The Last Dog on Earth is a 2003 young adult novel by Daniel Ehrenhaft. It follows Logan Moore, a troubled 14-year-old who adopts a dog named Jack during the outbreak of a prion disease that causes dogs to become violent. As fear of infection grows and authorities crack down on pets, Logan struggles to protect Jack while confronting his own family conflicts.
The novel blends elements of thriller and adventure with a coming-of-age story, presenting themes of mass hysteria, government control, and personal growth. First published in hardcover by Random House in 2003 and reissued in paperback the following year, it has since appeared in e-book formats. The Last Dog on Earth was included on the Texas Lone Star Reading List, recognized by YALSA, and received mixed critical reviews for its fast-moving plot and reliance on coincidence.
Plot
Logan Moore is a troubled 14-year-old boy living with his mother, Marianne, and stepfather Robert in Newberg, Oregon. Logan does not get along well with Robert or his mother and holds a grudge against his biological father for leaving when he was young. After an incident at a barbecue, Robert decides to purchase a Labrador Retriever to teach Logan responsibility. Eager to rebel against his stepfather, Logan convinces his mother to adopt a dog from an animal shelter. He plans to choose an ugly dog and teach it destructive behavior. At the shelter, Logan encounters a young female mutt who immediately takes a liking to him. Logan adopts the dog and names her Jack after Robert's former dog.
Meanwhile, a new prion disease named Psychotic Outburst Syndrome (or POS) is affecting dogs, causing friendly pets to become violent. Officials struggle to control the disease and immediately terminate any dogs that catch it. Humans soon begin to contract the disease.
Logan quickly bonds with Jack and values her as his only friend. After getting into trouble while attempting to protect her, Logan is sent to boot camp while Jack remains at home. Both he and Jack manage to escape, find each other, and begin traveling together. During their journey, they encounter another dog called White Paws: Jack's brother, who has become infected with POS. White Paws attacks Jack and severely wounds her before dying. Logan worries that Jack may have contracted the disease through contact with White Paws. The pair continues their journey until they reach the town of Dayville. Logan faintly remembers that his biological father lives in the town and decides to find his father and confront him.
While Logan is stealing food from a local shop, Jack is found by three men who, fearing that she may be infected, beat her. Logan is arrested and manages to find his father's address at the police station before escaping. He returns to find Jack nearly dead and carries her, attempting to find his father's house, until he faints from exhaustion. He awakens in the home of his biological father, Dr. Craig Westerly, who had found Logan unconscious by his car. Logan learns from Craig that he had not abandoned him and his mother, but that Marianne had divorced him. Logan fears for Jack's life, afraid that she is infected or will be euthanized. Craig runs tests on the dog and learns that Jack, despite having been in contact with POS, isn't infected: she is immune.
Craig decides to take Jack to a doctor so that a vaccine can be created. During the meeting, Rudy Stagg, a man infected with POS who had been killing dogs to contain the outbreak, stumbles into their room. Rudy ignores pleas to spare Jack and shoots at her, but Logan dives in front of the dog and is shot instead. Logan suffers a collapsed lung and falls into a coma. He awakens weeks later and learns that Jack is on life support. He says a final goodbye to Jack before her life support is turned off. Jack's immunity to POS leads to the creation of a vaccine and cure, and Logan is finally able to reconcile with Robert, Craig, and Devon Wallace, a childhood enemy whose dog died due to POS. The novel's epilogue, written as a newspaper article, reveals that Logan and his family hold a private ceremony to honor Jack.
Themes and style
Ehrenhaft deals with several themes over the course of The Last Dog on Earth. Kirkus Reviews commented on the "backdrop of rising governmental and public panic" that interfere with Jack and Logan; despite escaping the disease, they are unable to escape the panic.[1] Rachel Seftel, author of a Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy review, also commented on the "mass hysteria" that arose due to POS and noted the novel's core theme of a troubled youth being taught "valuable lessons until an external force threatens to tear them apart."[2]
In order to track particular events and plot points related to POS, Ehrenhaft inserts various messages, faxes, and articles throughout the novel.[2] Scholars have also situated The Last Dog on Earth within a wave of early 2000s young adult dystopian novels about pandemics. Tânia Cerqueira notes that such works explore “the loss of human life, the paranoia caused by the fear of being infected, the struggle to find a cure, and how the infection (or the cure) can alter the human body.”[3]
Publication history
17th Street Productions, a branch of Alloy Entertainment,[4] holds the rights to The Last Dog on Earth. Dell Publishing (a division of the larger publisher Random House) made arrangements with 17th Street to have it released under their name.[5] On February 11, 2003, the novel was released in hardcover, and was later reprinted in paperback under Dell's Yearling book imprint on June 8, 2004.[1][5][6][7] In January 2009, the novel received a Barnes & Noble Nook release in the United States, enabling it to be read on the Nook e-book readers. The listed file size of The Last Dog on Earth is 2224 KB for the brand.[8] On January 21, 2009, the book was released for the Kindle, Amazon.com's online e-book reader. Its listed file size is 448 KB.[9] On February 3, 2010, The Last Dog on Earth was released on Apple Inc.'s iTunes. It is listed as being compatible with the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad.[10] Later, on February 25, 2009, the novel was released digitally with EPUB and mobile-specific file types for the Borders e-book app.[11]
Reception and influence
The Last Dog on Earth has been nominated for several awards. The novel was recognized and listed on the Texas Library Association's 2004–2005 Texas Lone Star Reading List.[12][13] The book was also a nominee for the 2005 Mark Twain Award and 2007 Minnesota Young Reader Award.[14]The Last Dog on Earth was named on "Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults 2006", a list created by YALSA (Young Adult Library Services Association), a division of the American Library Association. The list is conceived by a committee and compiles various novels that hold appeal to teen readers. The Last Dog on Earth was included in the "What Ails You?" category, comprising literature "about how diseases, disorders, and other general health related symptoms affect our lives".[15] In a 2005 interview, Daniel Ehrenhaft mentioned that a school in Chicago created an extracurricular activity wherein "kids designed games and gadgets", having been inspired by Logan's hobby of inventing devices.[16]
The Last Dog on Earth has received mixed reception from critics, who have praised the plot, but criticized the heavy use of coincidences to advance the plot. Kirkus Reviews commented that "happenstance plays a large role in the plot" and thought Ehrenhaft had "a tendency to trot in typecast characters, then summarily drop them", but wrote that it would appeal to "disaster-tale fans with a taste for the lurid".[1] Within the Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, Rachel Seftel reviewed the novel. She felt that The Last Dog on Earth's main strength was the "well-developed and sympathetic protagonist" Logan, but noted that the "memos and several subplots" interspersed between chapters and Ehrenhaft's "[somewhat] heavy-handed" attempts to foreshadow were drawbacks.[2] Seftel concluded that, despite Ehrenhaft's "reach at times [exceeding] his grasp," The Last Dog on Earth was "an interesting and absorbing variation" of the slightly conventional "boy-and-his-dog story."[2]
1 2 3 4 Seftel, Rachel (December 2003). "The Last Dog on Earth". Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy. 47 (4). International Literacy Association: 344–346. ISSN1081-3004.
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