Joyce Wood

Strays Joyce Wood

In Strays, a woman's hunger for fulfillment leads her into difficulty when she meets a stranger in the course of her volunteer work at an animal shelter. He adopts one of her charges and, against her better judgment, the two become uneasy friends, although he is something of a shady character and the two have nothing in common on the surface. Their love for animals and their need for companionship brings them together, and the relationship grows deeper and deeper, until the woman is forced to confront her dissatisfaction with her role as wife and mother. The story is a morality play, demonstrating the eternal lure of the 'unfamiliar,' and the ever-present curiosity about the 'roads not taken.' Jan, the heroine, would be good, if left in peace -- in fact, she knows no other way to be -- but the vagaries of fate put something irresistible in her path, and the impulse to explore the new opportunity becomes more than she can overcome -- because of her inexperience, rather than because of any inner need to break rules or do evil. She is a 'stray' herself, cut off from her usual patterns of behavior by the changing family roles and personal values. Her exploration of this new landscape leads her into pain for herself, and for those she most cherishes.