The $60,000 Dog My Life with Animals

A stunning new book about the role of animals in our lives, by a popular and acclaimed writer From the time she is nine years old and discovers a "Private Way" full of the wonderful and creepy creatures of the wild-spiders, deer, moles, chipmunks, and foxes-Lauren Slater finds in animals a refuge from the troubled life of her suburban home. As she matures, her bond with animals-raccoons, horses, swans, cats, and, primarily, dogs-strengthens and grows more complex and compelling. They offer relief from the pain of her mother's mental illness, from a foster family where she feels not at all at home, from her own periodic bouts with depression. As a psychologist, a reporter, an amateur naturalist, and, above all, an enormously gifted writer, Lauren Slater draws us into the stories of her love for the animals that are so much more to her than pets.

Lauren Slater is the author of six books, including Welcome to My Country, Lying: A Metaphorical Memoir, Opening Skinner’s Box, the short-story collection Blue Beyond Blue, and Love Works Like This, which chronicled the agonizing decisions she made relating to her psychiatric illness and her pregnancy. Slater has been the recipient of numerous awards, including a 2004 National Endowments for the Arts Award, multiple inclusions in Best American volumes, and a Knight Science Journalism fellowship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Slater was a practicing psychologist for eleven years before embarking on a full-time writing career. She served as the clinical and later executive director of AfterCare Services. Slater lives and writes in Harvard, Massachusetts.

Chapter 1: The Egg
Chapter 2: Sugaring the Bit
Chapter 3: Old Homes
Chapter 4: The Swan with a Broken Beak
Chapter 5: The Sixty Thousand-Dollar Dog
Chapter 6: The Death of a Wasp
Chapter 7: Bat Dreams
Acknowledgments