The
Dogs of Bedlam Farm
By Jon Katz | Click to order
this book
Working border collies have changed Jon
Katz's life. In the process, the dogs gave this prolific author lively and appealing
adventures and deep insights on the bond between humans and dogs that fill his three most
recent books.
For readers who enjoy a sense of
chronological order to their reading, it is worth starting with his first dog book -- A
Dog Year: Twelve Months Four Dogs
and Me -- and then
his thoughtful look the changing nature of what people ask of their dogs, captured in the
book The
New Work of Dogs: Tending to Life, Love, Family.
If you do that, you'll know that Jon was
leading an idyllic life as a book and magazine writer with two stalwart canine companions,
his yellow Labrador Retrievers Julius and Stanley. Calm, devoted, steady dogs. And that
Jon was convinced to adopt a Border Collie male named Devon, a dog with a troubled youth
who introduced the author to the needs of active working dogs. You'll know that another
Border Collie -- the pup Homer -- arrived, and that Jon and dogs had begun active
participating in sheep herding. [Read an
interview with Jon Katz here.]
Life with Active Dogs at Bedlam Farm
As the newest book opens, we discover that
Jon's passion for giving his working dogs a chance to fulfill their heritage has taken a
dramatic turn -- he has sold his beloved cabin and purchased a 42-acre farm near West
Hebron in upstate New York, about an hour northeast of Albany. He has stocked it
with a herd of sheep and two donkeys, and settled in to a new radically life. Yet a
third border collie, young Rose, has joined Jon's family.
One thread in this book is the strong
values of small town life in rural areas, where everyone knows everyone, and people still
pitch in to help each other in times of need. For the suburbanite author, and I suspect
for many of the book's readers, this is a new world.
Another thread is the education of the
border collies as they improve their herding skills. One of the most wonderful images in
the book is Jon opening the farm gate and heading out, followed by the flock of sheep who
in turn are followed by one of the dogs, keeping in the sheep in line and moving forward.
Adding to the book's appeal is Jon's
admission that much of his adventure at the farm is about being a better dog trainer and a
better person. Through the challenges of the bitter cold winter, the lambing season, his
reunion with his sister and her dogs, and more, he shares his thoughts about caring
for animals, for making difficult decisions about the right home for Homer, and much more.
This book is humorous, heart-warming and
thought-provoking. Just as I said about Jon's first dog book, A Dog Year, this is
a volume that every dog lover deserves to have, to read and reread. You will enjoy the
tales of people and dogs -- and find yourself pondering the importance of animals in our
lives. I strongly recommend it, whether you order it for yourself or as a gift.
AUTHOR: Jon Katz in 2004 is the
author of thirteen books, six of them novels and seven works of nonfiction, with his three
recent books focusing on life with dogs. Recent dog books are The
New Work of Dogs: Tending to Life, Love, Family and The Dogs of
Bedlam Farm. A member of the Association of Pet Dog Trainers, he is a
contributor to to Bark magazine. Among his earlier books are Geeks and Running to the Mountain. 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. 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.
Review by Barbara B. Petura,
WorkingDogWeb.com Webmaster
Member, Dog Writers Association of America
PUBLISHER: Villard Books, a division
of Random House,
New York, 2004.
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