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Corey Wilcox Page 1 Mrs. Laurencot Non-fiction Essay Assignment The book __My Life in Dog Years__ by Gary Paulsen is mainly about Gary’s life experiences with just some of his many dogs. In the first chapter the author talks about a dog named Cookie who saved his life when he was trapping beaver during the winter. He fell through the ice and a rope fell in with him so he grabbed the rope and Cookie who was his lead sled dog pulled him up with help from the team of sled dogs. The second chapter is about his dog named Snowball. He had this dog while he was in the Philippines during the Second World War he was his best friend because he did not know many people where he lives. This dog was eventually run over by an army truck. The third chapter involves a dog named Ike it was not really his but we would see him almost every day. Whenever he went hunting Ike would be at his hunting grounds ready to hunt with him, he was a very good friend. He would always talk to him and Ike would listen. Eventually Gary found his owner and Ike returned to him. In chapter four there was a dog named he had named Dirk who he found and rescued from the streets. He found him one day in an alley and he gave him a burger he had with him, after that Dirk followed him wherever he went. He even followed him to school and waited for him until school was over and walked him home. Dirk was also his body guard because after work he would always get jumped by a small gang of kids and they would take his money Dirk stopped that dead in its tracks. The fifth chapter was about a dog named Rex. This dog was very smart C Wilcox/Page2 and a very good farm dog. He would always keep an eye on the animals that lived on the farm with him. One time the chickens were attacked by a skunk and Rex actually killed the skunk. There was a dog named Caesar in chapter six. Caesar was huge and he loved to play softball well he would run after the ball when it was hit and bring it to the closest player. Fred was the star of chapter seven. Fred was a crazy dog and was friends with a pig that Gary had on his farm. One day Fred attacked an electrical fence and did not let go of it until the wire snapped which stopped the circuit and the fence was not on anymore. In chapter eight there was a dog named Quincy who he had in Alaska. Quincy was a tiny fury dog that was not really meant for Alaskan conditions. Quincy was smart as well and knew when there was a Dairy Queen around, he could smell the food. Last but not least there was Josh form chapter nine. Gary said that he was the smartest dog in the world. He was an excellent farm dog and was very good at herding animals. When he wanted Gary’s attention he would nibble on his ankle and he wanted him to follow. One time Gary had to leave for an emergency and he put on his jacket so Josh ran outside at first Gary did not know why but Josh was actually getting his horse for him to waste no time. This was the main idea of the book __My Life in Dog Years__ by Gary Paulsen. In this story the author says “I have always had dogs and will have dogs until I die. I have rescued dozens of dogs from pounds, always have five or six of them around me, and cannot imagine living without dogs. They are wonderful and, I think, mandatory for decent human life.”(page 2). This quote is very important for society it tells us that some people cannot live without dogs in their life. This just shows how much we love having pet dogs in our C Wilcox/Page 3 society these days. Most people I know have a pet dog and they love them, they treat them like another member of the family and they are. We even cry when our dogs die, that is how much we love them. Dogs help us with a lot of things as well. When you need to talk to someone one of the best people to talk to are people that just listen and that’s exactly what dogs do they don’t interrupt you they just sit and listen to whatever you have to say. Gary had a dog named Ike that would always listen to everything he said. Here is a quote that proves this. “That is to say, I would talk, tell him all my troubles, and he would sit, his enormous head sometimes resting on my knee, his huge brown eyes looking up at me while I petted him and rattled on.”(page 34). Dogs are very good listeners and they will listen to anything you have to say this is very good for blowing off some steam. With our society these days most of us have many problems and it is best to talk about them to someone, dogs help with this. In this book it also talks about World War Two. This has to do a lot with history of our country because we fought in this war and were a very big part of it. It helps to know about this war so we can know our country’s history. Gary’s father was stationed in the Philippines during the war so as a little boy he lived there for a few years. One quote is “There were burned-out tanks and trucks everywhere, old Japanese fighter planes sitting on the ground, buildings blown in half and all too often a shallow grave or bulldozed trench with bodies in it.”(page 13). This just shows all of the wreckage that war does to a country. This is not good at all for these people could you imagine losing your home and having to live with all that debris everywhere C Wilcox/Page 4 that would be a terrible way to life. We are lucky that we live where we do. This book teaches an important part of our country’s history.