Once again we have beat the odds here at Dachshund Delights. Last May and June, we had back-to-back stories about flying dachshunds, Cody and Peaches. This year, we have back-to-back stories about women in central North Carolina who realized their dreams of publishing books, and both of them used dachshunds as protagonists. Both have a strong Christian faith that guides their lives, and neither sees it as any more out of the ordinary to let a dachshund help them tell their stories and convey that faith than we see anything out to the ordinary about sheep and cows in the Nativity story. 
Similarities of provenance aside, the books are really quite different. The book we reviewed last month – “I Love Little Lucy”/The Tails Of Wienerville – Livin’ Long In North Carolina by Vicki Misenheimer – is clearly and unashamedly a children’s book. This month’s entry – I Am Shadow… One Dog’s Story by Mavis Duke Hinton – could be read and enjoyed by older children, but it will probably ring truest to those of us who are old enough to be separated from family members by either distance or the veil between this world and the next and who are old enough to know just what we have lost by not being close anymore.
If you were to ask “what happens in the book?”, the answer would be, “not much, really.” Sure, Shadow, the eponymous dachshund, comes to his new family as a pup and learns his place in the scheme of things. Another new life joins the family toward the end of the book. And you’ll find one of the most amazing fishing stories that doesn’t involve a fish. But mostly, the members of a close and loving family gather together, laugh together, cook for each other, share their meals and share their stories. And because Mrs. Hinton so clearly loves her characters, all of whom are from real life, she makes it seem as if you’re sitting there with them, an honored guest, privileged to be drawn into the circle of their love for a few hours. You’ll get to know these people and want to spend more time with them. And unless you read the book on a full stomach, you’re going to want to reach to the center of the dinner table and get some of the biscuits and gravy and preserves that are described almost as lovingly as the family members.
As the book opens, Mrs. Hinton’s daughter and son-in-law bring Shadow into their home, and we see the rest of the book through his eyes. He and we meet the rest of the family with him, particularly Papa (Mrs. Hinton’s father, Robert), who dubs Shadow his granddawg and who is known for “accidentally” dropping bits of food in the kitchen and the table. For doesn’t every dog learn, first and foremost, who is a soft touch?
We asked Mrs. Hinton how she came to choose to tell her story through a dachshund. For years, she told us, she would look at Shadow – yes, of course Shadow is a real dog! – and would tell family members exactly what he was thinking at that moment. They always laughed at her, but she showed them all up by having him write a book telling what he knows about them. And, of course, he has also immortalized them. However old they all grow and whatever may happen to them, they will always be sharing their lives and dinners in the pages of the book that Shadow has narrated.
We reached the end of I Am Shadow not only knowing and liking the characters, but sad to take our leave of them. This is the kind of quiet, unassuming and deeply felt book that will stick with you when others are forgotten.
If you would like a copy for yourself, you can buy it directly from Tate Publishing. Click below to be taken to their order page.
Learn more about “I am Shadow… One Dog’s Story.”