A Dog Called Homeless

The primary theme of A Dog Called Homeless is the power of speaking through grief. At the beginning of the book, Cally visits the cemetery with her family. There, they make “a circle, [stand] still as statues, not talking about [Mom] because Dad says it’s too hard to talk about her” (5). Dad’s refusal to talk about her sets the precedent for the Fisher family to avoid their feelings of grief. These emotions then stay stored inside each of the family members and start to affect them in different ways.

Dad is the main one who can’t face his grief. Cally describes moments when she tries to connect with him: “I saw into his eyes before he looked away, as if all the words waiting there were too big to pronounce, too hard to say properly” (9). Avoidance is a common coping mechanism in the wake of losing a loved one. However, Dad’s behavior illustrates that avoiding those feelings for too long can be harmful. Dad grows forgetful and loses his love for music. In doing so, he also pushes away his family.

Communication is the key in any family, and when people avoid difficult conversations, families can start to unravel. Dad’s avoidance and downplaying of their situation affects both Cally and Luke. When Dad tells Cally everything will be fine, Cally isn’t convinced. She can “feel something bad coming with those words. Why do people say everything’s going to be fine when they don’t mean it at all?” (53). Dad tries to soften the blow of having to sell the house by acting like it isn’t a big deal for them to move. In doing so, he invalidates his children’s feelings about moving and doesn’t leave space for them to communicate how they’re feeling. Luke presses him, saying, “‘Why didn’t you tell us before?’ Dad kept walking and muttered, ‘It’s better this way’” (59). Dad’s behavior seeps into other areas of his life too. Instead of avoiding only the topic of Mom, he has started to avoid anything that is a difficult conversation.

On the other hand, when Dad starts to remember Mom or anything from before she died, Cally feels more connected to him again. When he tells her the story about playing at Swan Lake, Cally thinks, “He [doesn’t] talk like this very often anymore. I [like] it. I [lean] against him” (81). Talking about Mom makes Cally feel assured that they won’t forget her, and she finds comfort in talking about the memories out loud. She loves hearing other people talk about Mom too. When Mr. Crisp talks about her, Cally notes that “what he said made my heart feel wide. I [know] he [is] thinking of exactly the time he saw her, because it made the words full of her, breathed her alive, brought her to me, to us” (91). Through hearing others talk about Mom, Cally eventually finds the strength to use her own voice again.

Cally wants Dad not only to speak about Mom, but to want to listen to her speak about her own memories. When Cally stops talking altogether, Dad realizes that he misses the sound of her voice. In a way, it lets Dad know how Cally has felt for the past year. When Cally finally uses her voice again, Dad is in a better position not only to exchange memories of his own with her but to truly listen to his daughter.