The beautiful thing about Joe is his legacy. BEAUTIFUL JOE is the dog's story, as told by the dog himself. Published in 1894, the book gave voice to the dog, as written by author Marshall Saunders.
The tale of the dog also gave voice to the author and her mission, Beautiful Joe's legacy. In fact, in his autobiography Beautiful Joe tells us of his rescue mistress, Miss Laura, "I love her better than anyone else in the world; and I think it would please her if I write the story of a dog's life. She loves dumb animals, and it always grieves her to see them treated cruelly."
Margaret Marshall Saunders was an animal rights advocate as well as an author. In 1889, a time when dogs and other animals were thought of as "beasts of burden" and "dumb animals" Saunders submitted her story of Beautiful Joe to an American Humane Society "Kind and Cruel Treatment of Domestic Animals and Birds in the Northern States" competition. Her submission won her the prize of $200.
In this, my second reading of BEAUTIFUL JOE (for this book review) I read it aloud to my rescue dog Valentino. We enjoyed a few hours sunning ourselves at the picnic table or cooling ourselves in the shade of the front porch while enjoying the stories from Joe and Saunders. It was time well-spent together.
The stories in the book touched my heart in so many good ways and in a few not-so-good ways. Each story comes with a life lesson of its own to be learned. I would love to share them all with you. Alas! I can not. You simply must buy BEAUTIFUL JOE and read it for yourself!
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