REVIEW: Next to a Dog

 Next to a Dog
Author: Agatha Christie

Next to a Dog is a short story first published in The Golden Ball and Other Stories, an Agatha Christie story collection printed in the US in 1971. It was printed in the UK as part of Problem at Pollensa Bay and Other Stories (1991). I could find no record of any television or radio adaptations of this story.

For me, this was another odd story....  Twelve of the stories in the Golden Ball collection I liked very much....3 of them not so much. This one falls in the Not-so-Much category. A widow is determined to keep her wire terrier dog. Even though she is unemployed, a month behind on her rent and basically starving, she is not going to be separated from her dog Terry because her husband gave him to her before he died in the war. The world can be a mean place....and this story definitely illustrates the choices women sometimes are forced to make. 

I found this story more troubling than entertaining. Out of all of the Agatha Christie short stories I have read so far (and there have been many of them!), the fact that I have only disliked 3 is a pretty good average. Not every story is for every reader....so in any short story collection or any author's works there are bound to be a few here and there a reader might not like. As a dog owner, there was one scene in this story that bothered me....and the ending was strange. I understand the meaning -- I just didn't like it. 

The story is well-written. I just didn't like the subject matter or the outcome. It is what it is....

I did read while doing my research on this story that Christie loved wire-haired terriers and even dedicated one of her books to her dog, Peter (who was a wire haired terrier). 

On to the next!