Ivy Hove

Shungu Ivy Hove

As a watch dog Shungu delivered exceptional feats of heroism still remembered by his human family to this day long after his death in 1997. Acknowledging the importance of not attributing human superior cognitions to a dog, Shungu himself tells the world his life story from a dog's perspective, of the many challenges he successfully confronted in his day to day life. Most of the events in the story actually happened during Shungu's life with the Mabvira family. The use of the first person style of some historical fictions in this work, achieves better to keep in focus and highlight Shungu's animal characteristics, not only as any dog but one with a distinctive compelling personality that is highlighted and comes alive. With some embellishment, the magic of the style also succeeds to give striking urgency and drama to the dynamics between trained Shungu in his bid to please his loving human family with support of other family dogs and the world of scheming robbers, house-breakers, thieves and muggers from outside- a huge challenge!