Mark Gribble

As I read this story, I increasingly saw it as an allegorical story of the plight suffered by animals, and on another plane, slaves brought to North America. Having read of the esteemed author’s studies of animal behavior, I could not help but notice as I read that pets/animals are separated from their siblings and parents at an early age, then must often endure loneliness, neglect, hardscrabble existence, rejection, lack of love, and even starvation at times, then expected to fit seamlessly into a new community/family. The further I read, the more I did not read this lovely novel as a perfectly accurate rendition of a drama of mid-century life in North Carolina but as an allegory to open my eyes to the plight of our siblings on this only Earth. Kya represents the evolutionary successful life forms of our earth, in all of her struggles.