Another Day, Another Book Review, Another Book By Jon Katz

As you have probably surmised if you are one of the dozen or so people who humor me by reading my blog (even though my blog reading has dropped off considerably for the nonce -- I'm sorry ...) I'm on a bit of a Jon Katz jag right now. I've been a rather joyless reader this year. There has been very little that has inspired me. I've started a number of books, lost patience with them, and simply quit reading them. Others I've read all the way through, only to close them with a hmm. In short, it's been a dry season. Then I remembered how much I enjoyed Katz's first couple of books about his dogs, and decided to catch up with what he's doing now.

A Good Dog just about broke my heart -- perfect! I welcome a genuine good cry. Reading out of chronological order, I jumped to Izzy and Lenore: Two Dogs, an Unexpected Journey, and Me. Izzy is a purebred border collie, another rescue dog. Initially unwilling to go there again after his experiences with the rescued border collie Orson, Jon -- I've read so many of his books now, that I feel we can be on a first name basis -- Jon realizes that perhaps he has been given a second chance to get it right with Izzy, and decides to keep him. Lenore is a black lab puppy that Jon buys from a breeder.

One of the things I really love about these books is that, although they are funny, moving, and even sentimental, there is little that is syrupy, dewy-eyed, or manipulative about them. Jon simply loves his dogs (and a handful of other animals) and through them, as well as his writing and Bedlam Farm, he is trying to make sense of his life. So in a sense, he is just chronicling his muddling through, and as an experienced muddler myself, it resonates deeply.

The "unexpected journey" refers to Jon and Izzy's work as trained Hospice volunteers. The chapters where he describes Izzy's (and his own) interactions with dying people and their families are beautiful. It may also refer to Jon's struggle with a particularly deep depression that winter, about which he writes movingly and candidly.

I find these books to be very spiritual, and I was surprised and pleased to find out near the end of Izzy and Lenore that Jon is a Quaker. He doesn't claim to have any answers to anything really -- not dog training, not farming, not faith nor love -- and it is precisely that not knowing that makes me want to keep reading his work.

Did I say "keep reading"? Oh yeah, I am nearly finished reading Dog Days: Dispatches From Bedlam Farm, the book that actually precedes Izzy and Lenore. I understand there is a new book coming out this summer, one that spotlights Rose, his workhorse border collie. I'm looking forward to it.