Walking with Wallace

Walking with Wallace tells the story of conversations between the Author and his beloved Staffordshire Bull Terrier, Wallace, as they walked in the beautiful South Northamptonshire countryside. These conversations often included debates on the philosophical and scientific concerns of man and dog, such as the origins of the Universe in which they lived and the meaning of life.

Walking with Wallace is about my Staffordshire Bull Terrier and the debates he and I, (the Author of this book) have had (in which, when visiting, my Grandson Archie participated) as we walked in the beautiful South Northamptonshire countryside. These debates reflected philosophical and scientific concerns of man and dog, such as their origins and that of the Universe they lived in.

The Author, Michael, assumed that he could, pretty accurately, interpret Wallace thoughts. However, Wallace was an intelligent dog and clearly might have disagreed with some of these interpretations, though perhaps too polite to tell him so.

Since the sad death of his Wife, Sara, Michael, until the arrival of Wallace, lived on his own - though not alone, as he has four sons, four daughters-in-law and thirteen fast growing Grandchildren, whom he still visits as often as possible. Over the past years since Sara's death, he saw, however, more of Wallace than any other living creature.

At the time of writing, they were both ageing rapidly. though Wallace perhaps more gracefully. Their time together was sadly limited, for all of us, including Staffordshire Bull Terriers, have an allotted life span - though dogs usually shorter than men, so it was always likely that Wallace would 'move on' first. If so, Michael knew he would miss him horribly, but if not, who would then look after an old and rather spoilt Staffie?. Whichever one them was left behind would, like everyone else, just have to 'kick on'.

In one of their controversial debates, Michael asked whether dogs too have souls? And if not, when in the evolutionary process did humans acquire theirs? Will he and Wallace meet again in another life? Wallace's philosophy was simple. The past is the past, live for the present and let the future take care of itself.

So this story is largely factual and largely about Wallace, with a clearly identifiable relationship between the Author and The mythical Brig.'