1. Locate a true story about a lost animal that traveled a great distance to find its home or family, and write a fictional short story using Lassie Come-Home as an example to develop characters, settings, and plots.

2. Research possible scientific reasons that enable animals to track people and places and navigate across unfamiliar territory. Also, locate information about rabies and how animals and people were treated if exposed to that disease in the 1930s. What other diseases and parasites, such as distemper and ticks, posed a threat to Lassie and other dogs at that time. How did veterinarians combat those infections and pests?

3. Compare Lassie's adventure with that of working animals such as homing pigeons or messenger dogs, which routinely move between places to perform military tasks during wars or similar strategic service.

4. Read both contemporary and historical accounts of...