As can be imagined in a book about dogs, loyalty and love are key themes in this book, which can be seen in their relationships with each other and with the humans that also fill these pages. When the public gets wind of their escape, the dogs are hunted not just as nuisances that happen to kill local sheep and chickens but as dangerous animals that might start an epidemic.Īlong the way, the dogs befriend a sly fox named “tod” as well as a few other animals, but even in these relationships, issues of distrust exist.
In this adventure, we get to know Rowf and Snitter, two dogs who have escaped from a sketchy research lab where they had undergone horrendous testing by the “white coats.” In their escape, it’s possible that they had come in contact with rats and fleas infected with the bubonic plague, hence the book’s title. I get a sense in these books of James Michener for some reason. There’s something about Adams’ style, though, that feels almost anti-fantasy, starring animals as animals, naked and living by instinct yet with consciousness and personalities… like real animals. I’m also not a fan of the more fanciful styles, like Brian Jacques’ Redwall series, a well-written tale for sure, just not to my taste.
I don’t like the simplistic animal-characters-in-a-human-world structures of some popular books, like The Wind in the Willows or the lesser-known Bird Life in Wington. I’m not normally interested in animal stories. This story about two dogs and a fox on the run in the British countryside was a satisfying answer to that hankering. It’s been a few years since I read Watership Down by Richard Adams, but recently had a hankering for another epic adventure in the style of that bunnies’ tale.
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