Bedlam Dogs
My dogs are the heart of the farm, the reason I came here, the thing I love the most and write about most often. A number of dogs have lived with me on the farm since I came, some still here, others not. I have no problem sharing dogs with other people, when that's appropriate, or even giving them away, if that makes the dogs happier. But I also have dogs I couldn't ever part with.
A freshly-shorn Rose looks anxiously at her herd; Izzy relaxes in the background. I At the moment, I have three remarkable dogs I love to death, all quite different: Rose, the working dog, Izzy, the Soul Dog who brought me to hospice work, and Lenore, the Hound of Love. Rose came from a herding line in Colorado, Izzy was rescued off a farm near Cambridge, N.Y., and Lenore came from a wonderful breeder of Labs, Gretchen Pinkel of Kee-Pin Labradors.
I moved to the farm for many reasons, but in part because of my troubled border collie Orson, who brought me to sheepherding, then to farms, then to my farm. I've written books about him called "A Dog Year," being made into a movie starring Jeff Bridges and another called "A Good Dog." I owe him much, and I made the painful choice to put him down in 2005 after he bit several people. He is buried on the farm.
Pearl and Clementine, two gorgeous and beloved yellow Labs, come and go. Clementine lives in Vermont with a physical therapist, an athlete who shares Clem's love of swimming, hiking and jogging.
Pearl shuffles between the farm and Brooklyn, N.Y. This loving and beautiful creature kept me company as I wrote, and now she's helping my daughter Emma launch her own writing career there (Em is writing a book about baseball). Pearl has many urban admirers.
The current Bedlam Farm residents are strikingly different, and play different roles in my life. Rose is the border collie who graces the cover of "The Dogs of Bedlam Farm." Her ferocious work ethic, courage, gift for problem solving, and firm ideas how things ought to be run are what makes it possible to live here.
I marvel at this focused sprite, not even 40 pounds, who terrorizes rams, herds sheep, stares down donkeys, rescues geese, corrals goats and runaway cows. She helps farmers all over the county. We charge $10 per visit, and she has earned $340 which I keep in a Rose basket.
Izzy spent the first five years of his life living mostly outside on a farm, where a caretaker fed him and housed him in bitter cold weather. He had never lived in a house when I got him, and wasn't housebroken. He was a nightmare at first, then evolved into an extraordinarily intuitive and loving creature. His hospice work, detailed elsewhere on this site, is amazing.
Lenore is one of the most appealing and loveable creatures I have encountered in my life with animals. I call her The Light because she brightens every space she inhabits, and she rides with me on the four wheeler, sleeps next to me in bed, charms every animal on the farm, has a close relationship with a lonely ram - Brutus - and makes me smile every time I look at her. I sing songs to her on our walks. She loves me. She loves everybody. I am lucky to have all of these dogs, in remarkable in their own way, each different, as a whole a testament to the power of dogs to change our lives, lean love and patience, and help us connect with human beings.
My dogs are the heart of the farm, of course, the reason I came here, the thing I write about most often.
Izzy graced the cover of my last book, "Dog Days," and Lenore is on the cover of my next book, "Izzy and Lenore, Two Dogs, An Unexpected Journey, and Me," out this year from Villard Books. Izzy is my shadow, and goes everywhere with me. He is a media slut who makes regular appearances on public radio, CBS, CNN, among other places. He accompanies me to book readings, where he draws far more attention than the author.
(Izzy's former fencemate on the farm - Emma - is older and had some serious health problems. She lived on the farm for more than a year, until she got healthy. Bedlam Farm was too intense for her. She has gone to live in a quiet home near Albany with my friend Audrey, a great human and wonderful dog lover. Her husband Ron is crazy about Emma, and dotes on her.)
That's the current dog lineup on the farm. I am lucky to have these dogs, and I will work hard to meet my responsibility to give them the love, training, security and work they deserve.
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