The Dogs of Bedlam Farm: An Adventure with Sixteen Sheep, Three Dogs, Two Donkeys, and Me |  | Author: Jon Katz
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Category: Book
List Price: $15.00
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Seller: bay-city-books
Rating:  56 reviews
Sales Rank: 72465
Media: Paperback
Pages: 288
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.2 x 0.9
ISBN: 0812972503
Dewey Decimal Number: 636.700974751
EAN: 9780812972504
ASIN: 0812972503
Publication Date: September 13, 2005
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Product Description
“Dogs are blameless, devoid of calculation, neither blessed nor cursed with human motives. They can’t really be held responsible for what they do. But we can.”
–from The Dogs of Bedlam Farm
When Jon Katz adopted a border collie named Orson, his whole world changed. Gone were the two yellow Labs he wrote about in A Dog Year, as was the mountaintop cabin they loved. Katz moved into an old farmhouse on forty-two acres of pasture and woods with a menagerie: a ram named Nesbitt, fifteen ewes, a lonely donkey named Carol, a baby donkey named Fanny, and three border collies.
Training Orson was a demanding project. But a perceptive dog trainer and friend told Katz: “If you want to have a better dog, you will just have to be a better goddamned human.” It was a lesson Katz took to heart. He now sees his dogs as a reflection of his willingness to improve, as well as a critical reminder of his shortcomings. Katz shows us that dogs are often what we make them: They may have their own traits and personalities, but in the end, they are mirrors of our own lives–living, breathing testaments to our strengths and frustrations, our families and our pasts.
The Dogs of Bedlam Farm recounts a harrowing winter Katz spent on a remote, windswept hillside in upstate New York with a few life-saving friends, ugly ghosts from the past, and more livestock than any novice should attempt to manage. Heartwarming, and full of drama, insight, and hard-won wisdom, it is the story of his several dogs forced Katz to confront his sense of humanity, and how he learned the places a dog could lead him and the ways a doge could change him.
From the Hardcover edition.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 56
 On the mark September 4, 2009
Angela M. Sanborn (Glenburn, Maine)
As a fellow Border Collie owner this book had me laughing and crying thruout. The thought process and antics of Jon's dogs very much mirror my Maggie Mae. Maggie possess a lot of the same frenzied behavior with our horses that Orson displays with the sheep, and the herding control that Rose has is viewed in Maggie when she has her soccer ball, or our house cat in view.
 "Look what you've done..." July 4, 2009
Akethan (Arlington, VA United States)
The moments where the story is in the telling are wonderful and clear in their expected and unexpected experiences for Katz. However, he treads and re-treads much too often by way of back-patting and self-examination. Nearly a dozen times he repeats in various forms that his dogs have come a long way, the donkeys survived, the sheep & lambs have grown on him, his painful childhood is maybe, just maybe starting to heal, he misses his wife and daughter, but - the show must go on. He beats to death his reconnection with his sister, with the dogs - with the dogs as an agent for his own betterment and he for the betterment of the dogs. When Katz tells the story and lets the story reveal these bright spots - he gives the reader credit - and gives credence to his crafty writing. Katz's shortcoming is, as another review put it: "psychoanalysis of ... everything ..." In over-explaining the obvious too many times - he does himself a disservice.
Pypers Reviews May 3, 2009
Jan Scanlan (Canada)
Jon Katz is a great author on Animals - This book keeps your attention and you dont want to put it down. Great for animal lovers
Great for those who can relate March 8, 2009
C. McKean (Washinton)
The Dogs of Bedlam Farm is an incredible illustration of a man struggling to find balance in his life and how he bonds with his 3 distinctly different border collies.
The detail of rural life is honest and complimentary. It's a story many may not be able to relate therefore, likely why it got some low reviews. If you have a passion for animals, rural farm life, and the beauty of a relationship between humans and dogs, this is a delightful tale.
It's not called "Bedlam" for nothing! January 28, 2009
C.A. Wulff (Boston Township, OH USA)
Jon Katz gets psychoanalytical in this book recounting his adventures with 16 sheep, 3 dogs, and 2 donkeys on a farm in upstate NY. In the course of describing the trials and tribulations of running a sheep farm, Katz delves into his psyche and that of dog people, farmers, family members, and the many animals that inhabit his farm. His reflections and observations give this book more depth and reveal more of his character than he has shared with us in the past.
For a guy from New Jersey, Katz proves his mettle as a writer cum shepherd braving his first upstate winter pretty much on his own. Mother Nature tests him as he navigates his first lambing season.
Like Katz's other books, his dogs are leading characters in this story, helping and/or hindering Jon in their own individual ways.
I don't agree with all of his opinions about dogs; training them, keeping them, and sometimes bailing on them; and was somewhat horrified by some of the behaviors he copped to in A Dog Year -but I still found this book an enjoyable read that held my interest.
C.A.Wulff
Showing reviews 1-5 of 56
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