Decoded Dog
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“We both—we all—deserve the credit, if we were the kind to take it.” She wants to move on. “I’m good. Just having my practice go back to normal is enough for me. I don’t think I could have taken much more loss.”
“So dinner tonight?”
“How about tomorrow or sometime during the week? I’m meeting Neil tonight to go through our paper again.”
“Reeeally? Reviewing our paper over dinner. Now that’s interesting.”
“Yes, it is.” She will not give me the satisfaction of being amused by the intrigue, but I swear there is a smirk in her voice.
He’s attractive and straightforward, as is she. I hang up, content at how life sometimes just falls into place.
The house erupts in the exuberance of happy dogs, out of breath, doing a slide along the length of the couch. Chris is beaming. Set on high, metronome tails express sheer joy in saying good morning, reminding me of the human impossibility of simply living in the absolute joy of the moment.
UNEVENTFUL MOMENTS
JUST LIKE THAT it was over. Regnum pulled their vaccines.
No one made a fortune out of finding the cure.
Lawsuits are pending.
The surge of CRFS was easily traced to the episodic release of stocks of the contaminated lot; exacerbated by cat shows and holidays when vaccinations were updated, the constant stream of cats to shelters, and mouser cats versus farm dogs, the classic species rivalry.
There is still a contingent that doesn’t trust the science, scientists, or a rational explanation. Having found a way to monetize their campaign, Canine Crusaders continues to promote their theory. There has to be something more, something the public is not being told. There has to be an ulterior motive, a conspiracy. Like anti-vaxxers or climate change deniers, it’s an uphill battle when our own media encourages the public to pick and choose what story best fits their position, too often discarding overwhelming scientific evidence. Overwhelming evidence that is the backbone of scientific integrity.
Unremarkable at first, CRFS left an indelible scar that would never fully fade from memory. But the sadness has lifted. No longer are there daily stories about the loss of dogs to a mysterious disease.
The summer has brought a blanket of warmth and endless vignettes on social and other media of finding new dogs to love. The lazy, long days are filled with puppy breath and fuzzy feet. Hearts mend as new bonds form.
Some events in our lives are obviously memorable, like when I was a child watching the mountains recede out the back window of the car that carried me away forever from my childhood home in Colorado, or the summer I discovered I could swim when my sister and I upended our raft in the middle of the deep end, or when no longer sleep-deprived with my three-month-old in my arms I grasped the magnitude of what I held. You know when these moments are happening that they will become unforgettable, placed in that decorated box on a shelf in the brain closet, easily accessed to retrace and remind.
But there are other moments, arguably of equal value, that float in a fog, leaving not so much a memory but more of a thread that runs through the fabric, gently surfacing when you smell the season’s first snowfall, you hear the opening riff of a song from your life’s timeline, or as you shed the day’s weight through the bond with another species. Uneventful but palpable.
Life brings the predictable and unexpected, heartbreak and contentment. We grow up, we grow old, we move on.
The one constant that I know, is that life is better with a dog.
End
REFERENCES
Please note this is not an exhaustive list of sources of information, but a list of references to credit the work of others that directly influenced this novel; to document facts that are not common knowledge; and to give interested readers the information necessary to identify and retrieve those sources. Numerous other sources provided confirmation or validation of generally accepted or known ideas and concepts, for which I am expressly grateful.
American Pets Product Association (2018). Pet Industry Market Size and Ownership Statistics. Retrieved from: americanpetproducts.org/press_industrytrends.asp
ASPCA (2018). Shelter Intake and Surender. Pet Statistics. Retrieved from: aspca.org/animal-homelessness/shelter-intake-and-surrender/pet-statistics
T. Bellumori, T. Famula, D. Bannasch, J. Belanger, and A. Oberbauer (2013). Prevalence of inherited disorders among mixed-breed and purebred dogs. AVMA 242 (11), 1549-1555.
A. Boyko, P. Quignon, L. Li, and J. Schoenebeck, …R. Wayne (2010). A Simple Genetic Architecture Underlies Morphological Variation in Dogs. PLoS Biol. Aug 10;8(8)
J. Goldman (2018). What DNA From Pet Foxes Teaches Us About Dogs—And Humans. National Geographic, August ‘18.
International Monetary Fund World Economic Outlook (2018).
D. Irion, A. Schaffer, T. Famula, M. Eggleston, S. Hughes, N. Pedersen (2003). Analysis of Genetic Variation in 28 Dog Breed Populations With 100 Microsatellite Markers. J Hered 94(1): 81-87
L. Pray (2008) Eukaryotic genome complexity. Nature Education 1(1):96
B. vonHoldt, E. Shuldiner, I. Koch, R. Kartzinel, A. Hogan, L. Brubaker, S. Wanser, D. Stahler, C. Wynne, E. Ostrander, J. Sinsheimer, M. Udell. Structural variants in genes associated with human Williams-Beuren syndrome underlie stereotypical hypersociability in domestic dogs. Sci Adv. 2017 Jul 19;3(7)
vonHoldt, B. M., Pollinger, J. P., Lohmueller, K. E., Han, E., Parker, H. G., Quignon, P., … Wayne, R. K. (2010). Genome-wide SNP and haplotype analyses reveal a rich history underlying dog domestication. Nature, 464(7290).
E. Ratliff (2011) Taming the Wild. National Geographic Magazine March, 2011.
Van Morrison, Beside You, Astral Weeks (1968)
FROM THE AUTHOR
I want to thank all of the wonderful people who helped this book become a reality. I am especially grateful to Wayne Matten, Jane Koska, Dennis Gilbert, and Jolanda Janczewski who served as in various capacities as editors and proof readers, and challenged me on scientific accuracy. To my nephew, Chris Matten, for his amazing talent on the cover art and other illustrations. And my daughter Andrea who graciously helped with references, and Rox who paid more attention to detail. Thank you to Lynn Franklin, author of the Jeweler’s Gemstone Mystery Series, for her encouragement and guidance. Thank you to the countless individuals within the Alliance of Independent Authors for their sage advice.
As this is my first novel, I followed the age old saying, write what you know; and having had a dog by my side since the age of three, I know dogs. But, I do not claim to know everything about dogs. Anyone who has been to my home and been greeted by my unruly poodle mob, knows that I am especially deficient in knowledge of how to train them. So I did a significant amount of research to verify the science and background of the domestic dog world, in the hope that readers can be confident in and enjoy some of what I learned.
I am grateful to all of those who share their lives with dogs. To those who foster, shelter, and adopt dogs; to those who dedicate their profession to the welfare of dogs; and to those who carefully breed pure bred dogs using all the tools available – like genetic testing – to maintain the best we humans have created in these breeds. I respect that there are differing opinions on domestic animal breeding, but I believe we can all agree that no puppy should be born that is not wanted.
I am grateful to those who have helped me understand poodles and poodle breeding, especially Marion Banta, Rhonda Pacchioli, and Teresa Wellman.
I also am thankful for those in the scientific community who continue to push for better diagnoses, treatments, and cures in veterinary and human medicine—epidemiologists, virologists, pathologists, geneticists, and the myriad of other disciplines – I stand solidly in the belief that sound science is critical to a progressive and just world, and I recognize the critical need for institutions, especially those funded by tax payers, responsible for basic and applied research, including the NIH, CDC, USDA, and FDA. They need our support financially and politically.
/> Finally, thanks to the Ladies Pub Club of Clifton, for keeping me sane – Diane, Felecia, Kari, Laura, Lisa, and Liz – love you guys! And love to Jake, two Abbys, Sofie, Chuck, Chief, Izzy, Spencer, Harley, Cody, Luke, Quentin, Pete, Atholl, Clover, Jake, Bonnie, Wolfie, Tate, Doice, Charlie, and Keter whose faces make up the cover background.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
As evident in her writing, Dianne is a life-long dog lover, and built the foundation of this book on that love, as well as her education and training as a scientist, and her awe of the complexity and fragility of biological systems.
Dianne has owned poodles and mutts, bred and rescued standard poodles, and is an active supporter of poodle rescue and research in canine genetic diseases. She has provided life-long care for Addison’s dogs, and donates a portion of this book’s profits to Addison’s dog research.
Dianne has a Ph.D. in genetics, having researched the evolutionary genetics of the Canine and Felidae families, as well as orang utans. She has worked for the past twenty plus years supporting research that underpins science-based policy and regulatory decision making.
She is the co-author of the play Maid for Dogs, and producer of the Clifton Dinner Theater.
This is her first novel, and she is determined to have a second career as a novelist. She welcomes feedback at dnjanczewski@gmail.com.
She lives in Virginia with her husband, connected almost daily to her two adult daughters, and of course, a house full of dogs.
Table of Contents
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Contents
Copyright
Dedication
PROLOGUE. A Perfect Moment
First to Fall
Dog Days
Tumbling Slowly
Money and Fame
Life is Short, Play With Your Dog
Mystery Solved
The Dead of Winter
Back to Borneo
A Cold Day in Hell
No Whining on the Yacht
Out of the Mouths of Babes
A Line in the Sand
A Perfect Moment
Scent Marking
Dog Gone
Uneventful Moments
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Blank
References
From the Author
About the Author
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