![\"Debt](\"http:\/\/www.uww.edu\/images\/library\/blog\/our_debt_to_the_dog.jpg\")
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Our Debt to the Dog:<\/strong> I work surrounded by cat people. Really. I make up part of the mere 18% of my colleagues who have no feline friend to greet me after my work day. I have no cat tales to add to the banter at the office printer, no experience to add to the collective wisdom for helping a colleague discourage his cat from prowling the kitchen countertops. When I saw Richard Cummins\u2019 Our Debt to the Dog: How the Domestic Dog Helped Shape Human Societies on the New Arrivals Island, I felt it a fine opportunity to demonstrate the Library\u2019s commitment to representing varied points of view by including publications espousing the virtues of the minority canine community.*<\/p>\n Cummins characterizes his approach in the opening sentence of his preface, stating that \u201cThis \u00a0is an absurdly ambitious book.\u201d He has woven his extensive research into a narrative spanning \u00a0the 15,000 years of the relationship between Canis lupus familiaris and Homo sapiens sapiens. This book invites a cover-to-cover reading (a full-out scratching from belly to back?), as easily as a sampling of chapters (a scratch behind the ears?) each of which can stand on it\u2019s own, from \u201cHail Anubis: The Dog in Religion and Myth\u201d and \u201cBy Our Side: Assistance Dogs and the Enabling of the Disabled,\u201d to \u201cBlood Sports.\u201d<\/p>\n While I have neither cat, nor dog, ferret or otherwise as part of my household, I am fascinated by Cummins\u2019 presentation of the hound in literature, having missed Shakespeare\u2019s references in Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream to the hound \u201cWith ears that sweep away the morning dew\u201d (Act IV, scene 1). I respectfully salute my cousin, the Connecticut state trooper and his canine colleague, on reading chapter eight, \u201cTo Serve and Protect,\u201d and learning that their partnership has a history dating back as early as the 1300s. These are merely a few of the details that have drawn me into Our Debt to the Dog, a wealth of fascinating and occasionally troubling research into how we have treated our canine companions since their – and our – domestication.<\/p>\n Dog or Cat or…? Click here<\/a><\/strong> to take our completely unscientific<\/em> survey!<\/p>\n Our Debt to the Dog: How the Domestic Dog Helped Shape Human Societies by Bryan D. Cummins SF422.5 .C85 2013 New Arrivals, 2nd floor I work surrounded by cat people. Really. I make up part of the mere 18% of … Continue reading
\nHow the Domestic Dog Helped Shape Human Societies
\nby Bryan D. Cummins
\nSF422.5 .C85 2013<\/a>
\nNew Arrivals, 2nd floor<\/p>\n*It should be noted that while this group is a minority in the Library, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association (2012) 36.5% of U.S. households reported having a canine companion, yet only 30.4% reported sharing their home with a cat \u00a0(https:\/\/www.avma.org\/KB\/Resources\/Statistics\/Pages\/Market-research-statistics-US-pet-ownership.aspx<\/a>).<\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"