There is one thing that you’ll never read on this blog:
You’ll never read over-sentimentalized, saccharine dog stories.
I don’t have any. I don’t have a book like this one in me at all.
I like dogs a lot.
But I’m not one of these people who thinks they are furry angels.
They are not.
They are good company. Sometimes they are better company than most people are.
But they are animals.
They driven by instincts and drives that are very different from us.
They live in a different world, but it is paradoxically, the same environment in which we live.
They bond to us, and we think they love us (which may be a clever way of getting us to feed them and pay for their health care).
I prefer to see dogs as they are, not idealized versions that more or less resemble characters in bad fiction.
I marvel that they revel in rolling in manure and will eat their own vomit.
I like the dog in all of its unwholesome glory.
I guess we’re just going to have to make up for that in your comments, then.
I think that is why I enjoy reading Jon Katz. His books are definitely not saccharine — I just finished Soul of a Dog. A good read.
I personally prefer Mark Derr’s Dog’s Best Friend.
I actually just discovered Mark Derr not too long ago through his article in The Atlantic years ago. I look forward to reading more from him when I can acquire those writings.
Personally, I’m a little fed up with all the books coming out about dogs and their owners. Dean Koontz has one out, there’s an excerpt featured in this month’s Readers’ Digest, Marley & Me was made into a movie, Rescuing Sprite was all the rage a while ago…I know dogs are life-changers and I’m getting sick of reading that yet another dysfunctional human-dog relationship has been transcribed into a story fit for Oprah. Even Jon Katz raised my fur a little bit. Lsasie Get Help has a rather good analysis of him.
How many books does Koontz have about that same golden retriever?
Don’t know, that one’s just the one that’s currently being publicized…are you joshing me in that there’s more? :O
He wrote a fiction book in which a golden very similar to her was a major character.
Then he wrote another book by Trixie.
And then this new one.
very very very many of Koontz’ books have a dog (usually a golden) in them.
On of his most recent has a plot line involving GR rescue: http://www.deankoontz.com/books/the-darkest-evening-of-the-year/.
I understand that he is a big financial supporter of GR rescue.
ok, maybe he’s gone a little overboard: http://trixie.deankoontz.com/
I hope I never let golden retrievers take over my writing.
I try to keep them a relatively normal level on this blog– which is technically about them.
I quibble with any arguments that other mammals can’t feel emotions like love, but humans can. It always seems just a ploy to make sure we can see our own species as ‘special’. I’m sure, deep in my hind-brain, my love for my parents was just be a clever way of getting them to feed me and pay for my health care.
But yeah, too sentimental and I gag. (I also hate the Rainbow bridge. I know it’s a concept that helps grieving pet owners, but it also makes me gag).
However, while I find it fun to anthropomorphize my dog (I can’t be the only one that speaks for my dog and pretends it’s them talking? Um, right?), I still treat her as a dog, and not a child.
I have to agree with you about that. I also hate when people pretend to be their dogs on the internet, going on about their ‘mommies’. It’s just bizarre to me.
i thought you were my friend, i resemble this blog and
am turning my interweb off
Willie, if you want to read crapola dog stories, feel free to do so.
I might be with Willie–BudBud and Bunnykins are highly insulted that anthropomorphizing and idealizing them may make them resemble characters in bad fiction.
;)