what i did last night

Posted on Mar. 16, 2006 at 14:46 - Post Comment

“When Elizabeth, a young pre-med. student happens upon Damien, a dog being used in laboratory research on her campus, she has no way of knowing how drastically her life- and her beliefs- will be changed. Without meaning to, she slowly becomes drawn into the dog's fate and is soon torn between the love and respect she has come to feel for Damien and the sense of loyalty and obligation she feels for the medical profession as well as her father and grandfather, both cardiac surgeons.
With an uncanny ability to write convincingly about life from the point of view of a canine, Diane Jessup tells an extraordinary story of friendship and loyalty. Few writers have ever shown the world of man's closest friend as clearly and movingly. For anyone who has ever loved a dog this is a must read”.  – this is the short review to the book that I bought yesterday. I am a real animal lover and I thought not only twice when decided to buy this book, I have been standing in the bookshop in front of the shelf with this book for 30 minutes. My mother didn’t want me to buy it because animal stories always  take my heart. I will  cry for sure when something bad happens to the animal and dogs are my favorites…

But I bought this book and I started reading it and I have been reading it for the half of the night. And I have been crying for another part of the night. So I got 3 hours of sleep this night, am tired, and cant get rid of the impression that something is wrong with us, people, human beings… but it is still a question who is more human – people or dogs…

Oops… I forgot to tell the name of the book… It is “The dog who spoke with gods” by Diane Jessup.

We never speak about laboratory researches using animals, I can understand the reasons why people say it is necessary, may be not so deep, but I can. But I will never be able to accept these reasons, to accept our cruelty towards animals. People who do the research are sure they have all the rights, they make the world better, they help other people, they invent meds, new surgeon technique… being a very rational person I understand that may be they are right, but being a very sensitive, even hypersensitive person I cant realize why they are right, and who gave us this right to experiment on animals. Are we gods, yes we are… for dogs, cats etc… we are their gods  and they will do everything to get our approval, they are more honest with us than we are with them…

This is a heart-wrenching and heart-warming story. It’s about the love that animals—human and non—share with one another, and the special bond that dogs and humans experience: The both of them go through a lot of trials and the author lets us into them, she lets us into Damien’s trials and tribulations, his thoughts and feelings: the terror at what is done to him, his confusion over where he is and why he’s treated in such a way, and—above it all—his sense of self and unbreakable spirit. What keeps him going throughout is the certainty that Elizabeth loves him and the unwavering hope that she will rescue him.
When reading this book you feel how you are emotionally attached to Damien. I often have emotional reactions toward  books or movies. But very seldom they are so strong… The last time I had it when being in the 4^th semester at university. I watched a Russian movie “The Barber of Siberia”(a great movie by the way) and I couldn’t stop crying for 1 hour after the end. When I watched it for the 2^nd time I   started to cry after the first part of the film. After that I never watched this movie, when my family watches it, I leave the room, I am afraid of such strong emotional reactions – I feel so empty after this. And the same I had yesterday after finishing this book. When my mother saw that I didn’t sleep and was crying I had to explain  it was because of a dog book that I’d just finished, and of course she asked the standard question:

“Did the dog die?”

“No,” I sobbed and started crying, again.

She couldn’t understand why I was crying then, the dog was ok… but I couldn’t explain what I felt at that moment.. The only one thing I know for sure my mother wont read this book...

Now after 12 hours after finishing the book I am still caught by it. This book reads like a thriller, but it will break your heart. All real dog stories are about friendship, the divine and death. So is this one. But this time the stakes have been raised. Prepare to risk your heart. Prepare to risk your soul. Prepare to meet a dog named Damien. You will find yourself angry, in disbelief and you will be rooting for Damien from page 1. I think I wasn’t prepared, it was may be too hard for me, I am emotionally absolutely empty now…

Not many books affect me enough to make me write about them. This one did. But I will not recommend it to you, because if you are not ready, don’t read it!

I

Posted by Anonymous on Mar. 16, 2006 at 22:40-Link

Guess I was and am not a great dog lover ever. So I can't and never will understand your feelings...but still crying is not the best thing to do. :P

love, abhay

Untitled Comment

Posted by lena on Mar. 17, 2006 at 09:59-Link

i know that you dont like reading and you don like dogs, you also dont like crying girls (well.. who does ;)) - but i think, this book could change even your attitude to life and to dogs.
i hope u have a wonderful day, abhay

crying...

Posted by Anonymous on Mar. 17, 2006 at 16:27-Link

i can't watch a sad movie with other people because if i see something that affects me, it's difficult for me to control my tears. many times i have to blame the tears on allergies or that a piece of dust has gotten in my eyes in order not to admit that i was crying because something was so sad or beautiful. i can't remember when the last time a book has affected me such as you. but as with everything else which has affected you, i want to experience the book so that i can feel what my beautiful lena feels. i love you, lena.