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Author Sophia Alexander with Lloyd Alexander's 'Fifty Years in the Doghouse'
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Fifty Years in the Doghouse (1963) by Lloyd Alexander
professes to be a book about William Michael Ryan, one of its most active and
valiant ASPCA agents for over a half-century, but his anecdotes probably make
up less than half of the book. This work
would have been more accurately and appealingly marketed as a history of the
ASPCA, especially its New York City division.
As a history of the ASPCA, I can see how the book would hold
immense charm for people who have been involved with the organization or wish
to know more about it before becoming involved.
Of course, as the book is over sixty years old, it’s more of an early
history of the ASPCA, but that holds its own value for such a venerable
institution, and they’d do well to republish it simply to distribute to their
facilities and employees and benefactors.
While there are countless fun anecdotes about animal
rescues, I particularly enjoyed hearing about the ASPCA’s founding by an aging
dandy who suddenly found profound meaning in life in his old age. He was outraged by the mistreatment of horses
on the streets, among other problems, and his early organization even found
itself taking up the cause of abused children, who weren’t as legally protected
in New York, it seemed, as pets and horses soon were, thanks to all those
fighting for animal welfare.
It’s unfortunate that this book was marketed as a biography
of William Michael Ryan, a hard-working, worthy man relatively few knew or will
ever know. I suppose it was a last
minute change to give the book a more personal flavor and popular
appeal, but this seems to have required reorganizing the chapters as well. The reader is immersed at once in anecdotes
about Ryan saving critters, for sure.
But when the unsuspecting reader then comes upon numerous inner chapters on
drier ASPCA history and its structural organization, they’ll be disconcerted
and feel a bit upside-down, since the old switcheroo has been pulled. Certain other
chapters feature anecdotes of other ASPCA agents and officers. There’s a bit of
celebrity name-dropping. Lloyd Alexander
even repeats himself on occasion.
That said, I had no idea the extent of the society’s work,
nor of their authority. They had
facilities for air-traveling animals and hosted all sorts of exotic species.
William Michael Ryan was particularly good at adapting facilities to
accommodate as necessary. From horses, dogs, and cats to monkeys, elephants, lions,
and pythons, this book is full of heroic and compassionate anecdotes.
Fifty Years in the Doghouse is the second of the last
four unread-by-me, published books that I’ve collected by Lloyd Alexander. I’m
reading them this year, on what would have been my favorite author’s centennial
birthday. He’s an incredible wordsmith
and later won the Newberry Medal for his children’s fantasy novels, but my
favorite work is his charming 1959 novel about his wife, called Janine Is
French. It’s out-of-print, as are
many of his early books.
I’m affirmed in why I never got around to these lingering
four books, however, as I do believe this and the one I began with—Park Avenue Vet—were
commissioned projects that do not convey Lloyd’s full measure of inspiration
and passion. Nevertheless, Lloyd’s
wordsmithing is apparent, his humor is often there, and he still does his best
to give beautiful meaning to the stories he tells. He was born the 30th of January in
1924, a hundred years ago this year.
