Which is why I could not say with any certainty that Shawn Kobb's "Street Dog," a short story about a homeless man and his dog, depicts a situation authentically. There's one particular passage that decidedly didn't ring true to me:
It’d probably be more interesting if I said he occasionally hunts down a rabbit and returns it to me so I can clean it and cook it up for the two of us. That’d be a lie, though. I doubt he knows how to hunt rabbits, and I sure as hell don’t know how to clean one. Lighting a fire is a good way to get the cops to come down hard on you.
This came across as a writer wondering aloud if a homeless person's dog could do such a thing and deciding against it rather than the thoughts of an actual homeless person.
Otherwise though, I believed the emotion of the story and quite enjoyed it.
1 comment:
Back in the nineties I witnessed a homeless person being given dry dog food for his dog - and nothing for himself. And he seemed thrilled that someone cared so much for dogs that they went through all the trouble to do that. I think you nailed it. Homeless people have dogs because of the companionship AND the likelihood that it will increase their take from passersby. It may also, though, be a reason that some of them brave relatively cold weather rather than going to a shelter. .
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