Review: Throw the Damn Ball by R.D. Rosen, Harry Prichett, and Rob Battles

Have you ever wondered what goes on in a dog's brain? According to this short and completely entertaining book of "Classic Poetry by Dogs," quite a lot of erudite thoughts go through their heads. Of course, they do spend a lot of time rhapsodizing about stinky smells, flatulence, poo, and licking their hind ends, but then even the most poetic among them is still a dog. Many of the poems here are based on well known works and it was good fun to see if I could figure out which poems served as inspiration. Some of the poems are hilarious and others are sweet, some saucy and some poignant. All in all, a fun little book to dip into for dog lovers.

And then in honor of the clearly talented dogs in the book, I decided that my own dogs, being named Gatsby and Daisy, were very obviously literarily inclined as well. And so here are poems from my pack:

A lap,
A lap,
My kingdom for a lap.
And maybe a nap.
--Gatsby

Whose bowl this is I’m sure I know
So sad to see it empty though;
Bereft of kibble’s crunch and smell
Why must dinner come so slow?

Time moves slowly on hobbled feet.
But I wait and dream of meat
And hours to go before I eat,
And hours to go before I eat.

--Daisy

Thanks to the publisher for sending me the book for review and sincere apologies to William Shakespeare and Robert Frost.