Not surprisingly, the boisterous, bounding and ever-hungry Oogy wreaks some havoc in the Levin household, destroying furniture, eating everything from upholstery and clothes to books and lacrosse sticks. Oogy does more or less what he wants, to the discomfiture of dinner guests when he jumps up on the table unreprimanded. No one and nothing will ever hurt you again.’Īs you might expect, the disciplinary regime Levin installs for his new puppy is not rigorous. ‘We love you very much,’ he tells the pup. The first thing Levin does when Oogy enters the family is sit him down for a heart-to-heart. He seems to think he’s one of the boys, so they call him ‘the third twin’.Īctually, Levin senior calls Oogy lots and lots of things as he chats away to his adopted pet. Oogy throws himself, often literally, into family life. A vet at the local animal hospital in Philadelphia had tried to repair the worst of the damage, but he thought the injuries too severe for Oogy to survive.īut survive he did and, even more triumphantly, with his gentle and affectionate temperament intact.įor Levin, it was love at first sight - or, perhaps more accurately, first lick - and he resolved to adopt him.įirst, though, he had to overcome the anxieties of his wife - highly understandable anxieties they were, too, because this mutilated attack dog made for a fearsome as well as a gruesome sight, and when the Levins had previously adopted a pit bull it had badly bitten a young boy’s face.īut such is Oogy’s sweet and loving nature that Mrs Levin is immediately won over.
Somehow, he had survived, but only just, with major wounds to his head and most of the left side of his face gone. Oogy’s origins are shrouded in mystery - he probably started life as a drug dealer’s fighting dog who’d refused to fight and had then been used as bait for other dogs. Which would have come as a merciful end to a short and dreadful life. Oogy was probably two months old when Larry first clapped eyes on him, and the puppy’s then-horrendous appearance was the least of his problems - as an appallingly injured stray, he was due to be put down. When he first saw his beloved pet, owner Larry Levin thought Oogy’s face had melted. Oogy is a white pit-bullish dog with a truly strange, skew-whiff face - left ear missing, part of the left jaw gone, mouth and snout pulled sideways.Īnd that’s after extensive reconstructive surgery.
Love at first sight: Levin has resolved to adopt OogyĪs his dustjacket photo proves, the star of this book won’t be winning any beauty contests.
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