Summary Of Michael Burch's They Cage The Animals At Night?

“I’ll be right back.”(Burch, 4) Those were the last words his mother said to him before leaving. Jennings Michael Burch wouldn’t have been able to survive living in and out of New York orphanages without the support of his family and friends. His autobiographical novel, They Cage the Animals at Night, recounts his painful memories of when he lived in many different orphanages from the time he was eight till his early teens. All Jennings wanted in life was to belong to someone. He had a very unstable life when he was young, he never knew how long he would be at home before he would have to be lent out to a new family or go to an orphanage because his mother was too sick to care for him and his brothers. Jennings didn’t want to stay in orphanages,

Mark was the first boy that Jennings met in the home so he was the one to show Jennings the rules of the home. He slept with Doggie his first night but was panicked when he woke up to find Doggie gone. Jennings thought he had lost Doggie, Mark explained what happens every night with the animals that they are given. Jennings didn’t understand why the nuns would take them away, when he asked Mark “‘But why?’ Mark snapped and said ‘It’s the rules!’ ‘They cage the animals at night. It’s the rules.’”(Burch, 26) Jennings thought that Doggie was his, so when he was lent out to the Carpenter’s he didn’t realize he wouldn’t be able to take Doggie with him. Mrs. Carpenter was a very mean woman and Jennings just wanted Doggie back, he drew a picture of him hoping it would make him feel better. When he got back to the Home of the angels he was very happy to know Doggie was safe and he would get to sleep with him again. Shortly after Jennings got back to the home Sister Clair told Jennings she would be leaving to go help at a school, they were both new in the Home of the angels at the same time. When Jennings woke up, he found Doggie under his pillow with a note attached from Sister Clair that