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Science news-writer Jon Franklin holds the Philip Merrill Chair at the University of Maryland and is the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for explanatory journalism, but these accomplishments did not prepare him for the journey a photograph accompanying a seemingly everyday story possibility presented to him.
The picture he can't get over is one from an archaeological dig in Jordan of 12,000-year-old skeletal remains. The thing that disturbs Franklin is the position of the bones. The human arm seems to be reaching out for the bones of the dog he is intentionally buried with. Certainly, superficial human/follower-wolf relations go back long before this time, but such an intentional gesture in a grave gave him pause.
About the same time the picture comes across Franklin's desk, his wife convinces him to get a dog – a creature he has cohabited with in the past but has never taken an active interest in. The picture and new family member set Franklin off on a quest to find out about dog and human relations, but to his chagrin, there is relatively little written on the subject. In fact, the relationship seems such a given that even those wanting to research the subject are unable to secure permission or funding.
Ultimately Franklin does dig up a great deal of information from both formal research and firsthand experience with his dog and the “dog people” his wife has befriended.
The book culminates in the author's theory that the dog and human share a symbiotic relationship which began the instant the glaciers retreated and both organisms had to find efficiencies so they wouldn't end up like their contemporaries the saber tooth tiger and woollymammoth.
