Book Review: A Man and His Maniac: The Bunkie Story (second edition) by Charles Franklin Emery III

Title: A Man and His Maniac: The Bunkie Story
Author: Charles Franklin Emery III
Genre: pet memoir
Publisher: Bunkiedog Press
Pages: 101 pages

Purchase your copy here!

I have to confess.  I am a dog lover with a capital D & L, so when I found out Charles Franklin Emery III had a dog book out, I immediately emailed him to see if I could review it.  After the deaths of two of my dogs, Baron and Saba, nearly thirty-five years ago, and  dealing with the pain that was involved in their senseless deaths (we had to give them away because mother-in-law didn’t like them digging in their yard and they died at the new owner’s house within a week), I vowed no more dogs.  The pain was too much to take.  About twenty years later, I took the chance and adopted a cocker spaniel.  Four years later I adopted another – a boy this time to mate with the female (which went bust when Max couldn’t figure out which end was which) and now have added a Sheltie to the mix. So, I’m back in the ring again, not without its own shares of heartache as I go through one close call after another with the boy Cocker Spaniel, but it made me realize how void my life was without these furry companions and I will do anything to keep them healthy, happy and loved (my vet bills prove it).

Charles Franklin Emery III’s new book, A Man and His Maniac: The Bunkie Story (second edition) rekindled my love for dog memoirs.  I thoroughly loved Homer’s Odyssey by Gwen Cooper as well as Buckley’s Story by Ingrid King.  When I was growing up, I wanted a Lassie more than I wanted Chatty Cathy.

Charles starts out by telling the story of how this cuddly yellow lab puppy came into his life.  Charles was in the Navy and even though his wife refused the dog, Charles stuck by his guns and got him from an old lady selling puppies on the street for ten bucks.

“I was drawn to the yellow pup and stopped to pick him up.  I cradled him in the crook of my elbow on his back and waited.  He just lay there looking up at me with those big, soft, brown eyes; he was very compliant…Oh, how that dog fooled me.”

I had to laugh when I read that because that’s the way Max started out.  Within a few weeks, we were calling him Demon Dog.  And as Charles describes Bunkie at his first vet office visit, the two must have been soul brothers in another life.

“He tore that place up.  He pissed.  He crapped.  He demolished a Boys Life magazine.  He terrorized a Penkingese…that was in the first fifteen minutes that we were in the office.“

As I’m reading, I can relate to the rambuctiousness of Bunkie.  He is pure dog but possesses an uncanny ability to stay alive despite being run over twice and other calamaties that happened throughout the book to him.

But throughout the book, one thing that shows that ranks up there with stupendous is Charles’ ability to go with the flow with Bunkie which comes from a place in one’s heart called “unconditional love.”

One of my most favorite quotes in the book goes like this:

“The love of a good woman and the love of a good dog are two of life’s greatest treasures.  The love and  devotion of the dog will last as long as the dog does or in some cases, as long as the food lasts.  The dog’s devotion is unconditional for the most part; the woman’s love and devotion is dependent on reciprocity.  This is how human love should be.   There should be no doubt in your loved ones mind that you love them; that goes for man or beast.”

Charles found that unconditional love from Bunkie he might not have found anywhere else and as we follow the story of Bunkie, we are reminded of how precious our fur children are and that each moment of time we have together should not only looked upon as time well spent, but as time well treasured.  Bunkie’s story will remain with me forever.