4.0
A Dog Year
ByPublisher Description
“Change loves me, defines and stalks me like a laser-guided smart bomb. It comes at me in all forms, suddenly and with enormous impact, from making shifts in work to having and raising a kid to buying a cabin on a distant mountaintop. Sometimes, change comes on four legs.”
In his popular and widely praised Running to the Mountain, Jon Katz wrote of the strength and support he found in the massive forms of his two yellow Labrador retrievers, Julius and Stanley. When the Labs were six and seven, a breeder who’d read his book contacted Katz to say she had a dog that was meant for him—a two-year-old border collie named Devon, well bred but high-strung and homeless. Katz already had a full canine complement, but instinct overruled reason, and soon thereafter he brought Devon home.
A Dog Year: Twelve Months, Four Dogs, and Me is the story of how Devon and Jon—and Julius and Stanley—came to terms with each other. It shows how a man discovered a lot about himself through one dog (and then another) whose temperament seemed as different from his own as day is from night. It is a story of trust and understanding, of life and death, of continuity and change. It is by turns insightful, hilarious, and deeply moving.
BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Jon Katz's Going Home.
In his popular and widely praised Running to the Mountain, Jon Katz wrote of the strength and support he found in the massive forms of his two yellow Labrador retrievers, Julius and Stanley. When the Labs were six and seven, a breeder who’d read his book contacted Katz to say she had a dog that was meant for him—a two-year-old border collie named Devon, well bred but high-strung and homeless. Katz already had a full canine complement, but instinct overruled reason, and soon thereafter he brought Devon home.
A Dog Year: Twelve Months, Four Dogs, and Me is the story of how Devon and Jon—and Julius and Stanley—came to terms with each other. It shows how a man discovered a lot about himself through one dog (and then another) whose temperament seemed as different from his own as day is from night. It is a story of trust and understanding, of life and death, of continuity and change. It is by turns insightful, hilarious, and deeply moving.
BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Jon Katz's Going Home.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesA Dog Year Reviews
4.0
“As a dog lover I did enjoy the heartfelt writing of this book. It did feel a bit slow compared to others I've read but nonetheless made me smile and cry thinking of my own dogs.”
“I want to read more non-fiction and I love dogs so this was right up my alley. It follows the author as he takes in a border collie puppy called Devon, who is a bit out of control, and turns him into a family pet, loved by all. He gives him a better life and it’s wonderful to read.
He already has two labradors when he enters the story, well established family pets and it was interesting to read how the dynamic changed with a puppy. I had an older dog and my brother bought a puppy and the dynamic was very similar.
The only reason I gave this book four stars was due to the chapters where Stanley and Julius had to be put to sleep. I’ve never met these dogs or had a connection with them but I could feel and understand how much the author loved them and it made me cry
There is a final chapter which advises the reader that if you want a border collie, be prepared to train them. And that’s a tough thing to do as they’re working dogs and not pets.
In the end, this book is about the life of one man, and four dogs, when he takes in Homer too, but I really enjoyed reading about them growing, the relationships changing, and everything being great at the end.
Dogs and humans have an incredible bond and you really understand that with this book.
I’m really glad I picked this up.
4/5 stars.”
About Jon Katz
Jon Katz has written eleven books, six novels and five works of nonfiction. A two-time finalist for the National Magazine Award, he has written for The New York Times, GQ, The Wall Street Journal, Rolling Stone, and Wired. He currently writes about technology, media, and culture for the Web site Slashdot.org, and is a contributing editor to public radio’s Marketplace and to Bark magazine. A member of the Association of Pet Dog Trainers, he lives in northern New Jersey with his wife, Paula Span, a reporter for The Washington Post, and their college-student daughter, Emma Span. Jon Katz can be e-mailed at jonkatz3@comcast.net or jonkatz@slashdot.org.
Other books by Jon Katz
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