The Dogs of Bedlam Farm
Jon Katz
(Reviewer - Rebecca Brown)
2004 Villard
ISBN: 1400062438

An adventure with sixteen sheep, three dogs, two donkeys, & me.

When Jon Katz adopted a Border Collie sheepdog whom he named Orson, his whole world changed. Gone are his two beloved Yellow Labs of A Dog Year, as is the cabin they had loved in Running to the Mountain.

In his first chapter: City of God, Jon Katz has bought a forty-acre farm in upstate New York hardby the tiny hamlet of Bedlam. Here he proposes to continue writing & to care for a newly-arrived flock of sheep from his sheepdog trainer, Carolyn.

To do this this intrepid author has Orson, the alpha-male James Dean; Homer, the shy & forgiving Jimmy Stewart, & Rose, the proto-typical female puppy whose instincts are so finely tuned, she runs circles around the clueless males -- canine & human alike.

Chapter Two: Bedlam, tells of how the hamlet came to be & where on earth it is, as Jon, a “Flatlander”, settles in among his neighbors & inmates (dogs, sheep & Carol, the donkey) during an idyllic autumn.

Dog Days I is a farce in which a ram called Nesbitt & a certain hard-headed human butt anatomical parts, dogs show their herding abilities, & neighbors, who have seen it all on the Discovery Channel, applaud the performance.

What I especially like about Jon Katz's mind is that it roams far afield into history, religion, philosophy, psychology & humor. He recounts the adventures of his menagerie with evocative imagery & detail. How his days start, who greets him, how his dogs interact with him, among each other & with the sheep & Carol. & most of all, how he is as a trainer.

After taking some years of training sheepdogs with Carolyn at Raspberry Ridge, he's now on his own. Novice sheepherder though he may be, he's no stranger to dogs & their needs nor to humans & theirs. Over the course of this year, Jon Katz will befriend all sorts of dog lovers & lose his “Flatlander” sobriquet. He will become known, with some pride, as the Dog Man, making perfect unions between four- & two-leggeds, as well as herding intractable flocks far & wide, for which he will earn a score of dollars, lots of home-baked pies & dozens of fresh farm eggs.

Briefly: I loved his story of The Donkey Lady of Belcher & Carol's exposure to her “donkeyness”. The Good Dog is a fascinating tale of how loving means letting go, finding a new life for somebody you love yet cannot help; meeting a compulsive dog lover. The rebuilding of the bridge of kinship between Jon & his estranged sister is fascinating.

His Cold Mountain Winter is a modernday Brueghel hell, survived only because of stubbornness & his good neighbors. The Peaceable Kingdom finale is a hymn to the return of Spring & the resurrection of a soul sorely tested.

All 14 of Jon Katz's stories in The Dogs of Bedlam Farm are lovingly, thoughtfully told, crafted by a master storyteller who is willing to live an examined life & share it with his dogs & his readers.

I could not put down The Dogs of Bedlam Farm until it was all read. I tensed at the clashes of cultures; whined at Jon's daily routine; shivered through his Winter; moaned through his Lambing Season; sighed when Carol stood up; gulped back tears when Homer found a good life; nodded when Jon heard his father's voice bellowing out of his mouth, & in the end, dried my eyes at the pastorale depicted by the stream by the church on Easter Morning.

Outstanding! A must for every dog-&-book lover on your list!

More from Jon Katz:
The New Work of Dogs: Tending to Life, Love, and Family
A Dog Year: Twelve Months, Four Dogs, and Me
Geeks: How Two Lost Boys Rode the Internet Out of Idaho
Running to the Mountain: A Midlife Adventure, & many more!
(11/21/04)

Rebecca