Most dogs in this world are content with their doggy lives, playing dead and burying bones, but Diogenes was a dog of a different sort – he wanted to become his own master. So he buried his collar and leash, left his cozy doghouse, and ran off to the great city of Athens, Greece. There he took upon himself the role of “watchdog” to those around him, warning of life’s moral pitfalls and showing by his own surprising example the path to an enlightened way of being.

Rounding out this colorful picture book biography about a revolutionary thinker, a two-page author’s note about Diogenes elucidates the connection between the book’s doggy hero and the historical figure, who became a pauper in order to live like a king.