Summary

“Hundstage” begins with a dog narrator, wondering how he will tell the story of his exile from his Master. The dog meets his Master as a puppy, watching his Master weep over a dead canary. The two become close companions. A few years later, the German government announces animals cannot be the subject of experiments any longer, and the Master cries out of joy.

The dog then recounts his childhood, mentioning his sister Blondi (famously, Hitler’s German Shepherd was named Blondi). The narrator tells of how his grandfather was the first of the German Shepherd breed, and tried-on different behaviors, seeing which one the humans liked best. At this point, the reader intuits that the narrator is a German Shepherd belonging to a Nazi.

The dog overhears a conversation between his Master and his Master’s masseur, in...