Night of Dogs

Last night was a night of dogs.  After Jeopardy, I turned on The Call of the Wild.  I can't remember if this was a move made a long time ago that I saw, or if I just read the book, but as I started to watch the movie I realized this was the recent film with Harrison Ford that I'd wanted to watch for a long time (but didn't because I'd have to pay to watch it). I was very pleased to find it on Netflix.

It's the story of a dog who is kidnapped (dog-napped?) from his home in 
Santa Clara, California and shipped to Alaska, where he is to be sold.  His  good and bad experiences are chronicled and I'm pretty sure I read the book.

The dog who plays Buck is huge. I didn't realize how big until he gets to Alaska and is partnered with a team of sled dogs. He is easily head and shoulders larger than the sled dogs.  Wikipedia tells me the dog is played by a dog who is part St. Bernard and part Scotch Shepherd.  Harrison Ford doesn't come in until over halfway through the movie, after Buck has been abused by several "owners."  He and Ford's character live together, but never really "bond," each able to go his own way without the other.  

Buck eventually meets a pack of wolves and learns how to live wild (you might say he was called by the wild...or not), while Ford's character has grown so that he's ready to leave the wilderness.  

I did enjoy the movie.  so much so that I was ready for Lassie Come Home, which played right after.  This movie is so old (1943) that it is 10 year old Elizabeth Taylor's second movie and she doesn't even get credit with the "stars" of the film, but is one of the "also rans" in the cast.  

Lassie, a beloved family dog in Yorkshire, England, is purchased by a Scottish breeder because the family has no money and can't afford to feed themselves, much less the dog.  

 Lassie is first kept n a kennel in Yorkshire, from which she escapes, always to return to her family in Yorkshire.  She is finally moved to Scotland, where she also escapes and finds her way back to Yorkshire, enduring many adventures, good and bad.  After enduring a storm, swimming a river to England, and having interactions with kind people and mean people, she finds her way back to Yorkshire and, lame and ragged, is waiting at the school for her boy when he comes out.  Lassie has come home and Dad is hired by the breeder to take care of his dogs, so they will never be apart again.

Lassie was played by a male dog named Pal and I met Pal at a dog show in San Francisco.  Everyone was in the arena and I went to the bathroom and in the stairwell, ran into Pal and his handler.  I should put  Pal on my list of famous people I have met!

It was a fun night.  I do love animal stories.  While these two were playing, I was recording Born Free, which I haven't watched yet.

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