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Speaker 1: I have been in book lovers Heaven this last week

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Speaker 1: or so. All my favorites are putting out new books,

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Speaker 1: and one of them is Marcus Susak, whose new book

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Speaker 1: is Three Wild Dogs and the Truth. It's out now.

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Speaker 1: Good morning, Markers, Welcome Markers.

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Speaker 2: Thanks for having me.

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Speaker 3: I don't even know where to start.

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Speaker 1: Well, at the risk of you know it obviously being

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Speaker 1: in the title, tell us what this new tale is about.

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Speaker 3: Oh, my god, it's always good when you can start

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Speaker 3: talking about any story and say you just got to

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Speaker 3: hear this to believe it. And it was just We've

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Speaker 3: just had three dogs from the pound. We brought them

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Speaker 3: into our lives and they changed us forever with their wildness,

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Speaker 3: the visceral truths of the natural world, but also all

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Speaker 3: the love that you could possibly imagine as well, and

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Speaker 3: some tragedy and death and that's what makes life worth

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Speaker 3: living as well. And so it's a sort of epic

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Speaker 3: story about family life.

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Speaker 2: Her.

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Speaker 1: So this is a memoir of sorts of your family

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Speaker 1: dogs as a kid.

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Speaker 3: No, actually, since you know, since I've been a writer

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Speaker 3: so over the last fifteen years, and and so it's

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Speaker 3: about the dogs that have infiltrated my kids' lives. And

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Speaker 3: you know, when you've got this big scale, people were

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Speaker 3: terrified of my dogs. And yet we had this big

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Speaker 3: brute brindle. I always said he was part where wolf part.

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Speaker 2: He made noises like.

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Speaker 3: His name was Reuben, and people were terrified of him.

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Speaker 3: And yet my three year old daughter would walk.

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Speaker 2: Him and we.

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Speaker 3: Kidd he is walking in out, and he'd looked back

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Speaker 3: and he'd go got it, and then he'd be back.

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Speaker 3: You know, he would slow down to her pace. But

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Speaker 3: then you know, next minute we'd have visitors over and

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Speaker 3: he'd be banging into the back.

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Speaker 2: Door, just terrifying.

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Speaker 3: Two your old daughter who had her hands up on

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Speaker 3: the glass.

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Speaker 2: You know, it's about all that.

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Speaker 3: I think it's about the idea that we all have

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Speaker 3: to invite a little bit of chaos in our lives

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Speaker 3: because that's where we get tested and that's where our

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Speaker 3: best stories are. And you know, there's nothing like going

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Speaker 3: to the vet four times in one day, including stomach.

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Speaker 2: Pumpanies, stomach pumping.

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Speaker 1: How did that come about?

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Speaker 4: Well, you know, you go to the vet, you get

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Speaker 4: your cats in your eyes, and then you get some

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Speaker 4: anti inflammatories for your two dollar dog who's got to

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Speaker 4: five thousand dollars knees. Yeah, and then you idiotically leave

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Speaker 4: the tablets on the desk in your office, which is

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Speaker 4: like a two bunk hilton, you know, for your two

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Speaker 4: dogs from the pound, And then you come back later

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Speaker 4: and they look at you and they go, did you

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Speaker 4: not want us to eat? You know, those forty tablets

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Speaker 4: that are in and you've got to take him down

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Speaker 4: to the vet to get you know, and the vet said, look,

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Speaker 4: we might have to pump their stomachs.

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Speaker 3: And one throws up immediately everywhere, and then the other

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Speaker 3: one now holds the record, you know.

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Speaker 2: For resistance to the powder works. You know that we're administered.

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Speaker 3: And there's nothing like seeing your big, gnarly, you know,

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Speaker 3: fairal but loyal and beautiful dog, you know, sort of

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Speaker 3: crouched against the wall like a binge drinker, right, And

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Speaker 3: so it's about all of that and and just about

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Speaker 3: you know, the terrible moments as well, when you know,

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Speaker 3: you realize your dogs get a hold of something in

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Speaker 3: the park and you try to stop it. But it's

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Speaker 3: all it's all part of being human as well. So

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Speaker 3: I think these animals just made me feel extra human,

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Speaker 3: extra alive, and I wouldn't change a thing, even when

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Speaker 3: you're spreading into the emergency that's or in the morning

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Speaker 3: and you know, with your with your big gnarly dog

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Speaker 3: and just smash his head into the metal door frame.

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Speaker 3: You know, I even don't regret that, because it's all

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Speaker 3: part of this big, beautiful, tragic but epic story, you know, adventure,

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Speaker 3: yes squashed into sort of two hundred and big pages

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Speaker 3: that sort of met the world to me, and I

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Speaker 3: didn't realize it almost or just now talking to you.

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Speaker 1: It's just amazing because they're also different, not just their physicality,

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Speaker 1: but their personality is just like us.

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Speaker 2: And how different we were Archer and Frosty to Reuben, well.

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Speaker 3: In a sense.

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Speaker 2: And this is the thing, there are no open years

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Speaker 2: in this book.

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Speaker 3: I think we've all become so good at things like

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Speaker 3: Facebook and Instagram and showing how perfect our lives are.

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Speaker 3: But even you know Archer, I mean, we got Archer

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Speaker 3: because we thought it'd be good luck that stuff started happening,

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Speaker 3: and then Frosty after our other two dogs died, and

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Speaker 3: I sort of described that that Reuben died after a

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Speaker 3: sort of Johnny Cash sized life, and then I just

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Speaker 3: drifted out, you know, as if he was just you know, swept,

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Speaker 3: you just taken out to see and it just happened

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Speaker 3: so quickly. And then we got Frosty, thinking we just

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Speaker 3: want an easy dog, you know, and he turned out

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Speaker 3: to be the wildest one of them all, and he

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Speaker 3: was the one well he was brutalizing us. And it

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Speaker 3: shows you with stories, you know, people would look at

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Speaker 3: him and they see a rescue dog and I go, yeah.

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Speaker 5: Yeah he is.

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Speaker 3: And then they go, oh, was he abused, And I'd say, no,

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Speaker 3: we think he was the abuser.

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Speaker 2: He then returned to the town twice.

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Speaker 3: This is what you find out when you ring them,

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Speaker 3: you know, and not in the ad. And so I

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Speaker 3: really had to straighten him out, and we had. And

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Speaker 3: the book starts with that, with that having and it

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Speaker 3: starts with the line there's nothing like having a punch

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Speaker 3: up with your dog on the crowded city street and

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Speaker 3: once once well and.

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Speaker 2: Everyone's walking past, and you're going, look just exactly exactly

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Speaker 2: it was.

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Speaker 3: Well, it was a typical Sydney thing of judgment hurled

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Speaker 3: in silence, but it took because he was beating us up,

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Speaker 3: this dog every time we took him for a walk.

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Speaker 6: And someone just had to be at the boss and

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Speaker 6: it just of course, yeah, and when he after the

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Speaker 6: third or fourth time, you know, and people are.

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Speaker 3: Looking back, going, god, should we report that guy. But

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Speaker 3: on the fourth time it happened, he stopped and he

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Speaker 3: sat and he looked at me, and it was a

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Speaker 3: recognition of I get it.

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Speaker 2: And of course then I gave him the hugest hard Frosty,

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Speaker 2: you've done it, You've done it. And then we never

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Speaker 2: looked and he was sort of you know, and whether

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Speaker 2: he would have changed eventually anyway, but we just didn't

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Speaker 2: have that kind of it needed to happen, and it's

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Speaker 2: all part again of a story. And that's why I mean,

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Speaker 2: there are no overnews. I'm not sort of coming across

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Speaker 2: as some expert who knows absolutely everything about this season alone. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: exactly exactly. People who want that book, go and read

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Speaker 2: The Dogs. If you want to book about a family

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Speaker 2: dealing and coping with these amazing, wild but beautiful critters,

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Speaker 2: you know, who just come to mean everything to you.

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Speaker 2: That's my book. And I'm really you know, for the

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Speaker 2: first time with the book putting it out. I'm especially happy.

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Speaker 2: That's awesome.

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Speaker 1: One thing I'm curious about as someone who's always had

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Speaker 1: both cats and dogs.

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Speaker 2: Do you.

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Speaker 1: I don't want to sound like I'm stalking you, but

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Speaker 1: didn't you have a cat called Brutus?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, at the same time we did.

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Speaker 5: We had two cats, Yeah, usual and Brutus, as Visual,

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Speaker 5: was the warrior like he was just he's described in

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Speaker 5: the book as a feline Genghist.

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Speaker 3: Cart And so we had one of those, and we

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Speaker 3: had a real softy and ironically, the softy cat was

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Speaker 3: Brutus and his mouth was sort of like this tiny

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Speaker 3: almost inaudible. Yeah, but I mean, and so I've seen

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Speaker 3: even that like Visual, the cat he had was engaged

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Speaker 3: in psychological warfare with a big bohemos who used to

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Speaker 3: come into our cat flap and steal their food. And

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Speaker 3: the book, actually, you know, part one, after the prologue

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Speaker 3: of me fighting Frosty starts with that cat either eye

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Speaker 3: with this other one on a brick walk and we

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Speaker 3: went out to go shopping. Two hours later they were

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Speaker 3: still there. Was like the stand off a boxing promotional poster.

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Speaker 1: I love the way they defend each other though there's light,

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Speaker 1: you know, when brothers fight, but if anyone from outside

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Speaker 1: the house comes into it, you know they are to the.

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Speaker 2: Death for each other.

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Speaker 1: I find that with my cat and dog, they'll look

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Speaker 1: at each other, you know, inside the house, but if

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Speaker 1: any threat came in, they've got each other's back, you know.

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Speaker 2: And we could sit here for hours and tell stories

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Speaker 2: about each other animals.

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Speaker 3: Yes, and you know, and you realize what it means.

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Speaker 3: And even you said that. There's a chapter in the

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Speaker 3: book called sons and Brothers. That's what Reuben and Archer were.

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Speaker 3: And I described them in that way. I mean, admittedly,

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Speaker 3: I also call them gangsters, gun.

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Speaker 5: And I think, you know, and it's just that idea.

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Speaker 2: Again, we're all multi faceted, and we're all complex and

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Speaker 2: like delving into that kind of mess.

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Speaker 1: And I think our pets are one of the things

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Speaker 1: that really do bring us all together. So this is

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Speaker 1: I look forward to another wonderful read. It's a beautiful

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Speaker 1: looking book again, Three Wild Dogs and the Truth, Marcus

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Speaker 1: Sussac's new book. It's out now. Marcus, thank you so

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Speaker 1: much for joining us this morning to talk about it.

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Speaker 2: Yeah good, what was a trade mate? You guys, Thank

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Speaker 2: you so much for having me. Thank you bye, all

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Speaker 2: the best