A Dog Called Homeless

Functionally, Dad is initially the antagonist of the story. His grief has manifested in depression: Dad’s appearance worsens as he stops taking care of himself, wearing the “[s]ame old checked shirt with the ink stain on the pocket, same old crumpled work trousers” (35). He has mood swings and fatigue, and he isolates himself. The motif of winter is central in describing his scruffy look and cold behavior.

Cally worries that he “doesn’t seem to remember anything [Mom] used to say” (32). In the year since she passed, Dad still refuses to talk to Cally about her. When Cally stops talking altogether, Dad starts to realize just how painful and uncomfortable the silence of a loved one is and begins to reevaluate how he interacts with his daughter.

Before Mom died, Dad played guitar at a local pub, laughed with his kids, and had a more positive outlook on life in general. Through flashes of memories, Cally describes who Dad was back then and who she wishes he’ll become again one day. By the end of the book, through his encounters with the Coopers, Jed, Homeless, and finally listening to Cally again, he starts to become his old self again. The book ends with him on stage at the concert with Cally, playing guitar like he used to, making music to bring people together.

Cally’s older brother, Luke, is 13 years old. Cally says, “He looks like my mom: he’s got her thick brown hair, and he’s just about as tall as she was. But he’s serious and boring” (31). Luke spends much of his time playing computer games and trying to get peace from Cally. However, he’s one of the first to notice that something is wrong when she continues to stay silent after the fundraiser ends.

While Cally is silent, Luke stands up to Dad when he tells them he must sell the house. Unlike Dad, he allows himself to feel the emotions that come with this season of grief and change: anger, sadness, and every emotion in between. One friend who helps him deal with what’s going on in his life is Rachel, a girl he meets at the playground, who comes over to hang out with Luke, Cally, and Sam. After that, things get a little better for Luke because he has someone to talk to.

The book’s namesake is “a huge silver-gray dog […] His head [is] as high as [Cally’s] waist” (29). The massive dog, whom Cally names Homeless, first appears alongside Mom and Jed, and Cally feels an instant connection to him. Homeless, likewise, is innately loyal to Cally. She notes, “The dog follow[s] without my even asking. That’s the brilliant thing about dogs. They don’t say, ‘Where are we going?’ They just come with you” (51). After her family, friends, and some teachers at school fail to understand her, Homeless provides the unconditional love and loyalty that Cally needs.

The day that Cally learns Dad has to sell the house is also “the day [she] decide[s] the big silver-gray dog’s name [is] going to be Homeless” (54). She looks across the commons to see the dog sitting with Jed, a kind unhoused man who takes care of him. Around the dog’s neck is a sign that reads “Homeless.” After that, Cally does what she can to look out for both Homeless and Jed.

The end of the book clarifies why Jed frequents Cally’s neighborhood. The day her mom died, Jed found her at the site of the crash. Mom gave Jed a puppy, who grew up to be Homeless, asking Jed to find her family and give him to them. The bond between Homeless and Cally is no accident; they were meant to find each other.

While Mom passed away in a terrible car accident a year before the events in the book, she appears to Cally throughout the story. When Cally’s family goes to the cemetery on the anniversary of her death, Cally notes, “I looked across and Mom’s eyes [shine] as bright as a whole sky full of sunshine. I [feel] that here and me [are] the ones truly alive” (8). She asks the others if they can see her too, but none of them does, and they don’t believe her.

Mom appears in her red raincoat at critical points in the story. She walks with Jed after Cally first meets him, she leads him and Homeless to Cally’s new apartment, and she appears at school. Every time Cally sees her, she knows that Mom is helping her. She knows she’s meant to befriend Jed and take in Homeless, even though the whole story doesn’t become clear until the end.

The events surrounding Mom are shrouded in mystery, like grief itself. When Cally “phones” her mom (at Sam’s suggestion), Cally asks if she’s a ghost, a star, or an angel. Mom laughs and replies, “Me? An angel? A star? I’m your mom, Cally” (147). Cally tells her she thought she was up in space, and Mom tells her, “Why would I go so far away? Just because you can’t see me it doesn’t mean I’m not here with you” (148). This moment is preparing Cally for the time that will come, when she can no longer see her mom, but must trust she is still there anyway.

A kind unhoused man, Jed takes care of Homeless. When Cally first sees him, she notices that “[o]ne of his old sneakers was split, and you could see his dirty sock poking out the hole. He was juggling with some balls of wadded-up newspaper” (41). Jed is quiet and feels an instant connection to Cally, who says, “His eyes [are] lovely, silver warm and sparkling” (43). He’s grateful when she gives him some baked goods, even though Dad told her not to give anything to unhoused people.

Jed has been looking for Cally and her family for a year. When he realizes that Cally’s mom is the one he found in the car crash, he becomes even more dedicated to helping her. When the dogcatchers take Homeless away, he finds a way to clean himself up and perform his juggling act in front of the music shop. With the donations he gets, he gets Homeless back from the shelter and takes him to Cally, where he belongs. In addition, he gives Dad a final gift from Mom: a new guitar pick engraved with a message from her. In this way, he contributes to resolving the conflict between Cally and Dad. At the end of the book, he’s officially a member of their community and is in the crowd supporting Cally at her school concert.

Mrs. Cooper’s young son, Sam, becomes Cally’s best friend over the course of the story. Cally is initially taken aback by his appearance: “When I first saw him, I just saw the dark shadows around his eyes in his moon-colored face, his long black bangs bunched up by a pair of blue swimming goggles he’d pushed up onto his forehead” (71). Curious and smart, Sam is always trying to figure out how things work.

He’s independent and always tries to learn how to do things on his own. When Mrs. Cooper tries to help, “[s]ometimes Sam pat[s] her hands away so he [can] do it himself, and when she tap[s] her fingers on his palm, he push[es] her hands under the table” (77). Mrs. Cooper has worked to make the house a place where Sam can feel independent, and he teaches Cally how to do the same when they’re out playing together.

One of Sam’s defining characteristics is his love for swimming. It’s technically too dangerous for him now because he has asthma and a heart murmur, but he’s determined to learn. He keeps a bag that holds all his “swimming stuff; swimming shorts, a towel, and goggles. It [makes Cally] think Sam [is] the kind of person who’[ll] never give up” (122). Eventually he tries to swim, but he picks the wrong time and place to do so and nearly drowns. Cally goes in after him, and eventually Homeless and Dad save the two of them from the lake. When the kids are out of the hospital, Cally promises herself that one day she’ll make sure that Sam gets to swim—safely.

Just as Rachel is a great friend to Luke, Cally describes Sam as “the best friend anyone could have. He’s like an angel from another world, and as he held my arm while we walked away, he was reading my heart, guiding me” (134). Sam understands Cally in a way that no one else does, and through their friendship, Cally learns much about the different ways people can talk to each other.