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

IR Blogpost 5

It is very clear that Edgar and Trudy are depressed in this section. I think Trudy is doing everything she can to forget because Edgar found her one day packing away everything that belonged to Gar.

It is also mentioned how difficult it is to maintain the work at the kennel without Gar. Edgar and Trudy discuss possibly quitting the business because it's too much for them, but Edgar refuses to do that. So, they decide that they will make it work somehow.

I have no idea what this was about, but I thought it had to mean something. A little girl approaches Edgar at a diner. He doesn't know her, but for some reason, she was very familiar to him, as if he has seen her before. I couldn't make heads or tails of that.

This was just something I notices, but I thought it was worth mentioning. The Jungle Book is brought up a lot because it is Edgar's favorite book. Of course I realized the connection. The main character, Mogli, was raised by wolves, and Edgar in a way was raised partly by Almondine, who never leaves his side. I thought that was interesting.

The rest of this section deals with the history and reasoning behind the Sawtelle breeding business and philosophy. The phrase, "the next dogs" is mentioned, which leads me to believe they have a goal which is to breed a more intelligent dog, a dog which can think and feel on a deeper level than most other dogs. http://www.goodhongik.com/component/content/article/3-dog-breeding-articles/15

Trudy also has started developing a debilitating cough. I don't know where that's going, but I think it is going somewhere.

IR Blogpost 4

Edgar and his mother, Trudy go to the police station to give an official statement concerning Gar's death. It was just a formality, but we learned that Edgar has lost most of the memories concerning that day. They learned later that Gar died from an aneurism in his brain.

The circumstances of the funeral were interesting. Due to the freezing temperatures, the ground was too hard to dig, so they built a bonfire for the sole purpose of thawing the ground. When Edgar and his mother stood near the fire, Trudy showed sensitivity to the smoke, whereas "Edgar breathed it in, feeling not the slightest tickle."(156) I thought that was strange for some reason. I'm not quite sure why though. Anyway, the day of the funeral was stranger because Claude shows up after being gone for a while and he comes bearing company. That company included all the dogs they sold that were alive and their owners. Of course, the people acted the way people always do at a funeral. They offer their condolences and reassurances. After going to funerals of my own family members, I can understand why Edgar was so uncomfortable. I can relate.

I think the overall idea behind this section in particular is that there is nothing you can do except survive and keep moving forward when disaster strikes.

Creative Writing

Alberto- Chilean Couple-Poem-Lessons Learned

You have shown me something

I have been privileged

You are struggling to get by

I thought I would get a taste of the hard life

I have not

Everywhere I have gone

People have been hospitable

And shown me kindness

Who has been kind to you?

You have starved

You have been in prison

And for what?

For having a different belief?

For wanting a better life?

I thought this journey would give me experience

That it would show me the hard life

It hasn't

But you have.

You have lived the hard life.

IR Blogpost 3

Edgar is given full responsibility of a litter for the first time. He, with help from Gar, delivers the pups, seven in total. He was very nervous and Gar walked him through the process step by step. http://www.labbies.com/whelp.htm

This section displays more and more tension between Claude and Gar. They argue and fight constantly, however reasons are unknown. One fight became the end of it, and Claude left after that.

Some time after Claude's departure, Gar is found by Edgar lying on the floor of the barn, collapsed. Edgar was alone and there was nothing he could do. He tried even calling the Operator, but he could make no sound. No one knew how Gar died. However, this is extremely fishy. I would bet it was Claude who did it. This was not a coincidence.

This vaguely reminds me of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo only because Harriet had disappeared without a trace, and it was presumed to be a murder. There was no evidence of how she died, or if she even died. Gar did die, but as far as the characters are concerned, it is unclear why or how.

IR Blogpost 2

This is a Bernese Mountain dog. Personally, this is what I see when I think of Almondine.

In this section, we are introduced to Edgar. He was born with a unique maladie. He was born unable to make a sound. His hearing was fine, but he couldn't cry or whimper or anything. Trudy went to many doctors when he was a baby in hopes of finding some way to fix it, but in the end, it did no good. She went to an Oracle by the name of Ida Paine, who confirmed that he would not make a sound, but that he could communicate using sign language.

It wasn't long until another woman shows up unexpectedly at the instruction of Ida Paine. Her name is Louisa Wilkes and she had two deaf parents and knows how to sign. She tells the Sawtelle's that they should learn sign and teach Edgar to communicate that way.

Almondine is also shown in this section and she is a highly intelligent dog with a strangely acute understanding of humans. It is mentioned that the Sawtelle dogs are bred based on disposition and intelligence, not appearance. Almondine is a classic example of a Sawtelle dog. She is very aware of what goes on. When Edgar was a baby, he couldn't cry, but she could tell when he was even though he made no sound. She would wake the parents and make them aware of Edgar's distress.

Later, when Edgar is older, Gar's brother, Claude, comes to stay at the farm. He was in the navy and now doesn't have a place to stay. (I noticed how Claude is in the navy, but so was the unnamed man in the Prologue...hmm). Claude acts very strangely and sneakily during this section. His thoughts, motives and ideas are not given. He does hint that he had been in prison. Nothing more however.

A stray dog is discovered in the area. It's starving. Claude insists that the dog should be shot. Gar was uncomfortable about what Claude said. To Edgar, Claude told a story about how Gar had a stray dog once, but he used it in dog fights. One time, Gar got so drunk and that he shot and killed his dog out of anger. Which is why now, he cannot shoot the stray that's out there.

Edgar gains some trust from the stray and they had a secret relationship. He named the dog Forte.

After reading this section, I get a bad feeling about Claude. He acts very strange and secretively. I don't trust him. His motives are unclear, but there must be a reason he showed up besides needing a place to stay.

IR Blogpost 1

The Prologue starts the novel. An unnamed man asks for a certain potion that will kill without leaving any trace of unnatural death. He heard music play and the lyrics were:

"I'm wild again, beguiled again,

A simpering, whimpering child again

Bewitched, bothered and bewildered I am" p.2

I just thought that it was possible that these words might be applicable to this unknown character even though so far, nothing about him is known.

Then, in the next chapter background information is given about the history of a farm and how Edgar's grandfather started the dog breeding business. The grandfather had two sons. One stayed in the business, the other left. Gar, the one who stayed, married a woman named Trudy. They had an unfortunate series of pregnancies. There were two miscarriages and a still born. In the passage during the last failed pregnancy, the weather was very obviously symbolic of Trudy's emotional state. During her depression, it was rainy and when she began to recover the weather improved as well.

When Gar went to the grave of the recent baby, he found a very young wolf pup going down a stream. He picked it up and brought it back to their house. The young thing refused all food and drink and died that night. It was surprising that the story didn't make it a happy ending. They buried the pup next to the baby. Both were unnamed.

However, after the pup died, Trudy went on to have a full term pregnancy. I saw this as a life for a life because in the book it said, "and in the dark they (Trudy and the pup) made a bargain that one would go and one would stay." p.28 A captivating beginning.

IR Book

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle

Author: David Wroblewski

180 degrees South

"Books are a great start, but there is no substitute for just going there."

Books don't give you any experience. They can only do so much for your imagination. Without actually going there, you won't really know what it's like. Also, in a book, you are reading about other peoples experiences and feelings, not your own. Only by going somewhere can you develop your own ideas and memories. Books can give you and idea or inspire you or move you, but that is the extent of their help. The only way to know for sure about a place, you have to go there yourself.

IR Blogpost 3d: The Trooper Spiderman -Todayshow

The hit movie and comic has gone to Broadway, but has been met with little success. A couple weeks ago, the star of the show, who played SpiderMan, went to make a routine jump, but he wasn't attached to anything. He fell over 30 feet, causing many broken bones, including 3 broken vertebrae and a fractured skull. He has to be in a back-brace. He is, however, very optimistic and is not blaming anybody. He has taken everything in stride. This has been the most expensive show ever put on Broadway, and this is what happens. Investigators do not know yet why the harness was unclipped, and that is one thing I was wondering. I can't imagine such a big mistake ever occurring on Broadway. Its unthinkable.

IR Blogpost 2d: My Rat is Better than Your Microscope -popsci

In a recent study, a certain 10 pound rat species has been found to be extremely accurate at detecting tuberculosis. They have shown themselves to be even more reliable than microscopes. New technology has been developed to find the disease too, but as it turns out, using it costs $17,000 for each test. The rat is cheaper by far. I think thats actually pretty neat. And the rat is kind of cute..haha 790px-Cricetomys-gambianus.jpg. I was a little surprised though that the old method they used is 100 years old. So, I am not all that surprised that the rat was more accurate than a method that was invented 100 years ago. However, rats are still not used as first line detection method.

IR Blogpost 1d: Something Smells Crabby -msnbc

Something's rotten in the state of England...and I don't mean politically. Something is really rotting. For the past few years, thousands of dead crabs line the shores of England. This is puzzling to scientists who are having trouble pinpointing the cause. They believe that it may be linked to freezing temperatures which the crabs are unaccustomed to. I think its a fairly gross problem to have thousands of dead, smelly crabs on the beach which only attract predators which will in turn, have a marvelous feast. It is also ominous because something like this also happened in Arkansas, Sweden, and Louisiana where many birds just fell out of the skies. I wonder if occurrences like this are going to continue.