IR Blogpost 12 Last One!

http://web.jhu.edu/animalcare/policies/ether.html - this link goes to a website which explains the effects of ether.
Edgar makes it home, but he hides in the hay bails of the barn instead of making his presence known. He also found out that Almondine had died. Glen has got it into his head that he is going to confront Edgar, one-on-one. Claude even gave him the idea to use ether. While Edgar was in the barn he spies Claude digging out the bottle of poison. Later that night, Edgar went to the woods to wash and sleep. He was woken by Essay, who had been penned in, walking up to him bearing a collar with $330 and car keys taped to it. It was a bribe and proof that Claude knew he was there. Claude also tipped off Glen, who then came to the barn with the ether. He sneaks up on Edgar and put the soaked rag to Edgar's face. He got groggy, but he was able to throw quicklime into Glen's face. Glen is blinded and drops Edgar and the ether. I think he was blind from the beginning, being coerced into the situation without even knowing it. The ether spread and was ignited by a lightbulb and fire quickly spread and smoke engulfed the barn. Edgar went into the barn over and over anyway to get the dogs' files, which were the lifeline of the dogs. Claude goes in too, but only to retrieve the poison. Edgar doesn't see him. He fills a syringe and Edgar never felt the pierce of the needle. Minutes later Edgar fell unconscious and had visions of Almondine and his father. He died shortly after. The smoke was so thick by then, that Claude didn't make it out either. The dogs followed Essay and left.

IR Blogpost 11

Henry Lamb is the name of the owner. He gave Edgar a job as payment for staying, which was to clean out a shed which was filled to the brim with junk. Henry asked Edgar where he had planned to go, and before Edgar didn't really know, then he realized he was trying to get to Starchild Colony in Canada. Edgar finds Henry to be pretty trustworthy. They go for a drive and while they were out Edgar was a State Patrol cruiser behind them. After that, he resolved to leave the next day. (Changes over to Glen, the police officer). Glen and Claude go out for drinks and Claude knows that Edgar is probably to blame for the accident in the barn, but Glen didn't know this. It would be manslaughter. This sticks in Glen's mind. (Changes back to Edgar). On the way to Edgar's destination, they make a quick stop which resulted in them becoming victims of a tornado and something about the events of the tornado made Edgar change his mind about his trip. He tells Henry and they turn around and go back. Edgar recalls what Ida Paine had said. "Don't come back for nothing. It's just wind, thats all. Just wind". Going against that advice is definitely foreshadowing something bad. Henry dropped Edgar near one of the cabins he had scavenged from and two of the dogs had chosen to stay with Henry. Edgar and one dog, Essay, continued alone. As I thought before, the stray, Forte, came back more frequently and he and Essay bonded.

IR Blogpost 10

Edgar is now in the Chequamegon, a forest area. The picture is of the very forest which exists in real life. He has no actually destination in the short term. He is heading west and avoiding southern routes where he would run into cities. Since he was in a hurry to leave, he has no means of getting food except to steal from lake side cabins.

For three days, he and the dogs went without, but he finally found a cabin stocked with food. There was no one there and the door was locked, so he broke the screen of the door and got inside. As they went along, he became craftier in stealing and he got other supplies to sustain them, including bug repellent. Before that he suffered greatly from bugs. "When he looked at his arm it was covered in undulating fur. He swiped a hand from elbow to wrist, leaving a mash of blood and crushed mosquitoes"(345). That was pretty severe and it comes hand in hand with living in the wild. The bug repellent was helpful.

In a very eerie moment on the 4th of July, Edgar and the dogs heard the howl of the stray dog from so long ago. It makes me think that it is following them. This might come back later in the book.

Edgar now has a steady flow of food and is hoping to get to the Canadian border by mid-August. Unfortunately, he in confronted with a setback when one of the dogs steps on a piece of glass. Edgar has stolen food from a house a mile before, so he carries the dog back to that house and the owner was there and helped Edgar with the wound. They stayed the night and the next day.

IR Blogpost 9

On a run to the grocery store, Edgar is confronted by Ida Paine, the psychic of the town. She tells him he has to "go" unless he can find the bottle, the bottle with the poison that killed Gar. A new owner came to see the dogs he bought and Edgar and his litter performed the new commands. It mesmerized everyone in the room and spooked Claude as Edgar had hoped. However, the show he put on was embarrassing. After the new owner left, Edgar caused the veterinarian to fall. It is the last straw in the Sawtelle household. After the accident, Trudy ordered Edgar to leave and hide in the woods until she called him back. Edgar takes three dogs from his litter and they set off trying to avoid being seen by the cops. He didn't plan on returning. http://kidshealth.org/kid/grow/tough_topics/running_away.html. This link explain some of the reasons why kids run away.

IR Blogpost 8

Trudy is truly clueless now when it comes to Edgar. He does not confide in her at all and has been aloof and cold. He had always been inward and kept things to himself, but now Edgar said nothing and everything he knew was not shared with anyone. He didn't even sleep in the house very often. He just sleeps with the dogs in the barn.

Since he spends most

of his time with the dogs, he taught them new commands. They didn't provide much of a purpose, but as the dogs executed the commands, he realized that what they were doing reminded him of Claude and of what happened to his father. He wants to see Claude's reaction to these commands when they are executed. He thinks they will make him react in a way as to reveal his guilt.

IR Blogpost 7

After learning about what had happened to his father, the next morning, Edgar sat in the apple tree outside the kitchen window and spied on the goings-on. When Claude came out, Claude didn't see Edgar, but then while Edgar had been well disguised, Claude looked straight at him. That was a little creepy. Claude did not let it show, but he felt uncomfortable by the forwardness of Edgar's gaze. Claude thought that Edgar might know something. Later, Edgar became overcome with a desire to kill Claude for what he had done, but he couldn't do it.

Part of the night when Edgar saw his father, was when Gar told Edgar to find a name. Edgar found it after a lot of searching and he was led to a series of letters about a dog that was so devoted to his deceased owner that it went to the train station everyday to wait for his master, even though his master never came. The quote at the bottom was what Edgar's father's ghost had said. "I am no dream, his father had been saying. It's happened before"(269). When I read that, it just struck me as being a very powerful sentence. The dog had been seeing his master like Edgar saw his father.

IR Blogpost 6

This was a pretty intense section. First, we find out that Trudy has pneumonia. Edgar has to take over all the work in the kennel. He think he can get everything done quickly by taking shortcuts, but one shortcut created a big problem. He dumped food on the ground in a buffet style for the dogs, but it was too chaotic and a fight broke out amongst the dogs. Two were injured. Trudy wakes from the commotion and forces herself to the barn. The local vet is on vacation, so the only person she could call was Claude (who happens to be very good with dogs injuries) although she did so reluctantly. Claude came and fixed up the dogs, but after that he became a regular visitor.

Edgar finds out that he has been pounding his chest in his sleep. That goes back to when Gar died and he hit his chest to make a sound on the phone. Trudy was upset by this because it was evidence that Edgar has not been talking to her, that he has been bottling his feelings.

Sometime later, for nights in a row, he would wake up from the dogs barking, but he couldn't figure out what it was. He goes down to the barn one time in the rain and he sees a "figure". This figure doesn't go away, and it ends up being his father. This ghost uses sign to speak and proves his reality by doing commands for the dogs, which they follow. Edgar is in shock, but Gar tells him why he was there. He tells Edgar to find "what he (Claude) lost. What he thinks is lost forever". This thing was a syringe which Edgar found somewhere in the barn. He also tells Edgar that Claude has proposed marriage already to Trudy. Soon after, the apparition disappears.

This brings all the pieces together and I definitely see a Hamlet similarity. Brother kills brother, ghost comes back and tells the son. That was pretty intense.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HfT634yxmI