CANINE COMPLAINTS

Arthur Dogson Todd proudly protects Misty Meadows Farm, and the 10-year-old dachshund and Jack Russell mix takes his “forever profession” very seriously. He lives with his “sapiens,” O’mamma and Mr. Cliff, and myriad animals, including horses, chickens, cats, and Arthur’s assistant, Pristine, a rat terrier who doesn’t actually catch any rats. Arthur has a solid system in place, with several guarding stations around the farm for “maximum range of surveillance coverage.” He consistently hones his craft, like launching the Prior Protection Program, in which he takes action at the mere whisper of danger. It’s a challenging gig; his humans don’t always understand him, suspecting the innocent canine of stealing eggs (or so their facial expressions seem to say) or wrongly referring to his keen observations (and accompanying behavior) as “complaints.” Arthur runs into all sorts of trouble on the farm—a rooster attacks him with its spurs, and O’mamma and Mr. Cliff are so distracted by some kind of “abbey” (and its interminable episodes) that they all but ignore Arthur and Pristine. The canine isn’t only about perfecting his skillset; he also tries to better himself as a dog. Nearly every experience on the farm comes with a lesson to apply to daily life. For example, he must fight to control anger and jealousy since those emotions can bring out his “dark side.”

DeVito, whose previous work was Two Spirits Here (2011), structures the novel as a series of essays narrated by Arthur. The dog charmingly defines aspects of his job, like his various barks (e.g., Intruder-Alert Bark) and his guarding station’s Comfort Level Rating System (the least comfortable being the much-dreaded post on the gravel driveway). In some of his entries, he primarily observes or reports, like witnessing the unexpected outcome of Pristine lying on the sapiens’ pillow, a forbidden spot. Arthur has his own delightful way of describing things. He employs abundant acronyms in his work and downtime—DMC (Direct Mouth Capture) and the DFHL (Dying From Hunger Look). Although Arthur shrewdly comprehends most of what his sapiens say to him and to one another, he sometimes misunderstands and memorably so: Mr. Cliff calls himself a “leg man,” prompting Arthur to assiduously search for meaning in the many legs he sees. Arthur’s combination of smarts and naïveté makes him an easy dog to love, especially since he continually strives to improve and embraces everyone in the farm family, even the shifty cats. The supporting cast, most notably O’mamma and Mr. Cliff, help round out Arthur’s world. Vagreti’s black-and-white drawings, which precede each chapter, deliver sharply defined images of, for example, tired dogs luxuriating in a human bed and the classic canine smile.