WRITTEN BY JEFFREY MOUSSAIEFF MASSON
REVIEWED BY TERRI SCHLICHENMEYER
There’s a wolf at your door. Eh, more or less.
He has large teeth and a wolfish body, but he barks – wolves don’t. He will look you in the face and not mean it as a threat. And he has a large capacity to love you, unlike wild canids.
Do you know why you have that kind of relationship with your dog and not with, say, pigs or sheep? In his new book “The Dog Who Couldn’t Stop Loving” by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, you’ll learn more about the heart of the wolf at your feet.
At 2 years old, Benjy the Lab was on his third home. A guide dog school dropout, he’d also failed seizure-dog training because he hated walks and balked at most lessons. That wouldn’t do for a service dog, and Benjy was up for adoption again.
Though he wasn’t looking for a dog, Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson agreed, at the urging of his sons, to meet Benjy. Benjy was polite, but Masson was “disappointed” that he refused to obey. Still, his foster parents (and everyone who met Benjy) commented on his loving personality.
Masson began to think: why, among domesticated creatures, do dogs love us like they do? Why dogs and not cats or camels?
Scanning through history, Masson came to the conclusion that, without dogs, human society would be less civilized. By taming wolves and allowing them to become dogs that love us unconditionally, humankind made the hunt easier, the burden lighter, the home safer, and life more pleasurable.
“The Dog Who Couldn’t Stop Loving” is a fine examination of the deep relationship between us, our four-legged friends, and other people our dogs may adore.
If you share your home with a wolf of any size, this love letter to the loving nature of him and his kin is a real treat. “The Dog Who Couldn’t Stop Loving” is a howling good read.
