“People who love dogs often talk about a ‘lifetime’ dog.
I’d heard the phrase a dozen times before I came to
recognize its significance. Lifetime dogs are dogs we love
in especially powerful, sometimes inexplicable ways.”–Jon
Katz
In this gripping and deeply touching book,
bestselling author Jon Katz tells the story of his lifetime
dog, Orson: a beautiful border collie–intense, smart, crazy,
and unforgettable.
From the moment Katz and Orson
meet, when the dog springs from his traveling crate at
Newark airport and panics the baggage claim area, their
relationship is deep, stormy, and loving. At two years old,
Katz’s new companion is a great herder of school buses, a
scholar of refrigerators, but a dud at herding sheep.
Everything Katz attempts– obedience training, herding
instruction, a new name, acupuncture, herb and alternative
therapies–helps a little but not enough, and not for long.
“Like all border collies and many dogs,” Katz writes, “he
needed work. I didn’t realize for some time I was the work
Orson would find.” While Katz is trying to help his dog,
Orson is helping him, shepherding him toward a new life on a
two-hundred-year-old hillside farm in upstate New York.
There, aided by good neighbors and a tolerant wife, hip-deep
in sheep, chickens, donkeys, and more dogs, the man and his
canine companion explore meadows, woods, and even stars,
wade through snow, bask by a roaring wood stove, and
struggle to keep faith with each other. There, with deep
love, each embraces his unfolding destiny.
A Good
Dog is a book to savor. Just as Orson was the author’s
lifetime dog, his story is a lifetime treasure–poignant,
timeless, and powerful.
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