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Anyone read "Nop's Trials"?


nowwown
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I actually liked Nops Hope better. There are some great quotes from that book.

 

Nops Trials is a little Lassie-ish at times, but now that I know who is who "for real" I've got extra reason to like it. I train my dogs on "Ethel Conrad's" old training field. That's kind of cool.

 

My favorite dog in NT was Stink. I think there is a whole story there that's untouched.

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How funny - I have just read it after having had it for a while. I don't think it is a great novel, but it is a very good book if you are into BCs. Just don't read the ending chapters in a public place - you'll cry. Anyway, I did. I'm hesitant to order Nop's Hope because I am not really into the idea of "sequels". But if DH offers to buy it for me on his next trip to the US, I won't refuse. I actually ordered some books from Dogwise this evening so this caught my attention.

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Does anybody not get at least misty eyed when Lewis calls Nop when he finally finds him? :D

 

I think it's not just BC people, but dog people that get that book.

 

 

I do. I don't think it helped that when I first read Nop's Trial that my dad died suddenly when I was toward the end of the book, but I still get all teary eyed at that part - the emotions in that book will probably always be connected to my dad's death.

 

I read Nop's Hope. I really didn't like it. Nop's Trial is a good dog book. I was disappointed in the sequel.

 

BTW, I always cry when Lassie comes home too. :rolleyes:

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I like Nop's Hope more over time. The first time I read it I felt like someone had kicked me in the stomach -- too much badness thrown at you with no preamble too soon. But the story of the lone woman with her troubles and the dog who was her salvation speaks to me. I have a big-headed furry bodyguard of my own with talking eyes, so I understood the relationship that Penny has with Hope in that book. Nop's Hope is a very dark book, and more "adult" than Nop's Trials. If you don't like that kind of thing, I wouldn't read it.

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It's dark, it's real, but it also presents that there is always, well....Hope

 

What's your fav line?

 

Mine is when Penny is getting ready to go out in the ice storm to get the newborn lambs and Orin says she doesn't have to..

 

"if I don't, some'll die. Hope."

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I'll have to go back and read Nop's Hope over now. I think the best way to describe how I felt after I read it, is that it left me cold. Maybe because it's a dark story, "more adult", but since a lot of my adult life has been stressed and with it's own trials and tribulations, I don't look more of the same in the books that I read for recreation. I had to force myself to finish Nop's Hope the first time. Maybe the second time around, I'll actually glean something positive from it.

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"Nop's Trials" is a classic. In a way the book is high concept "Lassie Come Home" for the 20th century. Unlike Knight's book, Nop's owner is the one searching. Nop, hapless wanderer and goal of Lewis's quest, teeters on the edge of perils, among them: dog fighters in need of bait, life on the road without a collar, pulling duty as the steed of a monkey, and no room in a homeless shelter for a dog. I read both "Nop's Trials" and "Nop's Hope" when they first came out; I had never met Donald, yet those trials are still vivid in my mind long after the details of Hope have faded.

 

Unlike "Lassie Come Home," "Nop's Trials" is for adults. Eric Knight told a good tale; Donald McCaig is by far the better writer. "Nop's Trials" is a memorable book and hands down the best novel with a border collie ever written. I am amazed that the movie rights are gathering dust somewhere and Disney did not snap them up.

 

If you're looking for a hilarious read and can stomach some prose so terrible a dog really could have written it, wrap your paws around "One Dog, His Man and His Trials" by Quarton. I've only read the one volume, abridged edition. The book is so funny that I'd gladly suffer through the stylistic failures and manage to enjoy the original two volumes if I could find them

 

Penny

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I am amazed that the movie rights are gathering dust somewhere and Disney did not snap them up.

 

Thank goodness that Disney hasn't, and I hope they never do. It would be another disaster for untold numbers of Border Collies (think "101 Dalmations" and what that did to those poor dogs).

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I haven't read the books but I like Donald McCaig a great deal. After all, the one time I met him, he told me that my Nellie was, "One good looking dog". What's not to like?

 

I second the previous post ("Hi Mom!") - the last thing we need is a movie about border collies. "Oh, you mean like the dogs in the movie, Babe?" :rolleyes:

Lisa

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  • 2 weeks later...

I just finished Nop's Trials and I can't stop thinking about the horrid and brutal treatment Nop received by so many. I know it was a novel but I'm sure that all those situations exist in our world.

 

The animal experiment lab that "collected" specimens was despicable. Is this really happening in America?

 

I truly enjoyed the book. I work for a book distributor and one of the great benefits is that I get many many books for free. I am a voracious reader and even get to read advance copies of books before they are published and sold. So many books means very few "stick" with me.

 

Nop's Trials is one that certainly "sticks".

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The animal experiment lab that "collected" specimens was despicable. Is this really happening in America?

 

If you can stomach it, there was a recent documentary called "Dealing Dogs" on HBO that recorded the investigation of this practice, focusing on a particular individual who was housing 500+ dogs in order to sell them for research. It's very well done, and heart breaking to watch. One "buncher" (the guy who drives the white truck- could have been right out of Mr. Maccaig's book) brags about driving around wealthy neighborhoods and picking up what is obviously someone's pet that got out. Another is caught red-handed with a very nice German Shepherd that he claims has the proper paperwork (the dogs are supposed to be bred for research, not strays or pet turnovers) but then his daughter lets slip that the dog simply wandered into their yard one day.

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I'd like to see a sotckdog-focused treatment of the books (please God, not disney). I always thought Nop's Hope would actually make a better movie - and for adults. It's so much about the girl. I didn't really like it - I'm not into dark - I had too much of it in my own life.

 

I always recommend either of them to dog people as a good introduction to stockdogs - and then for those interested in Border Collies, my favorite Don McCaig book so far is Eminent Dogs, Dangerous Men. It's a bit gossipy with regard to the people, but the dog descriptions, and the "why" of the stockdog culture here and overseas, are really where the rubber meets the road.

 

I haven't had a chance to read Dog Wars yet, sadly, but I'm looking forward to it.

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Forget just stomaching the documentary, and go for the whole puke. Read "Stolen For Profit" by Judith Reitman. You'll never have your dog out of your sight again.

 

I took a wrong turn in Missouri once, and did a quick turn around in a rural farmyard to ask directions. At the peak of my turn I caught a full view of the rows of rabbit cages filled with dogs, smelled the filth, and got the heck out of there. I'll never forget those dogs and the total silence of the place. How do you make a hundred cages of dogs silent...I don't want to know. I wish the people that buy in petstores could have seen that place and felt the evil of it. Maybe they'd think twice.

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  • 2 months later...

I read Nop's Trials for the first time when I was about 15, A looooong time ago.. I was living in Glasgow Scotland at the time and was working part time at a vet clinic down the road. The clinic dog was a Border Collie (Max) it was probably a combination of that book and Max that I totally fell in love with the breed. Max was the smartest dog I have ever come accross he was a working stock dog owned by one of the vets who happened to also have a small farm just outside of the city I used to go watch him work the sheep it just amazed me. Nop was just a good story it which for some reason stuck a cord in my life, it's a book I have kept with me through out MANY moves...

I am lucky now I live in Rural Nova Scotia Sam is the second BC I've had the pleasure to be owned by..and just up the road is a working Sheep farm where Sam gets to visit and I am hoping he'll learn to work sheep as it's what he is meant to do.. So far he's done ok and isn't scared of them ... more curious and already gives the spring's lambs the old BC stare.

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Forget just stomaching the documentary, and go for the whole puke. Read "Stolen For Profit" by Judith Reitman. You'll never have your dog out of your sight again.

 

I took a wrong turn in Missouri once, and did a quick turn around in a rural farmyard to ask directions. At the peak of my turn I caught a full view of the rows of rabbit cages filled with dogs, smelled the filth, and got the heck out of there. I'll never forget those dogs and the total silence of the place. How do you make a hundred cages of dogs silent...I don't want to know. I wish the people that buy in petstores could have seen that place and felt the evil of it. Maybe they'd think twice.

 

I did get a copy of Stolen For Profit on Ebay. It's out of print but there are several copies on EBay. I paid $1.09 plus shipping. Great buy. Although the book is pretty dated (written in early 1990's) there is so much that still rings true today.

 

It is a very depressing book but I am making my way through it.

 

By the way, the reason it was so quiet at that place you saw in Missouri is that they cut the vocal cords of all the dogs to keep them quiet. At least that is what the book describes. Hideous.

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