I buy a lot of old books from the library book sale and from other sources. My favorites are books about books, or outdated science, but I’m pretty much a sucker for anything odd or beautiful. I can’t remember when exactly I stumbled upon Our Dogs by John Brown (copyright 1909), but it is quite a charmer.
According to WorldCat this book is held at around 30 libraries and was intended for juvenile audience, which is surprising, but I guess it was a different era… It basically reads like an eccentric (and possibly drunk) old man pontificating at length about every dog his family has owned, and it is equally hilarious and touching.
One of my favorite entries is the last one, about a dog named Dick: “Still lives, and long may he live! As he was never born, possibly he will never die; be it so, he will miss us when we are gone… Every family should have a dog, it is like having a perpetual baby. It is the plaything and crony of the whole house. It keeps them all young. All unite upon Dick.”
