The Last Dog On Earth Part 2

The Last Dog on Earth Part 2

After I finished writing the summary of the first part of the book I kept reading. From that point onward drastic events occurred. Logan needed to buy dog food for Jack. He went to the local convenience store with Jack. The owner told Logan he was prohibited to be there with his dog because he did not want his dog to get POS. POS stands for psychiatric outburst syndrome which happened to spread throughout dogs and humans. The owner’s dog went to attack Jack. Logan picked Jack up and he was able to leave the store. Before Logan left, he placed a bug spray in the microwave to heat up. This resulted into an unexpected destruction because the microwave exploded and the windows cracked. Robert, his step father, decided for Logan to go to boot camp.

At boot camp he lived a brutal life. He was also upset that Jack was lonely. In camp he had to endure the boot camp routine. At the same time his campmates were very mean towards him. One time a former juvenile delinquent stuck a cigarette in a meatball. He told the camp director that Logan was the person responsible for this. Logan was punished for this. On that same night Logan saw that it would be better for him to escape boot camp and find Jack.

Logan escaped camp. The problem was that the camp was surrounded by a forest in Oregon. Logan’s destination was his house to pick up Jack which was 40 miles away. He was lost in the forest. In the forest he found a river where beavers made a dam. He used this to his advantage. Before Logan left camp he made a survival kit. He created a device out of that kit to catch fish. As he was catching fish, Jack came to where he was. Jack had escaped home and traveled 40 miles to find Logan. As it turned out some hunters came to where Logan was. They were searching for Jack to kill her. Jack was actually hiding.

After more travel, Logan and Jack found a road. Logan left Jack tied up to a tree. Logan followed a road that took him to a convenience store. He did not have any money which meant he had to steal. Logan stole some canned soup. As he was running out of the store a cop caught him. As expected Logan went to the police headquarters. In prison he was given clean clothes to change into and eat. When Logan was done eating, someone in a cell had a violent episode that happened to be an effect of POS. He used this moment to run away from the police headquarters. He had to go find Jack and go to a different direction. As Logan was running he did not have any shoes on because he forgot to put them on as he was changing his clothes. Logan was able to find Jack again. The problem was that she had been attacked.

Logan carried the dog until he reached this driveway and he decided to fall asleep. When Logan woke up he realized that he was sleeping on a bed. Surprisingly, he was sleeping in his father’s home. Logan had lost contact with him since seven years old. He did not realize that he fell asleep on his driveway. His father happens to be the scientist researching upon the prion disease that causes POS.

The scientist’s dog died a couple of days before Logan’s arrival. In his own home the scientist, Doctor Craig Westerly, made some research about Jack. As it turned out the dog that attacked Jack had POS which was determined by a dog bite on Jack. Jack happened to be immune to POS. The scientist had to take Jack to the University of Portland to get treated and for a cure to end POS.

At the University of Portland, the scientist and his colleague became reacquainted again. As they were talking, Rudy Stagg came into the room pointing a gun. Rudy Stagg happened to be the person who advertised on newspapers that he killed dogs for a fee. The reason of why he came in pointing a gun is because Doctor Westerly’s colleague did not treat him personally. This is because a dog bit him and he got POS himself. The hospitals were full and he wanted to see if the scientist could treat him personally, but he did not answer to Rudy Stagg. He then decided to shoot Jack. As Rudy pulled the trigger Logan intercepted the bullet for Jack.

Logan was in the hospital for three weeks unconsciously. The bullet went into his lung and he was in a comma for those three weeks. Rudy Stagg did not shoot anyone else afterwards. He was wanted by the FBI. He died in jail. Jack was on life support. She was the only living organism that was the help to find a cure for POS. thanks to her the vaccine was made. Before she was put to sleep, Logan went to say goodbye to her.

As a reader I am happy that I did not give up reading this book. In the last review I stated that I was not content reading this book. As soon as I finished my reflection I kept reading and from that point onwards the story was fast moving. From the summary it can be read that many events occurred. In the last 130 pages there was not any part of the reading that was dull.

If I were Logan I would have not done the actions that he did. This is because most of the actions that he did were to protect his dog. For instance, he intercepted a bullet to save his dog. As a person I would have not done this. A person is more valuable than a dog. Jack was also the last dog around anyways. Killing Jack would have just put her out of her misery. This is because Jack was already beaten up badly. Logan’s last action to protect Jack could have been his last action of all.

Jack was not a typical kind of dog. I find it astonishing that the dog was able to find Logan 40 miles away from home. Even though this story is fiction I find it incredible that the dog was able to do this. Dogs do have an ability to track people. This is the reason why dogs are in the criminal investigation field. Without dogs how else would people trapped under debris be found.

The relationship that Jack and Logan had was interesting. Logan disliked everyone, but when he discovered Jack at the facility she became his only friend. It could be seen that Logan disliked everyone he knew because he found a glitch in each one of them including his mom. Jack acted the same as well. Every single dog she saw she would bark at them. She also disliked people because she bit everyone at the shelter who tried to help her. The only times where Jack and Logan were calm was when they were with each other. The author wanted to demonstrate to the reader that a dog can be a boy’s best friend.

As I was reading I noticed predictable coincidences. When Jack found Logan that was a predictable coincidence. If this event would have not occurred this would have meant that the author would had to write about Logan’s 40 mile journey to get his dog. Another predictable coincidence was when Logan escaped prison. If Logan would have not escaped prison he would have not been able to get Jack. The most obvious coincidence was that the scientist and Logan were going to meet each other. If they would have not met each other, this would have been two different stories. I am not an author, but if I would have made two different stories it would have not been under the same novel. I would have made it as different novels to get double the profit. As a reader I enjoy reading the unexpected.

In this novel I realized that punishments can be altered to be someone’s benefit. For instance Logan received Jack as a punishment for breaking his neighbor’s stereo. The point of this punishment was for Logan to learn about responsibility. As it turns out his punishment became his friend. This was quite interesting. When his step father noticed that Logan had a treat he wanted to change his punishment. As it is known Logan had to go to boot camp for ruining a convenience store. The point of this punishment was for Logan to become a better person. Logan on the other hand saw this as an advantage because he did not have to see Robert for a very long time. This lesson can be useful for a young reader. If someone gets punished there is always a loop hole or a benefit for each punishment.

As I was reading this book I was pensive what would happen if an outbreak like this would have occurred. The story is science fiction, but at the same time POS seems realistic. The story does put in perspective what chaos a foreign disease can cause. First off this story made the reader notice that there is much government involvement in an outbreak. Second of all, people are willing to exterminate an entire species, for example dogs. Lastly, the ability to make a vaccine is not easy or quick. I would consider that the swine flu to be the closest outbreak compared to POS.

Logan made me realize that bad people have a reason for having an unacceptable behavior. For instance, Logan broke a stereo, trashed a convenience store, escaped boot camp, attempted to steal and escaped prison. Logan had a reason for committing each action. The stereo that Logan broke was not on purpose. He was curious to improve the sound. The reason he trashed a convenience store was for his own protection to create a road block for Logan to escape the dog. He escaped the boot camp to make sure his dog was safe. Logan attempted to steal because he was hungry. Lastly, he escaped prison to make sure once again that his dog was safe. As it can be seen Logan committed these atrocities to help his dog or himself out. Logan’s intention has always been doing the right action. This is why from now on I will have the perception that when someone does a bad action it is normally for a reason and not for mischief.

If I were the author of this book I would make some changes. First off, I would have not made Jack die. Instead I would let him be “The Last Dog on Earth” for a long time. If Jack was meant to die I would have Logan say goodbye to Jack. In the story, it was a newspaper article that stated Jack had passed away. The author could have made the story emotional by making the reader read Logan saying goodbye to Jack. The benefit of writing a book is that the author is the boss of their own story.

To conclude I will give this book three stars. This is because the first half of the book was slow. The story was not beneficial by being in third person. In my opinion this story could have been better written. Books normally have a way to make people read the whole story. This story did not have that effect. By stating this I also believe that this book does not deserve an award.

The Last Dog on Earth

The Last Dog on Earth

When people think about reading a book dealing with dogs, they think it is a book directed towards girls. In the story The Last Dog on Earth written by Daniel Ehrenhaft, it is classified under scientific fiction fantasy. I still have not finished reading the book. I will though give a quick synopsis of what I read so far.

The story is in third person and it has two stories under one novel. One of the inner stories is about a lonely scientist. The scientist left the University of Portland to study on his own. Recently his colleague contacted him to see if he could help him out to resolve an epidemic in the nearby municipalities. Westerly, the lonely scientist, told his colleague that this was an epidemic of a prion disease. The prion disease has many symptoms. This prion disease was only occurring to the dogs. As it turned out people were getting this disease by dog bites. Now the lonely scientist has to research upon the prion disease again because he threw out his research many years ago. The scientist has determined that when the prion disease invades a species, like a dog, it is terminal.

In between chapters there are newspaper articles and police reports of dog attacks. In these articles there is news on how dogs are being exterminated right after they attack something or someone. In police reports there have been information describing how police officers shoot dogs right before they get attack themselves. In a news article it has been reported that the CDC has come in to handle the deranged dogs. CDC stands for Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. These officials hired by the government have described this phenomenon as a psychiatric outburst syndrome or POS. To make it sound simple, POS is when specie is on adrenaline for a long time which affects the heart rate. When the heart rate cannot handle this anymore the specie, dog, goes crazy. Afterwards the creature dies. There is also a dog trainer who has advertise that he shoots dogs for a fee or they can hire him on lessons how to shoot the dog for 45 dollars the hour.

The second story is about a story named Logan, who has to live under pressure by his stepfather. His stepfather makes him feel bad for the way he is and compares him to a neighbor, which he does not like. The mother does not really defend his son. The stepfather, Robert, has always insisted to get a dog. After a barbeque accident, this was when Robert took the decision to get a dog. Robert was unaware of the epidemic when he made the decision. He phoned a breeder to get the dog that he wanted. Logan did not want his mother to spend money while there were dogs at the shelter. To make Robert unsatisfied he chooses to pick the ugliest dog that he could find. He did compromise by calling the ugly dog he found as Jack. Jack was a name that Robert has always wanted for a dog because he had a childhood dog named Jack. As it turns out Logan did not found the dog to be a burden. Instead, Jack has become Jack’s best friend. They are always together. Both of them enjoy getting Robert annoyed. Robert has now made comments to get rid of the dog. Logan has now become attached to the dog and does not want to see her go.

This has been the first scientific fiction fantasy book that I have ever read. I did not know that such genre existed. The two genres that I was aware of have been scientific fiction and fantasy. I have read books in each of these two genres. The reason that I know that this book is scientific fiction fantasy is because there is a sticker on the side of the book that has said so. So far I find that this genre is quite interesting to read about. The reason of why it is interesting is because the story makes me pensive of how could this situation in this book relate to my future. These are the types of books that leave me wondering negative thoughts.

It has been a long time since I have read a book in third person. I say this because people can get more attached to the character if it were in first person. This story just says that “Logan was angry at Robert.” If it were in first person, a sentence could be “I was furious at Robert for treating me as an unequal”. The reason of why I make this as a comment is because it was in parenthesis “(the baseball mitt that Robert had wasted Robert’s hard-earned money, and why didn’t Logan play baseball, anyway – didn’t he know it was the greatest sport ever invented.)” (Daniel Ehernhaft 67). The person who is reading this does not have to read this book to know that this was the author’s opinion. This made me upset. As a reader I am not interested in the author’s opinion. I just care about the characters opinion in which the author of this book did not include.

The only people who I recommend this book to read happens to be the people who enjoy reading scientific fiction. This is because the book is not as fast pace as expected. This book just says what the characters are doing. It is ironic, but I believe that the title of the book is the spoiler alert. The reason of why I read this book is because I want to read what will happen to Jack. Dog lovers should not read this book because there has already been a graphic dog murder. I believe that when people hunt, they do not murder animals in such a gruesome way as it was already done in the novel. A younger reader will get lost in this book because they will not realize that these are two stories under one novel. In this situation, the reader can judge the book by its cover. Normally when the novel is considered to be great there are usually positive reviews on the back in which this book does not have. I have learned though that a best friend does not even have to be human to be one.

My First Book Experience

My First Book Experience

            The first experience that I had with a book was when I was three. I remember that it was a magazine with a red border which after I learned how to read it turn out to be a Time magazine. From what I remember  I went page by page checking out the pictures. In my mind I made up stories to go along with that picture. Every picture was a different story in my imagination. An example would be if I saw a car advertisement, I would have imagine myself  driving that car on the highway. My first book experience was strange at the time because I saw characters together with spaces. When I saw these characters my goal was to understand them which meant I wanted to learn how to read. By age six I had the ability to read and succeed in life.
            When I was five I saw that all my classmates had a common goal. This was to learn how to read and write. Some people started reading by kindergarten, but the majority learned how to read by the end of first grade. I've noticed that during this time my ability at reading was that it took me a minute to read three sentences. At the same time the maximum that I've ever wrote in first grade was three sentences with many spelling errors. Thanks to these errors I've learned to appreciate reading.
            The first book that I remember that I liked was titled "I am a Tractor". At this time I enjoyed this book because it was simple to read. It was about two sentences long in each page. This story was great to me because I enjoyed the illustrations to this story. The story didn't have any conflicts. Instead the author made the tractor seem important to our society. I choose this book because at this time I was a car fanatic and I actually was more interested at looking at the cover. From there I was excited to read.
             It's already been a decade since I have decide to read. My reading journey has gone a far way. In first grade I used to stumble with the small vocabulary. During this time I would have only read books with illustrations in every page with only a paragraph to read. My last rule was that the story couldn't take more than an hour to read. Now I'm less picky upon reading. I now read books which take five days to read. I'm already used to books without having illustrations. Fortunately I don't stumble with easy vocabulary anymore. Out of than that I have progressed more than just that. I can now read English, Spanish, Italian, math, music and a computer language. Overall I've already have taken advantage of reading. Reading isn't my foe ,but it's my partner. Right now I have a simple reading goal which is to learn how to read guitar tabs.
              I have a theory upon reading. Reading anything will make anyone intellectual and resourceful. For over a decade I've been reading but I do know that my journey has just commenced. If I didn't have the ability to read I wouldn't have been able to survive in this modernized world.