"It's just like magic. When you live by yourself, all of your annoying habits are gone," says humorist Merrill Markoe, and I couldn't agree more, especially now that I have three roommates, and I'm suddenly aware that some of the stuff I could get away with when I lived alone is no longer acceptable, like leaving the dryer full of unmentionables and neglecting the cat box for a week at a time. Having roommates has made me more conscientious, although I'm a little paranoid after reading Matt Haig's novel, The Labrador Pact, that I have always been under another set of watchful eyes...Prince is a black Labrador who oversees the well-being of the Hunter family--parents Adam and Kate and teenagers Charlotte and Hal--as part of an age old pact created by Labradors in which they vow allegiance to their humans. "Duty above all" is their mantra.
Unbeknownst to humans, dogs are able to communicate with
one another, and they can understand people when they talk. This makes them witness to the most private moments of their masters and families. Because dogs are also keenly aware of smells and subtler nuances, Prince informs us, they are able to predict human's emotions before the people themselves show any signs that they're happy, worried, depressed, or whatever. As the story begins, Prince informs us that he is on his way to the vet to be euthanizied; knowing he's going to die, he takes us back through the series of experiences leading up to his execution day--events which were mandated by his adherence to the Labrador Pact.
When he senses his family falling apart, Prince collaborates with his best canine friends, Henry and Falstaff, to set about saving the Hunters from themselves. Adam and Kate are both acting suspicious and prickly, hovering on the verge of adultery and divorce, the teenage daughter Charlotte is dating a creep, and older son Hal is partying and defying his folks. Worse, an old friend of Adam's from the past, Simon, re-enters their lives, and Prince is immediately alerted to the threat he poses, and knows it is his duty to protect his
people from this intruder. Unfortunately, the steps he must take require him to violate the Pact and sacrifice himself for the safety of the Hunter family. "Humans don't realise it," we are told, "but the speed of our wag directly impacts their own happiness. Our tails dictate the rhythm of Family life..." Unfortunately, Prince isn't able to save Adam, Kate, Charlotte, and Hal with simple tail-wagging. But his narration --his wry observations of family life, his commitment to the Hunters' happiness, and his earnest, loving, and ultimately doomed attempt to make all right in their world--is absorbing and endearing. I can only hope that Frida, despite the many unseemly things she may have witnessed (and I'm only implicating myself here, not roommates Cynthia, Chris, and Mark), shares Prince's feelings of duty and devotion...or least, my sense of the same for her.
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