White Fur Flying

Zoe Cassidy, the narrator, lives with her family in a farmhouse surrounded by meadows. Her younger sister, Alice, is a natural storyteller. Their mother, Claire (Mama), rescues Great Pyrenees dogs, large white-furred guardian breeds, and finds them adoptive homes to prevent them from being euthanized. Their father, John (Daddy), is a veterinarian. The family's permanent dog, Kodi, a 140-pound Great Pyrenees, shares the house with May, a foster dog nearly ready for adoption.

One day, Zoe and Alice watch movers carry elegant furniture into the neighboring house across a brook. A man in a jacket and tie arrives in a long black car, and a small boy climbs out. Instead of following the man inside, the boy stands staring at the Cassidy house, where he can see the family and two large white dogs in the window. The man pulls the boy up the sidewalk, but the boy keeps looking back until he disappears inside. Alice declares the boy is not a prince but a prisoner.

That evening, Daddy brings home Lena, an African grey parrot whose elderly owner is entering a nursing home. Lena speaks in a British accent, squawking "You cahn't know!" and imitating whatever the family says. The next morning, Zoe finds the boy from next door standing at the yard fence. Kodi noses the boy's hand, and the boy smiles. A woman calls from the porch for "Phillip" to come away from "those beasts." Mama assures the woman, Phyllis Croft, that the dogs are gentle. Mrs. Croft explains that Phillip does not speak, that he is her husband's niece's child, and that the Crofts are keeping him while his parents work through a difficulty. Mama tells Phillip he can visit anytime without needing to talk. As Mrs. Croft pulls Phillip away, he turns and offers a small wave. Mama later tells Zoe she believes Mrs. Croft is scared, not only of dogs but of Phillip himself.

Alice, unbothered by Phillip's silence, takes charge. She invites him into the yard and announces he will stay for lunch, leaving Mrs. Croft speechless. Inside, Phillip stares at Lena. When Alice speaks to the parrot and Lena repeats her words, Phillip grins and gestures for more. He laughs suddenly, a burst of sound Zoe compares to music, but he still does not speak.

Soon after, a couple arrive to adopt May. Alice cries as she hugs May goodbye. Kodi watches through the window; he always understands that foster dogs eventually leave. In the days that follow, Kodi stands at the fence looking down the road where May disappeared, and each day Phillip comes on his own to stand beside him.

One morning, the family watches from the kitchen window as Phillip approaches Kodi at the fence. They see his lips move, and Kodi bounds toward him. Phillip does talk, but only to Kodi. Zoe insists something happened to make Phillip afraid to speak to anyone else. Daddy observes that Kodi and Phillip share a friendship that does not depend on words. Mama notes that Kodi senses Phillip, like a rescue dog, needs extra care. Zoe suggests both understand what it means to be left behind: Kodi by the foster dogs who depart, and Phillip by his parents.

Mama invites Phyllis over for tea. When Phyllis arrives with Phillip, Lena imitates Mrs. Croft's shrill voice, startling her. To everyone's surprise, Phyllis laughs, and Phillip looks shocked, as though he has never heard her laugh before. On the porch, Alice, Zoe, and Phillip share cake in happy silence. As Mrs. Croft leaves, she allows Kodi to sniff her hand for the first time.

Mama drives across the state to rescue two new dogs who face euthanasia within days. When Phyllis questions the arrival of more animals, Mama responds firmly that saving dogs is her choice and tells Phyllis she does the same thing with Phillip. Mama later explains that Phyllis has never had children or pets; she cares about Phillip but does not know what to do with him.

Mama returns with Callie, a full-grown Great Pyrenees, and Jack, a smaller, nervous adolescent dog with mottled black-and-white fur. Phillip comes through the gate and sits under a tree. Without any coaxing, Jack walks up and settles beside him. Mama watches quietly, marveling at the pair.

Late one evening, the phone wakes Zoe. Jack has escaped through an open gate into a rainstorm. Mama takes Kodi to search while Daddy leaves for a veterinary emergency. The next morning, in heavy rain and hail, Phyllis pounds on the Cassidy door. Phillip is missing; his bed has not been slept in. Phyllis reveals, crying, that Phillip overheard her on the phone with his parents. She screamed at him, demanding he speak, and now he is gone.

Zoe suddenly understands two things. She believes Phillip's silence is self-protection: He thinks something he said caused his parents' troubles, and by refusing to speak he cannot make things worse. She also realizes where he has gone: out into the storm to find Jack. Zoe pulls on boots and a rain slicker, grabs supplies, and heads out into the cold, leaving Alice and Phyllis to comfort each other.

Zoe searches through meadows and barns in pounding rain. In one stall, she finds a hollow in the hay with a clump of mottled fur, but no one is there. Then she spots a hay barn she has never seen before, its door open. In the back, behind neat bales, she finds Phillip asleep in loose hay with Jack curled beside him. Exhausted and tearful with relief, Zoe lies down beside them and falls asleep.

She wakes to silence. The storm has passed. Phillip speaks immediately: Jack ran ahead but came back when Phillip got lost, leading him to a barn; when a farmer entered, they fled and found the hay barn during the hail. Zoe does not draw attention to the fact that Phillip is talking, afraid he will stop. Phillip reads her expression and says, "I'm talking. I know" (92). Mama and Kodi appear, having tracked them down. Mama hugs Phillip without commenting on his speech, and they all walk home.

Phillip talks the entire way, calling Jack a hero. At the house, Alice and Phyllis wait alongside Daddy and a policeman. Phillip insists on telling the story himself. As he speaks, Phyllis kneels and puts her arms around him. She hugs Jack and then Kodi, getting white fur all over her clothes. Mr. Croft, who has arrived in his black car, never speaks, as if he has taken over Phillip's former role. When the Crofts walk home, Jack follows them. Phyllis asks Mama to let Jack stay, promising to take care of him.

Inside, the house is quiet. Zoe shares her belief that Phillip's silence was self-protection: If he said nothing, he could not be responsible for his parents' problems. Alice hands Daddy a page from her journal. He reads aloud her poem, "You Can't Know," which captures the story's themes: the hidden thoughts of a silent person, the wordless knowledge of a dog, and the saving power of that bond. When Daddy finishes, Lena adds in a near-whisper, "You can't know" (106).

Alice's journal, shared on a calm summer day, provides the story's resolution. She calls Zoe the true hero for going out alone in the storm. Phyllis, Alice writes, turned out to be genuinely kind, and Mr. Croft, whom Alice had imagined to be a spy, is actually a librarian more comfortable with books than with people. Phillip has adopted Jack as his own rescue dog and returned home to his parents, who have resolved their difficulties. He sends the Cassidys long, chatty letters. The family has adopted Callie, who becomes Kodi's closest companion. Phyllis and Mr. Croft decide to stay in the rental house next door for a year. Daddy has not found a home for Lena, and Alice suspects he secretly loves the parrot. Alice closes her journal with the observation that things change and things don't change, and that Lena is right: "You can't know."