My Life in Dog Years: Fred - Softcover

This book is an excerpt from Gary Paulsen's non-fiction book, MY LIFE IN DOG YEARS, the chapter about Fred, also told about in WOODSONG. Fred is an extremely obese dog that Paulsen decides needs to be put on a diet. Paulsen learns a lesson about temperament from this persistent dog, as he learns lessons from all of his dogs. Paulsen bought Fred for five bucks from a kid outside the supermarket. Fred was just a little pup at the time, but he managed to wreck much of Paulsen's house in the first twenty minutes he was there. Beside destroying things, his other big talent was eating. He figured out that if he made friends with Paulsen's pig, he could chow down at the pig trough along with him. When Paulsen set up an electric fence to keep the pig out of his vegetable garden, Fred took a few zaps himself. Undeterred, he kept clamping down on the wire and getting jolted until he managed to tear it in two. Fred 1, Fence 0.