Dog Days: Dispatches from Bedlam Farms

Jon Katz, well known author of A Good Dog deserves “5 bones”.  

{mosimage}I think I smiled the whole time I was reading this book….Katz has a way of writing what I feel.  And in reading his prose, I feel a sense of belonging to know that I am not alone in my own experiences.  Dog Days is about the unfolding changes of daily life for a city slicker turned farmer.  I, too, left the city to try life on a small plot of land in the country.  Jon has four dogs – I have four dogs.  When he describes the experience of a living amidst the players of a circus, I understand what he means.

The chapters of this book are individual stories that make up the whole of the life at Bedlam Farms.  Whether read individually or as a whole, they are pure joy.

Jon says this about one of his beloved dogs, Pearl…

“More than anything else, she has helped me to heal:  from my back troubles and pain, from the loss of Orson, from the occasional loneliness I feel at the farm when Paula or Emma aren’t there, from the ups and downs of life.  Pearl’s a steady presence, loving and accepting, while the creatures around her – including me – yo-yo.”

For anyone who has ever loved a dog, doesn’t that just say it all?

You’ll enjoy the bevy of other animals including Elvis the steer, Winston the rooster, four donkeys and of course, his three other beloved dogs, Izzy, Clementine and Rose.