One of the handful of English-language books that is easy to buy in Japan is Dave Pelzer’s bestselling A Child Called “It”. Waiting for a train I managed to skim through most of this popular work and it has come back into my mind today as I take care of Roxanne, Alex’s 5.5-month-old cousin. Mr. Pelzer says that, as a child, his mother made him live in the garage and eat scraps of food while his siblings were dining on lobster at the table. It made me wonder what kind of book dogs would write it if they could. “While the rest of the family chowed down on $200 of natural foods from the Whole Paycheck supermarket, I was nearly starved for the whole day and then confined to the floor and given one small bowl of 6-month-old dried out nuggets that had come in a bag.”
7 thoughts on “A Puppy Called “It””
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David Pelzer? He and his (infamous) book were debunked in a New York Times Magazine article back in 2002. Pelzer most likely made up most of the stories in the book. The article quotes his grandmother as saying, "His books should be in the fiction section."
The article is called, "Dysfunction for Dollars", and I’ve reprinted it here:
http://www.astrocyte-design.com/pelzer/
On the Amazon.com review page for this book, all but one loved it. The dissenter pointed out that the “It” book strained credibility (really a 5yo with “vivid memories”?).
That having been said, my first wife (bless her soul) was a foster kid in CA and at one time was jailed at age-12 because “no foster parents were available”. After missing school for a few days, her teacher went looking “in the system” and found her (one of many gut-wrenching stories that I uncovered while talking to her various foster parents at her funeral). So yes, really heartbreaking situations do exist, but I question the validity of the “It” author (due to the considerable money-stream generated).
Wow, I guess I’d better toss a piece of beef jerkey into that bag of old kibble, eh?!? Or, since the mutt’s got his own bedroom, just set a place for him at the table….. why not, I never use it.
Actually, he gets about half his daily food needs right from my bowl.
OK I’m being a blog-hog but in response to “…what kind of book dogs would write it if they could…. While the rest of the family chowed down on $200 of natural foods…”.
Depends on the dog. And truthfully I know only of Boxers (owned two so far, looking to adopt #3). A Boxer would write… “How grateful I am to share my life with my master! I relish the responsibility of Guardian, the task of provider-of-warmth on chilly nights, the role of people-amuser with my breeds patented boxer-bendy-dance. I am a companion-dog, and the joy of my life is to be Man’s True Companion for as long as I breathe”. <snif>
Yeah that about sums it up. OK I’ll disappear for a week or so as I think I’m overexposed…
I enjoyed the term “Whole Paycheck Market” to describe these supermarkets catering to affluent, time-pressed shoppers. It is interesting to note that the recent Center for Science in the Public Interest study of the causes of obesity in our society cited the high cost of fruits and vegetables. Indeed, these are almost invariably one of the highest profit centers at a grocery store. Both in high income areas (my experience mainly draws from Bethesda, Maryland where I manage to feed one seventeen-year-old fruit fiend and his three younger brothers, not to mention a husband) and in low income areas (a down-and-out area in West Virginia in proximity to a hiking area we frequent, said supermarket catering to the locals as most of the skiiers/hikers tend to dine out), the cost of apples, etc., exceeds $1.00/pound and the quality is often mediocre. I contrast this to Switzerland, where we lived for a few years, where the local farm markets had reasonably priced apples. Yes, there are farm markets in my area, but their prices are as high as Whole Foods. I trek with my toddler to a farm about 35 minutes away to pick peaches in the summer and apples in the fall for a little less.
I wonder whether others have felt the price of fresh produce in this country will soon mean that poorer folks will be relegated to fruit cocktail and fruit roll-ups for their children’s fruit servings. Several years back, I taught in a Washington, DC school in a lower income area and observed that this seemed to be the fresh fruit component of the packed lunches.
I apologize for not having the link to the CSPI study which came out in early September. None of the consultants working on that study think twice when paying $1.69/pound for their nectarines at Whole Foods, so I’m glad they cited this recurring problem in America.
This reminds me of Diary of a Cat: “DAY 752: My captors continue to taunt me with bizarre little dangling objects. They dine lavishly on fresh meat, while I am forced to eat dry cereal. The only thing that keeps me going is the hope of escape, and the mild satisfaction I get from ruining the occasional piece of furniture.”
Of course, for my non-food-motivated Shar-Pei, it would be: “Forgot to eat again this morning. Oops. Spent 4 hours sleeping on front porch, then 30 minutes running around the yard at top speed, then 4 hours sleeping on back porch.”
My pit bull eats far better then me. While I eat fast food drive through, he dines on fruits, veges and chicken… and he doesn’t have to work or get stuck in traffic!