Jon Katz - Saving Izzy: The Abandoned Dog Who Stole My Heart

Jon Katz

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While all of the incidents in this book are true, some of the names and personal characteristics of some of the individuals have been changed. Any resulting resemblance to persons living or dead is entirely coincidental and unintentional.

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Published in 2010 by Ebury Press, an imprint of Ebury Publishing

A Random House Group company

First published in the USA as Dog Days by Villard Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., in 2007

Copyright Jon Katz 2007

Jon Katz has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this Work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

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J ON K ATZ has written six novels and ten works of non-fiction, including Sunday Times bestsellers A Dog Year and A Home for Rose. A two-time finalist for the National Magazine Award, he writes columns about dogs and rural life for the online magazine Slate, and has written for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Rolling Stone, GQ and the AKC Gazette. He co-hosts an award-winning show, Dog Talk, on Northeast Public Radio. Katz lives on Bedlam Farm in upstate New York with his dogs, sheep, donkeys, barn cat, irritable rooster Winston, and three hens. Visit www.bedlamfarm.com.

For Bruce Tracy

(God help me if the stuff he took out had stayed in.)

Professor Chernowitz, and other readers:

No dogs die in this book.

Animals have always awakened something in metheir little joys and travails alikethat, try as I might, I find impossible to express except in the language of devotion. Maybe it is the Lords way of getting through to the particularly slow and obstinate, but if you care about animals you must figure out why you care.

M ATTHEW S CULLY,
Dominion: The Power of Man,
the Suffering of Animals, and the Call to Mercy

My wife, Paula Span, has mastered the art of being supportive without necessarily being approving. Im grateful to her, and to our daughter, Emma, for her great love, friendship, and excellent Yankees blog, eephus.blogspot.com.

Anthony Armstrong, my partner in crime on Bedlam Farm, is like family, along with his wife, Holly, and daughter, Ida. Friendship is, as Emerson said, natures greatest miracle, and Anthony is one of the blessings of my life.

Wonderful friends are somewhat new to me, and I am grateful for them every day: especially Brian McLendon; Becky MacLachlan; Bill and Maria Heinrich; Rob, Meg, Hunter, and Liz Southerland; and Jeff Meyer.

Annie DiLeo, official Bedlam Farm Goddess, has suffused the farm and its animals with love and trust.

I appreciate my agent, Richard Abate, and my editor, Bruce Tracy, to whom this book is dedicated.

And Dr. Debra Katz of the University of Kentucky, who led me into the rich world of human-animal attachment, and has shaped so much of my work.

Many thanks to Tagalie Heister, a powerful but invisible presence, whose stream of manila envelopes bring not only research but comfort, inspiration, insight, and guidance.

I thank Peter Hanks, whose wonderful pictures bring my words to life, and the other members of his family, with its rich history of progressive farming: Jane and Robin and Dean Hanks.

I am grateful to David Plotz of the online magazine Slate, who has firmly and patiently helped teach me how to trust my own stories.

Thanks to Flo Myrick for bringing Izzy into my life, and to Pam Leslie of Hillside Labradors, for producing some of the greatest dogs Ive ever known, with the help of Heather Waite.

Nobody runs a farm alone. I thank the staff of the Granville Large Animal Veterinary Service, especially Kirk Ayling and Amanda Alderink. And Ken Norman, friend and farrier, who has always come running to help my donkeys; and Fred De-Paul, legendary Vermont shearer. I am grateful to Ray and Joanne Smith for making me feel so welcome when I first moved upstate and for teaching me so much about sheep and farms.

Im indebted to my friends and neighbors in the town of Hebron who have befriended me, listened to me, tolerated me.

Im grateful to George LaVoo, Liz Manne, and Maud Nadler and the staff of HBO Films for making a movie of A Dog Year with so much passion and commitment to my story.

Thanks to Don Coldwell for his friendship and wonderful walking sticks. To Nicole Campbell for her unwavering love for animals and people. To Lesley Nase, Bedlam Farms own shaman, for her insights. To the staffs at the Granville Small Animal Hospital and the Borador Animal Hospital, who take such great care of my dogs.

I thank Joe Donahue, cohost of Dog Talk on WAMC, Northeast Public Radio, for his friendship and support.

I thank Margaret Waterson for first encouraging me to write about dogs. Her wisdom and honesty have benefited me and many others.

My dogs, past and present, have brought so many wonderful things to my life.

I will always be grateful to Julius and Stanley, my late faithful companions. Im particularly thankful for Orson, the dog who really started it all. And for Homer, who accompanied me into the world of sheepherding. I miss Clementine every day, but Im pleased that shes flourishing and bringing such happiness to her human. Thanks to Pearl for her loving forbearance, to Rose for everything, and to Izzy for deciding to become my dog. We are made for each other.

West Hebron, New York

August 2006

E ACH WINTER HAS A PERSONALITY OF ITS OWN; THIS ONE HAD BEEN gentle in terms of snowfall yet relentlessly cold, with few storms but lots of nasty ice and miserable temperatures. And it was hanging on.