That was my favorite part too!! I love this line:
OK, let's forget about that stupidity. Let's talk about this book.
I also laughed at this: the book was written "centuries ago" --
--Not even a hundred years ago, first published in England on 17 August 1945.
I read the book only once, many decades ago, and wept for Boxer. The workhorse.
Our collie named Blaise should have been named Boxer - had I known this puppy would grow up to embody the same innocence, trust, devotion, and work ethic of poor Boxer.
Now I wonder if the Donkey inspired Eyore:
“Benjamin, the donkey. ... He seldom talked, and when he did, it was usually to make some cynical remark-for instance, he would say that God had given him a tail to keep the flies off, but that he would sooner have had no tail and no flies. Alone among the animals on the farm he never laughed. If asked why, he would say that he saw nothing to laugh at. Nevertheless, without openly admitting it, he was devoted to Boxer; the two of them usually spent their Sundays together in the small paddock beyond the orchard, grazing side by side and never speaking.”
Thank you for taking time to review this classic!
My daughters refuse to read it because they cannot bear brutality to animals.
“The animals crowded round the van. “Good-bye, Boxer!” they chorused, “good-bye!”
“Fools! Fools!” shouted Benjamin, prancing round them and stamping the earth with his small hoofs. “Fools! Do you not see what is written on the side of that van?”
That gave the animals pause, and there was a hush. Muriel began to spell out the words. But Benjamin pushed her aside and in the midst of a deadly silence he read:
” ‘Alfred Simmonds, Horse Slaughterer and Glue Boiler, Willingdon.
Dealer in Hides and Bone-Meal. Kennels Supplied.’ Do you not understand what that means? They are taking Boxer to the knacker’s! ”