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We humans have taken the rich genetic material of the wolf and have selectively bred the dog to be all things to all people.We've made him small enough to fit in our pockets and tall enough to tower over us, gentle enough to sleep with our children and strong enough to take down a wild boar.

But maybe the dog has changed us more.

That's the argument that Stanley Coren, best-selling author of popular dog books, makes in his latest, The Modern Dog: A Joyful Exploration of How We Live With Dogs Today (Free Press, $26).

Dogs, he writes, made human existence possible, aiding us as we developed civilization. But dogs have changed more than our lifestyle - they've profoundly changed how we see the world. There's no better example of this than Hurricane Katrina.

Before the disaster, Coren writes, the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency head Michael Brown dismissed questions about evacuating companion animals, saying, "They are not our concern."

But as New Orleans drowned, a new and different attitude emerged. The nation watched, horrified, as people died with their pets or battled the elements trying to save them.

One elderly lady's Yorkshire terrier was taken away by a soldier as she boarded a rescue helicopter.

"I got nothing and no one," she said, crying. "He's all I got left!" An officer from the medical corps intervened.

"That's not a dog," he told the soldier. "That's medicine. Medicine for the mind."

- Christie Keith