Familiaris

Ocky, or Octavia P. Suspenders, was the last dog Mary and John took as a family pet; they were too heartbroken after her death to take on another. Gar flips through Practical Agriculture and Free Will, and he reflects on his deep knowledge of the Sawtelle dog files. He goes to Mary and expresses his desire to buy the farm from her and John and take over the family business. She agrees but asks him to wait for a while until she can talk to John.

In August 1950, Claude goes to a pancake breakfast at a school, where he is served breakfast, given the chance to clean himself up, and introduced to Pastor Dan Rinkosowicz. Claude says his name is Kevin and that he is having a hard time. Pastor Dan lets Claude stay and work in the church. He is given a haircut and a bicycle, and he starts sleeping with a volunteer, Mildred Sorenson, a widow with an adolescent son. One day, Mildred asks about getting married. She goes to the store, and while she is gone, Claude takes one of her deceased husband’s jackets and steals her money and jewelry; he then goes to the church and takes the money from the rectory cashbox before leaving town on a bus. A young woman, Amy, chases the bus down and then sits next to Claude, and Claude introduces himself as Dan Sorenson.

Mary and John talk about wanting to see the dogs they have placed, and when mud season hits, Mary tells John it is time for them to leave the farm. Gar, Mary, and John spend a long time negotiating the transfer of the farm, finally settling on selling the farm to Gar for $1 and Gar pays Mary and John a decreasing percentage of the business’s profits. John and Mary trade in their car for a green convertible. They say goodbye to their friends in the area, although Ida pretends to be gone when they come to say goodbye to her. They leave in June of 1951.

Thirteen months after leaving home, Claude enlists in the Navy. He wanted to enlist as a veterinarian, but the Navy doesn’t have that job, so he enlists as a medic instead.

Mary and John drive to Frank’s, passing Marinette and Peshtigo, reminiscing about a 1933 trip with Walter and Ida. At Frank’s, Forte is thrilled to see them. They head to dinner, dropping off Forte and picking up a bag of prosthetic eyes from Frank’s restaurant. At June O’ Days, owned by Genario Days, Frank challenges Days to an onion-cooking competition. Frank sabotages Days by dumping prosthetic eyes into a pot of soup. Both onion dishes are lackluster, but Days’s is better. Frank leaves money, and they rush out.

Back at Frank’s, Mary scolds Frank for potentially ruining Days’s reputation, but Frank insists he did Days a favor by garnering attention. Frank reveals he is selling his restaurant to an employee, Arn, to work with incorporating chemicals like LSD into food, having already patented fish sticks.

The next day, John and Mary visit two dogs and then have dinner at Frank’s, watching him cook and hand-feed Forte. John and Mary leave Saturday, finding that Frank has attached his necker knob—a steering wheel attachment that accommodates Frank’s prosthetic hand—to their steering wheel.

John and Mary have placed 1,129 dogs; 326 of them are still alive, and they have plans to visit 282 of the living dogs—a trip that will take them all over the United States. Mary confidently drives through the cities, impressing John. They chat and point out entertaining signs as they drive, Mary takes pictures of the dogs and scenery with a Rollei camera she was lent from a retired photographer, and John writes. They fund their trip with their savings and investments.

Elbow, working with Ray Eames in California, asks John and Mary to visit sooner as he and Audie are embarking on an expedition to New Zealand to haul voicewood, a sound-absorbing extinct wood, from a tar pit. John and Mary agree to housesit, lead a peaceful life, visit dogs, and write the dogs’ stories for Gar. Mary frequently says “goodbye” to a framed voicewood panel, allowing it to remember her voice. Elbow and Audie’s trip, which was supposed to last around nine months, is extended to over five years.

In 1957, a fortune teller predicts a life transition for Mary and John. While preparing to visit the farm, Mary is rear-ended. She initially seems fine but collapses and dies from the impact of the necker knob on her chest.