TRAVELS WITH CASEY

Travels with Casey, My Journey through Our Dog-Crazy Country, by Benoit Denizet-Lewis, Simon and Schuster 2015

In the tradition of Rinker Buck's  Oregon Trail, a crazy bouncing trek across long-unused wagon ruts, and Scents and Sensibility, the latest Spenser Quinn Chet and Bernie mystery, comes Travels with Casey, an 8-year old Labrador mix and his human, packed into an RV for the big cross-continent trip.  It's a dog's life and dog lovers will enjoy this adventuresome duo as they encounter real-life stories like homeless dog owners, celebrity dog lovers, dog rescuers, K9 cops, dog-wielding hitchhikers, dog trainers like Caesar Millan, show dog contestants, the man who lives with wolf-dogs, and best of all, Denizet-Lewis' former middle-school English teacher who now works as a "dog masseur."  

It all starts, as the reader can see from the frontispiece map, in Provincetown, Massachusetts, where the author rents a small RV, small enough for a man and his canine companion, but not so big that navigating cities like San Francisco - yes, he had big dreams - would be dangerous.  But Casey is having no part of this big  crazy crate  -

"... I opened the RV's side door and tried to sweet talk Casey inside.

"Go on," I said, "It'll be fun."  He paced instead around the motor home, found a nearby bush, and peed." 

Four months and 13,000 miles later the human/canine duo have changed, well maybe Casey not so much.  But they've definitely added new foods, new friends to their lives.