DOG STORIES

The unforgettable canines gathered here include Kipling''s heroically faithful ''Garm'', Bret Harte''s irrepressible scoundrel of a ''yaller dog'' and the aggressively affectionate three-legged pit bull who lives in a block of flats for dogs in Jonathan Lethem''s ''Ava''s Apartment''. Here are stories which touchingly illuminate the dog''s role in the emotional lives of humans, such as Tobias Wolff''s ''Her Dog'', where a widower shares his grief for his wife with her grieving pet. Here, too, are humorous glimpses of the canine point of view, from O. Henry''s tale of a dissatisfied lapdog''s escape to P. G. Wodehouse''s cheerfully naïve watchdog who simply wants everybody to get along. These writers and others - Ray Bradbury, JamesThurber and Penelope Lively among them - offer imaginative, lyrical and empathetic portraits of man and woman''s most devoted companion