By Tom Davis
Chris Mathan is the creative dynamo behind Strideaway, the e-zine devoted to wild-bird field trials; the phenomenal canine athletes that compete in them; and the men and women who, in their various capacities as breeders, trainers, judges and so on, are the legatees and guardians of this grand tradition. My sense is that Strideaway is at best a break-even proposition for Chris and, while it’s customary to describe such endeavors as labors of love, I think it’s more accurate, in this case, to describe it as a labor of passion.
But here’s the thing: Years ago, in what amounts to a previous life, Chris worked in the UK as a publicist for an independent record label. One day traveling the back roads of East Anglia she found herself in a village with the delightfully unlikely name of—wait for it—Little Snoring.
Chris was so charmed that she appropriated Little Snoring as her umbrella name for various (little) business ventures. These include Little Snoring Books, whose most recent title is the Little Book of Bird Dog Names. About the dimensions of an index card, with a pumpkin-hued cover and 20 textured, cream-colored pages, the book has the feel of something handmade. Everything about it—the design, the typography, the paper, the choice of illustrations—bespeaks quality. The heart of the book, as the title implies, is its lists of hundreds of bird-dog names—one list for males, one for females—gleaned from dozens of sources. In this respect, the Little Book serves as a valuable reference for anyone wrestling with the happy dilemma of naming a puppy.
What makes it more than that, though, are the quotes sprinkled throughout—quotes about dogs named and unnamed from such revered writers as Gene Hill (“Just My Dog”), Ray Holland (My Dog Lemon), Dion Henderson (Algonquin), Mike Gaddis (Zip Zap) and James Street (“The Biscuit Eater”). Some are whimsical, others are poignant, one or two will shake you to the bone.
In this day and age when so much of our experience is digitally mediated and “virtual” (whatever that means), the Little Book of Bird Dog Names is a lovely exception. It is something to hold, to read and to treasure.
The Little Book is available for $11 and can be ordered at strideaway.com.
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If I may, I’d like to leave my review of one of the fine books you mentioned, “Algonquin”:
“Algonquin” is a deep character study of the dog and the three people who surround him, and is the most powerful and soul-rocking story I have seen in print or in movies. In a lifetime of avid reading, which includes works by some of the world’s finest authors, I have encountered only a few who could capture this tone of melancholy understatement of life’s mighty truths. Again and again throughout the story the author expresses what IS truth and beauty, which are, as one of our great poets has said, the same thing. The dog Algonquin, against the background of big-league field trials, is a foil to address such tenets of life as: beauty is exhausting, glory is fleeting, and the cost and sacrifice to be the very best of the very best yet make it all worthwhile.
This book speaks to any person who in any medium or art endeavors to make his heart “soar like the last four bars of a symphony” and hear “the pulse thudding in his own ears” (from “Algonquin”). And while the story contains such triumph, it also embraces the flip side, namely mortality. Yet it is not syrupy or maudlin, just real (this is not a book for anyone who wants everything warm and fuzzy). The final third of the book (which can stand alone and begins with “Whatever it was you had to put into a dog to make him great . . .”) is relentless; you won’t have a chance. In fact, I strongly recommend reading this section FIRST, as it has appeared in anthologies; then, if you like it, go back and read the book from the beginning. The finest version of this section is in the anthology “Hunting Trails”, edited by Raymond R. Camp and also available on Amazon. The editor slightly/subtly tweaked the story here and there (changing a phrase, adding or deleting a comma) to lend it even more power. This one unforgettable story is worth the price of admission, although the volume contains a few others in the “exceptional” category.
The things that all humans yearn and strive for, and the realities that work against them, have never been more eloquently expressed.