This one:
It is isn’t just a story about a dog. It is more like an intellectual and emotional exploration of all things canine.
Ted Kerasote is quite an author. There are very few authors who can weave engaging narrative with analysis of complex scientific studies. He is a master.
And although you can find things to quibble about in this book, it is a very good piece of science and nature writing.
And if you’re a retriever person, he so aptly describes the mannerisms of our dogs that you know this man has experienced retrieverdom in all its glory.
The main theme of this book is that we should sometimes let our dogs be dogs. It’s quite a novel concept in this age where the trend is to have dogs as regimented as soldiers.
Of course, we’d all like to live in a little isolated hamlet, where the author raised Merle. In the wilds of Wyoming, the dogs got to experience nature, people, and other dogs as they have for thousands of years. Today, giving a dog that sort of freedom is something not advised or even legal.
But I really liked the book. I wish we could all give our dogs the life that Merle had, but I know that’s not realistic.
The author’s website can be found here.
I think Merle was a golden retriever/Redbone cross, although the author thinks he was either Lab/Golden cross or a Lab/Redbone cross. He had no retrieving instinct (as we know it), but he could be coaxed into retrieving at one point in the book. He also bays like a hound, which makes us understand that he does have hound in him. However, he looks almost exactly like my first golden retriever, except she had the golden retriever coat, a very strong retrieving instinct, and a sharp retriever bark. I would have expected Merle to have a very short coat if he were Lab/Rebone, but his coat is about as long as we see in most Labradors. I think you are more likely to see that in a golden/hound cross than a Lab/hound cross.
Good choice! We listen to Merle’s Door on audiobook, and I had the great good pleasure of listening to Mr. Kerasote speak a few years ago.
It’s really a love story about a man and a dog. I loved it very much.
He has a wonderful command of the English language. I’d previously read his work in magazines, but this book was absolutely magnificent.
I, too, enjoyed the book. The Red Head read it, and suggested I read it, also.
I finished it glad that I stuck it out through the first 3-4 chapters, as I felt it wasn’t very smooth and a bit “kitschy”. It eventually picked up an engaging rhythm and carried me along.
I also enjoyed the glimps into an unabashed powder junkie’s life. He writes well enough. I could feel the sting of dry powder in my face as he, Merle, and friends skied the hinterlands of Jackson Hole.
With any luck, this book won’t make it to the silver screen. There is no way it translates into an hour and twenty.
Are you referring to a book written by a
dog loverabsolute fool who gets a field-bred Lab (because they are so nice and docile) and keeps it shut up in a house all day with nothing to do, while expecting the dog to be an absolute angel? And that book was made into a film, which famously makes everyone cry.If the dog in that other book had had Merle’s life, his owner would’ve appreciated him more as the species that he was.
I loved Merle’s Door. We have forty acres and it made me want to fence the whole thing in so the dogs can ‘roam’, but with the rattlesnakes that’s not practical. I liked it much better than Hidden Life of Dogs, mostly because I think never got the impression that Marshall Thomas actually cared very much about her dogs.
That bit where she let that male husky wander Cambridge was a bit irresponsible (ironic understatement).
She had too many dogs, and she had them in an impractical environment.
I’ve trained my dogs to leave snakes alone. I’m in an area that has very rare timber rattlers, but golden retrievers are usually not interested in toying with snakes.
Contrary to the stereotype, I’ve never had a golden retriever that ever wanted to roam.