He runs off after telling Sirius that the sound is 'the Master' whistling, and 'only those who run with and share duties are allowed to know' about the Master. He meets Yeff, a 'cold dog,' who resembles Sirius and his littermates, and is the only one besides Patchie and Sirius able to hear a strange, high call. Sirius begins to befriend other dogs, particularly Bruce, Patchie, Rover, and Redears, who are Sirius' litter-mates. He sets out to explore the town, finding people to feed him, including Miss Smith, a kind retired teacher. Sirius is aided by the luminary Sol in his quest to find the Zoi. Sirius' status in the house is often fraught, as Duffie despises him and Kathleen's meager allowance is his sole source of food.

The family has three cats who grudgingly befriend Sirius. The Duffields' sons are Basil, who does not actively dislike Kathleen but often mimics his mother's behavior and is obsessed with meteorites, particularly one that fell recently near the town and Robin, who is kind but afraid of the other family members. However, his wife Daphne ('Duffie'), a potter, bullies and intimidates Kathleen as she is Irish. Kathleen is treated distantly but benignly by Mr. Kathleen lives with the Duffields, a family of four, because her father is in prison. Kathleen O'Brien, rescues a filthy, wet, dying Sirius, and names him Leo. Discovered to be mongrels, the puppies are thrown into the river. If he does not, he will simply die at the end of his dog's life.

If he can recover the Zoi within that dog's lifetime, he will be allowed to return to his former status as Sirius. He is sentenced to spend one lifetime in the form of a dog on Earth. His Companion gives evidence that he is guilty. Sirius, 'guardian luminary' of the Dog Star, is accused of murdering a fellow luminary and losing the Zoi, an extremely powerful cosmic tool, on Earth. The book was Wynne Jones' fifth full-length novel (published the same year as her fourth and sixth novels, Cart and Cwidder and Eight Days of Luke).

It tells the story of Sirius, a star who is forced to live in the body of a dog on Earth. Macmillan Publishers (UK) Greenwillow Books (US)ĭogsbody is a 1975 children's novel by British writer Diana Wynne Jones, first published by Macmillan.

Dogsbody novel