A Dog Year Twelve Months, Four Dogs, and Me

Sometimes, change comes on four legs. In his popular and widely praisedRunning to the Mountain, Jon Katz wrote of the strength and support he found in the massive forms of his two yellow Labrador retrievers, Julius and Stanley. When the Labs were six and seven, a breeder who'd read his book contacted Katz to say she had a dog that was meant for hima two-year-old border collie named Devon, well bred but high-strung and homeless. Katz already had a full canine complementbut, as he writes, "Change loves me. . . . It comes in all forms. . . . Sometimes, change comes on four legs." Shortly thereafter he brought Devon home.A Dog Yearshows how a man discovered much about himself through one dog (and then another), whose temperament seemed as different from his own as day from night. It is a story of trust and understanding, of life and death, of continuity and change. It is by turns insightful, hilarious, and deeply moving.

Jon Katz has written eleven books, six novels and five works of nonfiction. A two-time finalist for the National Magazine Award, he has written for The New York Times, GQ, The Wall Street Journal, Rolling Stone, and Wired. He currently writes about technology, media, and culture for the Web site Slashdot.org, and is a contributing editor to public radio’s Marketplace and to Bark magazine. A member of the Association of Pet Dog Trainers, he lives in northern New Jersey with his wife, Paula Span, a reporter for The Washington Post, and their college-student daughter, Emma Span. Jon Katz can be e-mailed at jonkatz3@comcast.net or jonkatz@slashdot.org.<br><br><br><i>From the Hardcover edition.</i>