I have a book out – “Second Chance Dog” and once a day at least, I go to my book’s Amazon page to check for reviews and look at my standing. Jeff Bezos was shrewd to put a ranking next to each book, he must know a lot of writers, he knew neurotic writer’s would be obsessively drawn to checking their standings. I used to check it a lot, once  a day is enough for me now, but I love browsing the titles to see what other books are out there, most of them ahead of mine. I notice an interesting thing – there are literally thousands of titles out there about rescuing animals animals and many of the titles follow this line: “How An Abandoned Boston Terrier saved me?” or “How I Rescued A Dying Pug And How She Rescued me,” “The Angel Who Saved Me: The Bravest Retriever.”

Every time I write a book someone suggests I title the book something like “Saving Red, Saving Me.” or “How I Saved Red, But Was Saved By Him” This cycle of salvation and redemption has emerged as a major theme in animal literature, not only the drama of rescuing animals, but the deepening idea that in the process of saving them, we are somehow saving ourselves.

Publishing marketers pay more attention to these trends than I do, but I always balk at this idea. I rescued Simon, but did Simon rescue me? The State Police saved Simon when they took him off that farm, but did the act of saving him save them? Or me?

This is a philosophical question, I can’t claim to know the answer, I am usually on the other side of the fence on issues like this, I fancy myself an emotional realist and the idea that saving a donkey saved me is quite shocking. Can donkeys do that? Or dogs? Simon changed me, for sure, he helped open me up, absolutely, he inspired me and taught me so many lessons about what compassion really means and how it takes on so many different forms and meanings. I am eager to write about that, it will be a joy to share my newfound love of donkeys with the world.

Salvation is a powerful idea, it seems that in our love of animals, we are turning them into Gods, just as we are increasingly disappointed in human beings. The notion that animals are supernatural and ethereal beings that have the power to redeem us has quite a grip on the modern day writing about animals, we have come a long way from Jack London’s “Call Of The Wild,” his faithful dog was not able to save  his master, only to avenge his death.

I feel that I have found some salvation in the past few years, I have come into the light from the darkest of places, and I have had all kinds of magical helpers in the form of animals – Orson, Rose, Izzy, Lenore, Winston, Elvis, Red, Simon, others. I used to say that Rose made it possible for me to live at Bedlam Farm, that she saved me there. But I am farther on the path than I was then, and when I think of that wonderful dog, I no longer say that, I say that I am grateful to her presence and proud that I saved myself. She was a big help.

Of course, that is not something I believe a dog can do or ought to be expected to do. I also learned a lot about co-dependence in the past few years, and one of the thing I learned was to watch out when I start giving too much power to others, when I start giving them pieces of me that are mine. I have a new faith, let dogs be dogs and people be people, and respect the differences.

I have saved a few animals in my life, but I won’t publish a book with a title that says they saved me. I can’t do that, even if nobody buys that book but me.