I was absolutely delighted with the whole dog thing. It would have been really depressing if he was all by himself and died, but then you had this nice little pup tag along. (I generally dislike Huskies, but I imagined it slightly differently) I don't know what it was about it, but I really liked it whenever you heard about the dog or what he was thinking. The man was a little bit mean to him, but hopefully he ended up with a nice owner. I could imagine the dog so well! (Except for when I changed him from a husky to a sort or cross between a shiba inu and a husky) But anyway, I was always sort of both happy and attentive whenever I heard what the dog was thinking or what it was doing. I don't think that it should have had to take that dangerous journey, but it seemed to know a lot better than the man did. It was just sort of cool the way the dog knew instinctively to do things.
The man really should have been traveling with someone, but I can't think of someone he could have gone with to get there. It was a bit painful to read about him trying to make a second fire after the first was put out by snow. There's just no way he should be able to start another one. Then he does and puts it out again! It was really frustrating. By this time everything is numb, and he tries to run to get to camp, and he keeps falling until he eventually gives up and dies. It does make the title make a little more sense. (Just a little)
At the beginning of the story, I was sort of lost because the author gives you so little information. It was also sort of strange (and cool) when his spit crackled in the air. But other than that it looked like it was cold and dreary.
What else? I thought the biscuits 'sopped in bacon grease, and each enclosing a generous slice of fried bacon' sounded pretty nasty, especially when he thinks of them so much. Does this sound good to anyone? Honestly, why would you want bacon grease??
And so I get back to him building a fire to unfreeze his feet. It seems so hopeful, it's getting larger, stronger, and then boom! A lot of snow falls down on him. It seems like one of the first things you'd watch out for if you were that experienced. After that it seemed hopeless, then he magically gets it to start again, but it goes back out after he suffocates it with too much. Then it's all over, any hope is gone, he's dead. Then he tries to kill the poor dog, and I was really afraid he would, but he can't do it. The husky has already been pushed into the water and is obviously scared of the man, because of this 'whiplash' sound he makes. Anyway, I would have been more sad it he had killed the dog than if he had just died by himself. The husky had two sides, one was of internal, instinctive knowledge, and this great understanding of things and the other was a sort of helpless, uneasy, dog. He couldn't start a fire to keep warm, or have an extra coat, but he also knew how to keep himself alive, like by picking the ice out of his paws. But the man never gave him any food! Anyway, I liked how he made the dog seem realistic. I was almost happy when he trotted away from the man in the end. He had been loyal to him, sitting there patiently before he knew the man was dead, running with him, and just staying with the man, but when he was dead it was sort of like "Oh, he's dead. Time to go."
Anyway, I actually liked this story better than some of the others, and I thought it was very easy to see and feel everything that the man and his dog were going through. It was a lot nicer without the comments and questions on the sides. It was sort of like this overall theme that people shouldn't try to out-smart nature or something, because the dog kept thinking 'This is a terrible idea, we should be warm and safe!' and the man kept trying to go on, even though it was a bad idea. Anyway, I thought it was a sort of cool story (especially because it's been so cold this week!).
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