August 25, 2009 – I loved a piece Julia Keller wrote in the Chicago Tribune Sunday about dog books, and about my books. I have to say I especially loved that she wrote of “A Good Dog” and “Izzy and Lenore” that those two books are “quiet masterpieces about living and working with dogs and other animals on an upstate New York farm. She called “Soul Of A Dog” a “lyrical yet unsentimental memoir about the bond between people and animals.”
  This is a lovely description, and I appreciate it. The sentimental dog books – the Disney dog books – sell very well and are now a booming genre of publishing. And some of them are entertaining, almost irresistible. Some take a particular view of animals that I don’t share.
  The view of dogs as animals is changing.
  Keller likes dog books that allow dogs to be dogs and animals to be animals, and she cites some books that she likes:
“Lad: A Dog” by Allbert Payson Terhune, “Old Yeller,” by Fred Gipson (not like the Disney adaptation), “Follow My Leader” by James Garfield, and “Big  Red” by Jim Kjelgaard. She has good taste. She called these books “dog books with dignity – and real bite.”
  Since most of these books have been written, dogs, cats and other animals have been emotionalized and anthropomorphisized almost beyond imagination. I love dogs, and respect them as dogs, and I do not wish to see them become smaller versions of us. I am not into telling other people how to think and feel, but I think Keller was correct when she focused on the real issue: giving dogs and other animals the dignity they deserve. Anyway, it was a wonderful piece to read, not only because of what it said about me, but for what it said.

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 Went to the County Fair this morning. Meghan won third place, and I got some neat photos of her and the Violette family, which I will post when I get time.
  Might be awhile.
  Tonight, Hubbard Hall, Cambridge, N.Y., 7 p.m. The ASA (Agriculatural Stewardship Association) Calendar, featuring photographs by me and Corinna Aldrich is now available for sale through the ASA in Greenwich, N.Y. I will post more details later, and the calendars will be available tonight at Hubbard Hall and tomorrow at the Crandall Public Library reading for “Soul Of A Dog,” at 7 p.m., courtesy of Red Fox Books.