Book description
'I believed Rose had a secret plan for the farm, a detailed map
in her head that showed exactly where all her ewes and lambs and
humans ought to be. Though I was nominally the herder, I wasn't
privy to the map. My job was mostly to latch and unlatch the
gates, the rest was up to her'
Jon Katz leaves the suburbs for a remote farm in order to give
Border Collie puppy Rose - along with our friend Devon from A Dog
Year - a true taste of herding life.
Rose's adventures start early, going head to head with a
head-butting ram the day the sheep arrive. She soon establishes a
routine for the sheep, chickens and donkeys - and Jon - that makes
everything run like clockwork. However, any notion Jon has of the
romance of a rural idyll is shattered when the snow comes and
temperatures of minus twenty set in. With two fingers damaged to
frostbite and a sheep lost, the prospect of all-night lambing seems
terrifying. But with Rose by his side Jon finds there is little that
together they can't do, and as spring comes and the frost thaws he
finds himself battered, drained yet exhilarated.
This is his delightfully funny, touching and insightful depiction of
the realities of country life, and of how one man turned his life
upside down for the love of a dog.
Please note, A Home for Rose is the UK title for the book
published in the US as The Dogs of Bedlam Farm.
Jon Katz has written for the
New York Times
, the
Wall Street Journal
,
Rolling Stone
,
GQ
and other magazines as well as having a regular column about dogs and
rural life for online magazine Slate. He has written sixteen books, many
of them about dogs, and co-hosts an awardwinning radio show
Dog Talk
. His website is www. bedlamfarm. com.
