THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT

                         THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
                 Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, June 17, 1994                    TAG: 9406170527 
SECTION: LOCAL                     PAGE: B1    EDITION: FINAL  
SOURCE: Guy Friddell 
DATELINE: 940617                                 LENGTH: Medium 

THE POETRY OF LITERATURE ABOUT LADS AND LASSIES

{LEAD} ``Shades of Albert Payson Terhune!'' I exclaimed, starting a column about collies Monday, and attributed the authorship of ``Lassie Come Home'' to Terhune. I should have evoked ``Shades of Eric Knight.''

Knight wrote of Lassie, several of you reminded me. Terhune wrote a whole kennel of dog stories, the first one, in 1919, being ``Lad: A Dog.'' In 1928 came ``Lad of Sunnybank,'' and a pack of books about other canines - Bruce, Chips, Treve, Buff, Bear and Wolf.

{REST} English-born Knight fought as a Canadian in World War I, and, having become a U.S. citizen in 1942, was a major on a mission in World War II when he was killed in an airplane crash. Lots of good stories went down with him.

I cut my teeth on Terhune's stories. In Norfolk's Kirn Memorial Library, where I was looking for titles the other day, librarian Carl Griffler said he had read all of Terhune and had named, at age 8, the first of three collies after Terhune's Bruce.

When 90-pound Bruce jumped up on his bed, Griffler couldn't budge him. Now he owns three Shih Tzus. ``A small dog can do anything a big dog can and takes up a lot less room,'' he said. ``That's what I've discovered.''

Has there been a book about a Shih Tzu? I'll tell you, one day, of a brave, resolute Shih Tzu that I met last winter late on an icy night.

Even better than Terhune was Jack London, who wrote in ``The Call of the Wild'' of Buck - half Saint Bernard, half Scottish shepherd - who became the lead dog of a sled team and then head of a wolf pack.

Reversing his field, London wrote of White Fang, a wolf-dog who became tame, sort of.

Another author of dogs was James Oliver Curwood. He gave us ``Kavan, the Wolf Dog'' and ``The Son of Kavan.''

Among those chiding me about slighting Knight was Leslie Hanan of Suffolk, who asked if I had read the fantastic exploits of Knight's Sam Small, a kind of Paul Bunyan in Yorkshire. I haven't but I will.

My discourse on a chow of my boyhood, which bit no one because no one got near it, drew a reproof from Kimberly Kavanagh. A chow started a fight with at least three dogs before attacking her basset hound Ernie. Please extend to him my heartfelt regrets.

ASPCA president Roger Caras warns in his book that the chow should be watched around other animals and that it is not the best breed for a household with children. It may be fine with an owner's children, ``but their friends are another matter,'' Kimberly notes.

Margaret Gentry remembers reading every Terhune story she could get her hands on and mentions ``Gray Dawn,'' one I missed.

In a wistful letter, Mary Arnold recollects her golden retriever, Nugget, whom she lost last summer after 13 years of Nugget's loyal, loving companionship.

Lord, how they wind and wag themselves into our hearts and lives. Bless 'em!

by CNB