reading notes: the faithful house-dog, part b

I had a hart time picking my second story this week since both wolves and dogs were in the options. I decided to go with dogs since my whole project is over wolves and I found a great one! The title of the story is The Faithful House-Dog which immediately caught my eye. It reminded me of my first dog that I have from the time I was 3 until I was 18. He was most definitely our faithful house-dog.

I really enjoyed this story as it was written different than previous stories I have read. This story was set up in the form of a poem. Maybe I will try to make a poem this week. It all depends on how much time I have though because I do not think I exactly a natural at coming up with poems on the fly. We will see!

The story starts out by saying that the dog is a man that is always generous and that some may mistake the generosity for stupidity. But, the dog knows what he is doing and doesn't give attention to those that snare. 

Late at night, a fellow came to his home and tried to bribe him with food. He asks the man if he is really attempting to distract his mouth from its' real job of being on guard. He tells the man that he is mistaken and that he recognizes the strange act of kindness and knows that he is not actually doing it out of generosity. 

(Photo from Flickr.)

I can tell you that you must have a VERY faithful house-dog for them to not give in to a food bribery. My dogs right now would have dropped any task for an extra treat, but I still love them. They just would never be given the task of guarding our home, haha!

Aesop's Fables (English) unit. The Faithful House-Dog by Christopher Smart.