Portrait of Brooklyn and Cady by Melody Caba

I Sleep With Other People’s Dogs

What we learn from the dogs we love

When my son was six, we were reading Where the Red Fern Grows, the 1961 classic coming-of-age story of a boy and his dogs. Max loved the adventures of Billy Colman and his red bone coonhounds, Old Dan and Little Ann.

But the story turns tragic at the end. Old Dan and Little Ann save Billy’s life by fighting off the attack…