The Plague Dogs

What book could you read over and over again?

The Plague Dogs is a book by Richard Adams, who also wrote Watership Down.

The book tells the story of Rauf and Snitter, two dogs that are being horribly experimented on at a scientific research center in Cumbria, England. After some time going through dangerous experiments the two dogs manage to escape. They run off into the countryside but are soon pursued by the workers from the centre, police and farmers who have been told that the dogs are infected with Plague.

The story follows their escape and how the story is told in the local paper. On their journey they meet a fox called the Tod. He helps them understand how to evade hounds that are chasing him.

In the end their success or failure, and life or death for the dogs depends on possible skills they learnt back at the research centre.

I don’t remember the story in full as its been a few years since I read it. But when I did it was overnight, from cover to cover. If I can find it or get another copy I will definitely read it again. The atmosphere of the landscape is so well told. If you don’t mind being upset by the details of the experiments and want to read an interesting story please read it.

What are you watching?

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I’m trying to watch (and understand) a 1957 film by Ingmar Bergmann called ‘The Seventh Seal’.

It’s in Swedish with English subtitles. The language sounds complex and ancient. It’s in black and white. A Knight comes back from the crusades and finds plague. Then he plays chess with Death and Death gives him time to get his life in order. Well that’s what it appears to be about but I’m not sure. What I might do is look it up on Google, but that seems wrong. I shall continue to watch it. Its beautifully photographed and very interesting and very strange.

Flight

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The light flew across the sky, something not seen for centuries on the Earth.

The world had overheated in the previous millennia, viruses and bacteria had spawned a plague and 90% of the population had died before a cure was found. The remaining humans were all children, the fate of their parents leaving them in a world of technology they could partly use but not maintain.

Then came the explosions, nuclear power plants went offline, nuclear bombs rotted in their silos. Crops and fruit failed. A few books had been left, some technical papers, but the schools were gone. Children grew to adulthood and learnt to hunt and gather like their ancestors. Technology was stored in caves, but without power could not be used.

Then came wars over food and clean water. People living near reservoirs were lucky, but those downstream were cut off as the pumping stations failed. Humans were close to extinction. As the fable said ‘how the mighty had fallen’.

But a few people learned electronics from taking old things apart then putting them back together. They tinkered and played, and a light rose in the sky which was artificial. Who knew what would happen next?