A Book Review, "A Good Dog" by Jon Katz

When I think of Orson, I always smile to myself remembering how he flew across the airport after a terrifying flight! In this book the journey Orson takes Jon on is one I can relate with and think about how each dog is so different and teach us about our own selves. How important it is to understand when you have to let go or hang on, when you stop to see the world through the dog's eyes and see how it also changes you. I love that Orson brought Jon Katz to a place in his life where the farm called him and brought him HOME. I feel like these last few years in my life I have been looking for my own home as well. The promise that we live in a beautiful place on this planet with our wise soulful dogs, makes me think there is something powerful, spiritual and phenomenal about being alive, It takes us to the stars when we die and gives us a completed feeling that we were luckily enough to live side by side with our dogs. Orson was powerfully devoted to Jon and the new life on the farm. When I read this book I would cry, laugh out loud and copy phrases that spoke straight to my heart. While my car got serviced or the tires rotated and the many other problems it had I spent all those days and hours in the waiting room reading this book. It was an escape from the noisy crazy TV, which always is on in these repair shops. In this book I escape the worrying world around me to the calm sunny afternoons in the flower gardens of Bedlam Farm. While I pictured such a beautiful big boarder collie dog getting his ears scratched as all of nature singed. For we have all been damaged in some way after the years leave us and after the world changes. But a dog stays the course in living by our sides, they learn to live with whatever the day throws at them as it comes and this is how I want to live my own life. It is hard to not want to plan ahead or control all the unfolding events, yet from the living examples of dogs I see my life healing with their help and their friendships, I see a whole new world! I see each new day as if I was living it for the very first time, For a GOOD DOG can take us there!