"Travels With Casey" by Benoit Denizet-Lewis

I am the kind of person who considered my bassets and cats “furkids.” I threw birthday parties for the bassets, complete with a rousing rendition of “Happy Birthday.” (No self-respecting cat would endure a birthday party.) My daughter later admitted embarrassment in her dorm when I would call during a basset birthday party so she could join in the chorus. Her dorm mates were a little weirded out when they found out she was singing over the phone to a dog! I would leave the radio on for my pets (tuned to public radio, of course) during the day when I was at work so they would not only be less lonely, but also more informed on current events.

John Steinbeck’s “Travels With Charley,” a favorite book of mine, recounts his exploration of America in a camper truck with his trusty standard poodle. When Benoit Denizet-Lewis’s “Travels With Casey” hit the bookstores, I read it as soon as I could get it from the waiting list at my local public library. Denizet-Lewis’s purpose was to explore the dog culture of America. To this end, he rented an RV called “The Chalet,” made contacts around America with various people associated with the world of dogs, and hit the road with his Labrador mix.

I almost put the book down during the prologue, which opens with Denizet-Lewis in the office of his psychoanalyst bemoaning the fact that he doesn’t think his dog likes him very much. (I heard echoes of “Mom likes me best” in my head.) However, I kept reading, and the focus soon shifted to more interesting and relevant aspects of the trip rather than the author’s relationships with his psychoanalyst and his dog.

His trip begins in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Along the way he spends a day in the oldest dog run in New York City, Tompkins Square, getting a dose of the politics of dog parks, before visiting the Westminster Dog Show and the “pageant-parent” humans. In North Carolina, he spends some time with the “Wolf Man” and his wolfdog hybrids before heading to Florida. On the sunny Florida beaches, he practices some “doga” (yoga with dogs) before attending the Ultimate Air Dogs dock jumping event. In Texas, in the most emotionally difficult episode in the book, he visits a kill shelter and observes the processes involved in euthanasia and factors which play into decisions regarding which dogs live.

In between these scheduled stops, he makes a point of connecting with random dog owners traveling with their dogs, including some interesting interchanges between husbands and wives.

In Part Two, Denizet-Lewis visits two cowboys in Gunnison, Colorado, getting an idea of life with working dogs. For those of us who throw their pets parties and let them sit on furniture, the concept of working dogs is quite alien. (My father--raised in rural, farming Mississippi--never understood why I let my dogs live in the house.) In Seattle, Denizet-Lewis spends some time with a couple of homeless teenagers and their dog. While many people, myself included, frequently feel that homeless people should not have dogs, Denizet-Lewis found that dogs provide much-needed protection and companionship on the street and frequently lead better lives than dogs who live in homes. I certainly changed my attitude about the homeless and dogs.

On the home stretch, Denizet-Lewis spends several days in the St. Louis area, including several days in East St. Louis, “the middle of hell on earth,” with a friend, Randy Grim, who founded Stray Rescue of St. Louis. Stray Rescue deals with a lot of feral dogs. While many feral dogs (or other “pet” animals) would benefit from living in a home, Grim notes, “Some dogs are actually happier out here than they’d be in an apartment or a house.” While this circumstance may be difficult for some animal lovers to accept, it does hold true.

Denizet-Lewis does exactly what he sets out to do. In doing so, whether intentionally or not, he surely offends, or at least makes uneasy, many readers when he challenges common beliefs about pet “ownership” or pet happiness. He examines many different aspects of dog culture, some of them controversial. The book is well-researched, and in most cases, he presents his findings and avoids climbing on a soap box.

I am glad I did not abandon “Travels With Casey” after the prologue. The book holds appeal for some (not all) dog lovers and for people who are curious about the dog culture in America. Certainly, it provides a lot of food for thought.

NOTE: My companion story to this entry is “Phideaux’, the 3-legged ‘free’ kitten”