There are times when I look at Bebe, the little Havanese female with whom we share our home, and wonder “just what is it that makes you the same species as the neighbor’s Shiba Inu or the Collie further down the street?” And for that matter, how is it possible that a ten pound ball of fur, affection, and sleepiness can be even remotely related to the Grey Wolf?
It’s just such questions as these – as well as a host of others – to which I hope to find answers in Raymond Coppinger’s and Lorna Coppinger’s new book What Is A Dog? from University of Chicago Press. Taking up, as they do, the natural history of Canis lupus familiaris, the Coppingers explore how the beloved pets, trusted guardians, and stalwart work partners we have come to know came to be what they are today from what they once long ago were.
