All working, herding, sporting, rescue and other dog devotees have lost a dear friend and fierce advocate. And I have lost a friend of a lifetime. That friend is Donald McCaig, author of Nop’s Trials, Rhett Butler’s People, and other great books about working dogs and Civil War history of impeccable literary quality and revealing of the author’s deep knowledge of things essential to a worthwhile life.
Donald McCaig was born in Montana in 1940 and graduated from the University of Montana with a degree in Philosophy. He somehow became a Madison Avenue advertising whiz by day and a Beat poet in the Village by night. Then in 1971 he dropped out and moved with his Anne to Highland County, Virginia, selected as the least populated county east of the Mississippi, and took up sheep farming and sheep dogs but retaining literary ambitions.
Anne became the Sheep Whisperer and Donald the border collie sheep dog trialing devotee, meanwhile writing award-winning books about their new life and Civil War Historical Fiction, for which Donald won the Michael Sharrah Historical Fiction Award twice, for Jacob’s Ladder in 1998 and Cannan in 2008. Then Margaret Mitchell’s Executors selected him to write the best-selling authorized sequel to Gone With the Wind, Rhett Butler’s People, followed by Ruth’s Journey, the story of the Gone With The Wind character Mammy.
But to working and sporting dog devotees like me, it was Donald’s border collie sheep dog stories, fiction and non-fiction, that resonated. Eminent Dogs, Dangerous Men, non-fiction, about a Journey to Scotland to acquire a border collie, was my favorite of the genre.
Donald led a long battle against the AKC, opposing its registration of border collies on the grounds its imposition of conformation standards would inevitably destroy the purely performance-based criteria of other registries. He knew well what had happened to breeds like the Irish Setter and Cocker Spaniel under conformation standards. He wrote passionately of this cause in The Dog Wars, 2007.
Many years ago I was struck by the urge to write about bird dogs. I had read Donald’s works about border collies. I asked a mutual friend for an introduction to Donald in hopes of getting advice on how to get bird dog stories published. Donald invited me to send him a manuscript. In response, he called to advise he was coming to Richmond on a book tour and would like to meet.
We met for lunch at the Commonwealth Club, where I secured a private room. After shared Scotchs, Donald said,
“I have bad news, and good news. Your manuscript is unpublishable, but with work it may become publishable. I am returning your draft with margin notes. Revise it and send me revisions, I will review and send back.”
Thus began years of reviews by Donald line by line of my drafts. That first draft was what became, Gentlemen, Let ‘Em Go.
Over the years Donald became a dear friend to me and to many others in the Dog Worlds, all of which share obsession and love of the dog athlete. I became an admirer of his literary talent and his character and values. I cherished his friendship and now I cherish his memory.
Tom