February 17 - "Dog"

“Dog”
by Deb Olin Unferth
Minor Robberies (2007)

* * * (Good) Realistic

A recent immigrant to the United States finds a dog in the middle of the street. Taking the dog home, the man finds his wife unreceptive to yet another dog in the domicile. The dog ends up at the pound, but the man becomes not entirely convinced that is where the dog should be.

The dialogue is what makes this story sing. The immigrants’ speech is written in that stilted way of person first learning English. You read the words and you hear the accent, the foreignness of the tongue.

“Already we got two damn dogs, the wife said. What we need this for?
Need? he said. Who needs? Want.
Already we got, she said. What we want this for?”

My only problem with the story is the abrupt ending. It comes from nowhere, and kills the story dead. The other complaint – and this is purely selfish – is that I wish there was more to this story. I enjoy the man and the dog and the bickering with wife and pound and police. There’s potential here left untapped.