Katz relates the stories of the animals he lives with and finds remarkable kinships at every turn.
by Jon Katz
Do animals have souls? Some of our greatest thinkers — Aristotle, Plato, Thomas Aquinas — and countless animal lovers have been obsessed with this question for thousands of years.
Now Katz looks for an answer and finds even more questions as he recounts the lives and stories of the residents of his celebrated Bedlam Farm including Rose, his beloved workaholic sheepdog who runs the farm, and an array of gentle donkeys, industrious chickens, docile sheep, obnoxious goats and a murderous, yet loving barn cat.
With his signature wisdom, humor and clarity, Katz relates the stories of the animals he lives with and finds remarkable kinships at every turn.
Whether it is Rose’s brilliant and methodical herding ability, Mother the cat’s keen mousing instincts, or Izzy’s canine compassion toward hospice patients, Katz is mesmerized to see in them individual personas and sparks of self-awareness.
He marvels, too, at the distinctions between the species — our desire to change and our ability to edit and censor ourselves, and their capacity to live in the now. And yet the differences never keep him from fully enjoying, loving and cherishing his unusual cast of Bedlam Farm characters.
His reflections on this eternal debate will resonate with anyone who loves dogs, cats or other animals — and who wonders about the spirits that animate them and the deepening hold these animals have on our emotional lives.
$24 hardcover — Villard Books, an imprint of Random House, Inc., 1745 Broadway, New York, NY 10019.
Reprinted from AzNetNews, Volume 28, Number 5, October/November 2009.
April 15, 2012
Book review