The 1881 book My Doggie And I describes what happened to John Mellon after he encounters a particular small dog. John Mellon was almost a doctor in chapter one. One day when Mellon is out walking, a strange-looking animal comes sprinting toward him down the dirt path. As you must know by now, this dog finds a new home. The doctor and the puppy encounter several people whose lives are bound together by prior acquaintance with the same shaggy doggie through a series of remarkable coincidences. This book has a unique touch; it is a "feel-good" type of story that made me chuckle several times. Even though I was able to solve the small mystery without too much difficulty, it was still intriguing to see how everything turned out. The MacDougall family's hyperactive kids, Slider the street urchin, and the doggy himself are just a few of the wonderful characters in this story. The doggie also goes by three different names, depending on who is calling to him at the moment.
R. M. Ballantyne was a Scottish writer of young adult literature who produced more than a hundred books between 24 April 1825 and 8 February 1894. He was also a skilled artist; some of his watercolors were on display at the Royal Scottish Academy. The ninth of ten children and youngest son of Alexander Thomson Ballantyne (1776-1847) and his wife Anne, Ballantyne was born in Edinburgh on April 24, 1825. (1786-1855). Robert's uncle James Ballantyne (1772-1833) was Sir Walter Scott's printer, and Alexander worked as a newspaper editor and printer in the family business "Ballantyne & Co" based at Paul's Works on the Canongate. The family is documented to have resided at 20 Fettes Row in Edinburgh's northern New Town in 1832-1833. The Ballantyne printing company collapsed the next year with debts of £130,000 as a result of a UK-wide banking crisis, which caused a decrease in the family's finances. Ballantyne moved to Canada at the age of 16 and worked for the Hudson's Bay Company for five years. He traveled by canoe and sleigh to the regions that are now the provinces of Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec to trade with the local First Nations and Native Americans for furs; these experiences served as the inspiration for his book The Young Fur Traders.
