Preview of A Member of the Family Summary:

The Lockwood family owns two matched Llewellin setters, hunting dogs, whose instinct is to roam. In the opening paragraphs we read of their escapades as they escape a variety of devices to keep them confined to the Lockwood yard. When all efforts fail and the beloved Boss and Bandit escape one time too many and chase the Lockwoods as their boat travels down the canal to the Gulf, the dogs disappear, and the family is devastated.

The family agrees that these are their last pets. It is far too difficult, emotionally, to lose beloved pets, but with Tom's older sister out on her own as a reporter for a newspaper and Paul, Jr.

gone to MIT, leaving fourteen-year-old Tom alone with his parents, Mrs. Lockwood decides Tom needs something to fill the void. The "something" is an Old English sheepdog, a seven inch ball of fluff, which becomes...