Dog Years by Mark Doty
This memoir by poet and nonfiction writer Mark Doty speak to more than just his experiences living with dogs. He philosophizes, talks about his relationships, his experiences with finding people and places to look after his dogs when he couldn't be with them, and the effect that having dogs has had on his life.
Mark's profession means that he hasn't lived in one place for a long time, so while there is a summer home base that he continues to go to, his job has taken him to a variety of places and that means long road trips with the dogs each time he moves. His speaking engagements have also taken him away, and sometimes that means that both he and his partner are away at the same time, so friends and students have moved in for a period to look after and fall in love with the dogs, and sometimes that means that he boards his dog(s) somewhere. He describes all these experiences with compassion and humour.
He also takes about the ways that dogs react to changes in the household, the loss of another dog, the loss of a human companion, and new additions of both dogs and humans into the family.
Because he is reading the memoir himself, that brings an added level of intimacy to the book.
A great read.
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