“I will keep faith with you. I will stay committed to you. We will not quit on each other. We will not give up on each other”- Jon Katz, to Orson.

He lied to his dog :( 

The author gets a lot of hate for his choice to put Orson down after he caused severe bites. He does say he had four choices, and in the end he made the one he thought was best and never quite got over it. I understand his decision but it was also horrible to read because Orson was happy and healthy. A lot of vets now put dogs down that bite people. It’s sad but true and I didn’t like reading it.

I have read ‘A Dog Year’ and I really wanted to continue Orson’s story in this book. I really enjoyed the majority of this book, with the anecdotes about the dogs and the farm and their reactions to things. It was cute!

Some parts of the book I didn’t enjoy as much such as the chapters on the authors life pre dogs, they didn’t feel overly relevant. I zoned out on these bits and that’s reflected in my rating. 

There was also some repetition from A Dog Year. 

Jon Katz is clearly a man who cares for his dogs, even if sometimes he can’t control them. He just doesn’t seem to understand how to help them. 

He has an affinity with animals, but mainly dogs, always having more than one at a time. 

I can understand why people hate this book. It is a complete shock. It’s not happy, but I enjoyed following Orson’s story. 

3.5/5 stars.