The Dog, the Wolf and God
By: Folco Terzani / Narrated By: Saul Reichlin
Length: 3 hrs and 1 min
Simply wonderful
What a find, what a find, what a FIND!!! I honestly didn’t know what to expect when I picked out this audiobook, author Terzani and narrator Reichlin both being new to me. And might I say that I’m so very proud of myself because I stayed the heck AWAY from the Publisher’s Summary and simply dived right in.
And then, uhm, I had to dive in a second time because hey! it’s a fable so obviously I, oblivious git that I am, am not going to “get things” the first time around. I’m not proud of that, but at least I’m well aware of my weaknesses as a listener of audiobooks, the receiver of stories and teachings.
The Dog is a once-loved pampered pet who’s left by the side of the road, abandoned. No food or water bowls; his collar’s been removed from around his neck, no more sleeping at the bottom of the bed for him. He waits for his owner to come back, but after three days, he’s devastated and begins crying. He has nothing, and without his collar, he knows he is nothing any longer. At his lowest point, a strange and wild creature comes to him, a wolf, and the Wolf points out that the world is filled with animals and creatures who find places to sleep snugly, who find sustenance, who are taken care of, trusting the whole time. Before the Wolf leaves, he advises the Dog to go on a journey to Moon Mountain, to see if there is indeed Something in this big old world, and perhaps the Dog will find meaning.
Along the way, the Dog falls in with a charismatic Golden Retriever who leads him astray and takes the last bit of his food. He begs to the world that he’s thirsty and an old and angry woman gives him water in a rusted out old bowl. He falls in with a pack of Wolves who share their meals with him, and he learns some of their ways.
The whole time, the Dog sees the worst in each situation, as in: He sees the angry old woman but doesn’t note that he received what he cried for, just after he asked. He doesn’t see the care the Wolves take as they step lightly on the land, the respect they give to even caterpillars and how they respect life. He only sees a pack of hypocrites as they maw down on meat.
And that’s the level I stayed at through pretty much the entire first Listen of this book. Basically, I stayed on the surface level of the story, tho’ I tried mightily to find the message as it progressed. The Golden Retriever is the charismatic guru who talks a good story but who misleads even as he bilks us blind. Stuff like that.
It wasn’t until I relaxed and just listened the second time that I understood how, bottom line? This is a simply lovely story about faith and friendship, about learning and trusting. Another reviewer said they found God in it, and I think you can, but I think you get more from it if you don’t look so hard. Sometimes, for me at any rate, as someone who was raised within the narrow confines of Catholicism, my view of God is quite tiny accordingly. But as I listened to the Dog as he learned to trust, to see past façades, to devote himself to love and to the care of one old Wolf? My view of God became huuuuuge; the Dog’s journey to Moon Mountain encompasses so very much.
As I said, I was unfamiliar with narrator Saul Reichlin coming into this, but I can now aver that he became one of my favorite narrators through this loving and fearless performance. He howls with the Wolves, he caws with the Crows, he sings with Life as the Wolves, brimming with joy shout to the world and the Universe that they are alive. Reichlin does all of the Dog’s whining and complaining, but we never get fed up with him, we feel for him even as he makes poor choices, even as he acts and judges in ignorance.
And at the very end, I found myself laughing with the Dog and Odin the Crow. Even as I swallowed back a few hasty tears. Because when all is said and done? Yes, there is Death.
But there is Something, too…
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