bound book called The Whales Go By. It is the story of a young baleen whale separated from his pod during their migration and his experiences with loss, a storm, and dangerous killer whales. This was soon followed by Scupper, The Sailor Dog, who goes to sea to follow his destiny and is shipwrecked along the way. Read the rest of this entry »