Book ~ "A Dog Year: Twelve Months, Four Dogs, and Me" (2003) Jon Katz

From Goodreads ~ 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, as he writes, “Change loves me. . . . It comes in all forms. . . . Sometimes, change comes on four legs.” 

Shortly thereafter he brought Devon home. A Dog Year shows how a man discovered much about himself through one dog (and then another), whose temperament seemed as different from his own as day 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.

I enjoyed reading Katz's Dog Days: Dispatches from Bedlam Farm last month so thought I'd check out some more of his books.

This book takes place before he moves from New Jersey to Bedlam Farm and is his first experience with border collies.

I enjoy Katz's writing style and love reading stories about animals. And I enjoyed this book.

I just read some reviews of this book and some readers found him a bit harsh and cold in his decisions to have Stanley and Julius put down. Difficult decisions to make but he didn't want his dogs to suffer.