Thursday, December 30, 2010

Jake Piper: Song of an Investigating Puppy Dog

HALLIE: This bit of diversion comes from Susannah Charleson who visited Jungle Red earlier this year when her bestselling "Scent of the Missing" came out. A memoir of love and partnership, in it Susannah writes about training a spunky golden retriever, Puzzle (photo, left), for search and rescue.

Since then, Susannah adopted a stray,
Piper (photo, right), a new brother to SAR dog Puzzle. According to Susannah who knows these things, Piper has an inspired nose.

Reading Susannah's poem on Piper, I have to agree -- does this dog have the makings of a mystery sleuth of what?


I Am the Very Model of an Investigating Puppy Dog

by Jake Piper, Puppy
(With apologies to Arthur Sullivan and W.S. Gilbert – Susannah Charleson, 2010)


I am the very model of an investigating puppy dog

I ferret out enigmas where they lurk in fields and muddy bogs

I have a nose superlative and four paws that work constantly

At home and hearth and walks abroad, wherever there’s a mystery.


I’m very well acquainted with the ruses people often use:

The fake mustaches, altered voices, tiptoeing without their shoes

I analyze their motives and then make an educated guess,

With propositions for the reasons of their lack of cleverness.


With propositions for the reasons of their lack of cleverness!

With propositions for the reasons of their lack of cleverness!

With startling propositions for their absolutely absent cleverness!


I’m very good at waiting out a perpetrator where he hides.

I’m not deceived by altered routes or wading creeks, then crossing sides.

In short where there’s perplexity a-lurking in the evening fog,

I am the very model of an investigating puppy dog


In short where there’s perplexity a-lurking in the evening fog,

He is the very model of an investigating puppy dog!


I know that kitty litter pans are so totally out of bounds,

But I’m the dog to seek them out, with my nose low they’re easily found.

Then I can analyze the HAZMAT dangers and their properties,

And reveal the foul and feline in their gritty little mysteries!


I speak to neighbors when they want me to and also when they don’t.

I practice disobedience when trainers hope I really won’t.

But I can draw conclusions from where no one else would ever look,

Then quote entire passages from Puzzle’s Houghton Mifflin book!


Then quote entire passages from Puzzle’s Houghton Mifflin book!

Then quote entire passages from Puzzle’s Houghton Mifflin book!

Then quote entire passages from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s Puzzle book!


And I can find your laundry when you think it’s in a well-hid place,

And show its ugly truths in an embarrassingly public space.

In short where there’s perplexity a-lurking in the evening fog,

I am the very model of an investigating puppy dog.


In short where there’s perplexity a-lurking in the evening fog, He is the very model of an investigating puppy dog!

You can follow Jake Piper on Facebook!

7 comments:

  1. OH,fantastic fantasic--I'll be humming this all day!!

    (When my dad turned 80, I did:

    "He is the very model of a modern Dad and Grandpa too
    He knows finest dinner spots in London and in Katmandu
    He's up on foreign policy and and even talks with diplomats
    If Kerry wins he's got a shot at many secretariats.

    He speaks in Thai, Korean and that language of the Phillippines
    He orders en francais and waiters understand just what he means
    He'll parl' Italiano and can show you all through Italy
    He knows when speaking German at the end is where the verb will be.

    He's very well acquainted too with matters astronomical
    He understands Willl Shakespeare both his tragic and his comical
    He knows all Mozart's music from K1 unto infinity
    He's such a good composer he could finish Schuberts Symphony.

    It went on....But I LOVE THIS!!!! YAY for JAke...xoxo and happy new year to all!!

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  2. This is darling! Love it! Is Jake a Jack Russell Terrier? I love the cat part and the dragging out the laundry. As a puppy, my Aussie would drag out my pantyhose and chew on them.

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  3. When he was a tiny stray, we though JRT, too! But now ...we *think* Jake is part rat terrier, part white German Shepherd. (I understand Sam's has a doggy DNA test kit at rock bottom prices, so we may do the whole cheek swab thing.) Jake moves like a terrier and has terrier ears and a terrier YIKE! bark of excitement, but he has some GSD facial features and a shepherd tail.

    He also works his nose like a terrier. Very different from the search-and-rescue Golden, whose head is mostly UP. Jake wants to track or trail, head down.

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  4. Love it, love it, love it.

    Thank you for sharing it with us and introducing us to Jake.

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  5. Oh Susannah, Jake Piper is adorable! what a funny combination of dog parents--I'm trying to picture how that happened...

    Tonka loved the section about the kitty litter box too and wonders why he doesn't have a facebook page...

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  6. Love Jake Piper. He's adorable. What a wonderful story of how you got him and showing his personality.

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