Foley's Review of the Richest Dog in Town

Two weeks ago we had a huge buzzard dump 21 inches of snow on our little house.  I was upset because my grassy pee and poop place had been covered up by snow six Foleys high, but what upset me more was the delay in delivery of the long awaited book by my friend Hobo Hudson:  The Richest Dog in Town.

On Saturday Daddy said he was not checking the mail because of the storm.  I told him he had to, Hobo’s book might be there, but he wouldn’t listen.  On Sunday, after digging out our house and checking on Grampy Daddy came home with the mail, and wouldn’t you know it, amongst it was my copy of The Richest Dog in Town.  I took it from him huffily and went into my kitty condo to read.

First all, I must mention the cover:   A grinning Hobo with his paws around stacks of coins, lovingly drawn by my good friend Zoe Boe’s mom Aunt Connie Gross.  She caught the marvelous mischievous and loving gleam in his eyes.

Like all great memories Hobo balances his story between laughs and tears.  The tears come early as Hobo, a dog with great potential and the capacity for tremendous love and loyalty in his heart,  bounces from one home to another, and, through a series of misfortunes too well known to neglected dogs he spends his early years alone, tied to a tree.

Every day a kind couple would stop on their walk to speak to Hobo, and soon these stops became extended, and Hobo’s owner, who could not let him live in his house, struck up a conversation with the couple  and soon Hobo was with his forever parents’ Bruny and Walter.  He found his parents’ were cat people but, except for one brief frightful night when his former owners came to visit and he thought he was being returned, Hobo has lived a happy life.

A clever little terrier Hobo notices that cat claws have the capacity to shred clothing, and seeing that local teens enjoy wearing shredded clothes, builds a successful business in the making of shredded jeans.  After a problem with his attorney, a one (checking notes) Foley Monster, he is forced to sell his company which makes him the Richest Dog in Town.

From there Hobo’s adventures are just beginning as he continues investigating profitable endeavors including a cruise ship for dogs and their families and the start of a dog university while also trying to deal with the human world as he attempts to takes his cat secretaries to dinner at an upscale restaurant, tries to buy his Mom a washer, and ends up embroiled with his Dad’s court fight with the elf who lives in his computer.  Hobo also takes the secret codes from a drunken Foley Monster (there is that name again) and travels through the ducts that make up the Internet visiting friends and ending up in Cuba where his quest for cigars leads to another economic opportunity.

Through it all Hobo shows us that, to be a successful dog, and more importantly a rich and successful man, one only needs to listen to man’s best friend.