In 2007, Jon Katz met artist Maria Wulf and felt an immediate connection with her. But a formidable obstacle stood in the way: Maria's dog, Frieda. A rottweiler-shepherd mix, Frieda had been abandoned by her previous owners and had lived in the wild for years. To Maria, Frieda was sweet and loyal. But she was also ferociously protective and barely tamed. It was clear: To win over Maria, Jon would have to gain Frieda's affection as well.

"Rose is determined and focused, keeping the sheep out of danger and protecting the other creatures on the farm she calls home. But of all those she's looked after since coming to the farm as a puppy, it is Sam, the farmer, whom she watches most carefully. Awoken one cold midwinter night during lambing season, Rose and Sam struggle into the snowy dark to do their work. The ever observant Rose has seen a change in her master of late, ever since Sam's...

In the spring of 2011, Jon Katz received a phone call from an animal control officer who had found a neglected donkey on a farm in upstate New York. She hoped that Jon and his wife, Maria, would be willing to adopt him. The wrenching sight of Simon touched something very deep inside of Jon, and they took him in. The donkey's care was far from easy. And, as if in reciprocation, Simon began to reveal to Jon the true meaning of compassion.

Explores the question of whether animals have souls, sharing stories about the author's border collie and other pet and farm animals he lives with to consider their spiritual characters and seemingly moral or amoral choices.

The author introduces the 4 dogs that live on his farm in New York, each of whom has his or her own job to do every day.

"'There are so many benefits to learning how to communicate with animals. Love, trust, a spiritual connection that goes to the heart of the human-animal bond. Every time I listen to them, I learn about myself.' We seem to need animals in our disconnected lives more and more, yet we understand them less and less. [Here,] bestselling author Jon Katz--who left his Manhattan life behind two decades ago for life on a farm where he is surrounded by dogs,...

“Sometimes human-dog relationships are simple, unrelated to the emotional lives and histories of either species. But often people acquire and love dogs with little awareness that they might have complex and revealing reasons for choosing the dog or pet they choose, loving it the way they do.”
Writing about his own dogs in A Dog Year, Jon Katz became immersed in a larger community of dog lovers and came to realize...

From the acclaimed author of A Good Dog, Dog Days, and Going Home comes this eBook original—a poignant memoir that celebrates Jon Katz’s beloved border collie, Rose, and their transformative years together on Bedlam Farm.
 
“I like to say you get the dog you need,” Jon Katz writes, “and I don’t think any human ever needed a dog more than I needed Rose in the fall of 2003.”...

BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Jon Katz's Going Home.
“Dogs are blameless, devoid of calculation, neither blessed nor cursed with human motives. They can’t really be held responsible for what they do. But we can.”
–from The Dogs of Bedlam Farm

When Jon Katz adopted a border collie named Orson, his whole world changed. Gone were the two yellow Labs he wrote about in A...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Jon Katz's Going Home.

In his previous books, New York Times bestselling author Jon Katz introduced us to the delightful menagerie at Bedlam Farm, including Izzy, the unforgettable border collie rescue. Now, in Izzy & Lenore, Katz delves deeper into his connection with the beautiful, once-abandoned dog, learning yet again...