Wild White Shepherd by Conway Robinson

Booted out of old man Bumpas’ pickup truck along a road near The Big Piney Woods and frightened away from the only house in sight by a big family dog, the white German shepherd puppy had to learn to live in the woods by his wits, to fight and to hunt, if he was to survive.
Based on an actual event in the Pokomoke Forest area of Maryland’s East Shore where a pack of wild dogs led by a white shepherd raised havoc, this story is much more than a recounting or an indictment of those who maltreat or abandon animals. It is a fully developed story told with insight and com-passion by an omniscient narrator. There is no mistaking what each clearly drawn character is about.

The author has combined a high-interest animal rights subject with an everyday, spoken English style. Juniper Bumpas has little common sense and disregards the laws and rules of both men and nature. Jonathan Bush is a farmer and fair man who, while understanding nature and knowing the necessary fate of wild dogs, loves his son, Bobby, and is open-minded about possible, workable, alternative actions. Bobby Bush loves the magnificent dog from afar and dreams of taming him, of saving him from certain death. And there is the white German Shepherd himself. We pass from September to summer with him in the woodlands, experiencing its beauties and its perils feeling his cold, hunger, fear and need for companionship. Only when food becomes scarce do we see him turn to farm animals for food—man views this “transgression” as the signal to mobilize to hunt down and kill this wild dog.
The novel’s action includes the dog hunt, a forest fire, the growing relationship between Bobby and the Shepherd, Bumpas’ discovery of that relationship, and the courtroom battle in which the shepherd wins his right to live as Bobby’s dog, and Bumpas gets a jail sentence.

Conway Robinson is a resident of Arkansas.