The paperback version of The Education of Will is coming out next month (release date is February 27th) and I'm thrilled with the new cover. You might remember that I wasn't a big fan of the hardcover's photo, even though Willie's exuberant face always makes me smile. I LOVE the new cover... more fitting for a memoir I believe, and a favorite photo of mine to boot. (Don't tell anyone, but that's Maggie working sheep, not Willie.) Just as good is the new subtitle, Healing a Dog, Facing My Fears, Reclaiming My Life. Subtitles can be brutally hard to write, and I am grateful for the time that the book's new editor, Peter Borland, took with me to wordsmith a new subtitle. (Who knew you could even use a new subtitle?) This is a good time to thank all the people who have made writing the Read More
New Year’s Resolutions 2018
I've heard it said that New Year's Resolutions are To Do Lists for the first week in January. Yup, we all know the statistics about the unsuccessful nature of New Year's resolutions. With that in mind, and added to what I've learned by reading my private journals for the last 30 years, (lots of gratitude for Jim, dogs, farm, and friends--interspersed with innumerable mentions of losing weight, eating better, teaching the dogs more tricks and working less), here are my 2018 New Year's Resolutions: Resolution 1. Running a business, answering 200-300 emails a day, etc, will now be defined as PLAY. Slothing on the couch, walking the dogs, working sheep, cooking and gardening will now be defined as WORK. Thus, my first resolution is to WORK MORE, and PLAY LESS. Resolution 2. Nails. About Read More
Trial of Tears: Wisconsin’s Dangerous Hunting Laws
(Warning: This is not a happy holiday tale. I write it only because it is about an important issue, and something I've been involved in for almost two years. I wish more than I can say that I didn't feel a need to tell you this story.) On January 22nd, 2016, Frannie and Gary were shot and killed by a coyote hunter. Frannie, a joyful, luminous Husky, was shot in the chest. Her lungs collapsed, and she died on the trail at Badfish Creek Wildlife Area in Dane County, WI. Gary, described as a 75 pound, slap-happy, yellow-furred, Mastiff cross, was shot from behind. His pelvis was shattered, and he died a few days later after extensive efforts to save him. The hunter, who thought the dogs were coyotes, was charged with two misdemeanor counts of mistreatment of animals and one count of Read More
No Bad Weather
Just bad clothes. There's truth to that, but finding the right clothes for winter can be a bit of a challenge. When I first left Arizona and moved to Massachusetts I strained the muscles between my ribs because I shook so hard when winter arrived. I'd look out the window and it would be sunny and I'd think, oh great, it's not that cold. I'd leave with a little jacket and walk about a mile with our St. Bernard. (Named Cosby. Sigh.) I was so cold when I returned to the apartment that I couldn't stop shivering and literally strained my intercostal muscles. Finally I learned that sun does not equal warm, and bought a "real" winter coat, which didn't begin to keep me warm. It looked warm to someone from Arizona, but it wasn't up to the weather in winter in MA. It's been a bit of a learning Read More
Great Gift Books for Dog & Nature Lovers
What It's Like to Be a Dog: And Other Adventures in Animal Neuroscience by Gregory Berns. In one of the early seminal papers on cognitive science, Thomas Nagel famously said that we could never really know what it is like to be a bat. (He actually said, "I want to know what it is like for a bat to be bat." [As opposed to what it would be like for a human to behave or feel like a bat.]) His point was that objective facts about cognition can not tell us about subjective experiences. I would love to talk to him about the work being done by Berns using technology like MRI's to explore the minds of other animals. And explore we can, given the ground-breaking work done by Berns and and others on what's going on behind the big, beautiful eyes of our dogs (also see Andics et. al., Eotvos Read More
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