Product Description

'I believed Rose had a secret plan for the farm, a detailed map in her head that showed exactly where all her ewes and lambs and humans ought to be. Though I was nominally the herder, I wasn't privy to the map. My job was mostly to latch and unlatch the gates, the rest was up to her'. Jon Katz leaves the suburbs for a remote farm in order to give Border Collie puppy Rose - along with our friend Devon from A Dog Year - a true taste of herding life. Rose's adventures start early, going head to head with a head-butting ram the day the sheep arrive. She soon establishes a routine for the sheep, chickens and donkeys - and Jon - that makes everything run like clockwork.However, any notion Jon has of the romance of a rural idyll is shattered when the snow comes and temperatures of minus twenty set in. With two fingers damaged to frostbite and a sheep lost, the prospect of all-night lambing seems terrifying. But with Rose by his side Jon finds there is little that together they can't do, and as spring comes and the frost thaws he finds himself battered, drained yet exhilarated. This is his delightfully funny, touching and insightful depiction of the realities of country life, and of how one man turned his life upside down for the love of a dog.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #115158 in Books
• Published on: 2009-01-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

About the Author
Jon Katz has written for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Rolling Stone, GQ and other magazines as well as having a regular column about dogs and rural life for online magazine Slate. He has written sixteen books, many of them about dogs, and co-hosts an awardwinning radio show Dog Talk. His website is www.bedlamfarm.com.

Customer Reviews

Like Digging for Gold...
This is the second Jon Katz title that I have read. The first, A Dog Year, left me quite unimpressed. With that in mind, I wasn't expecting to enjoy A Home for Rose.

During the first three chapters, I felt the familiar disappointment, that I had felt in Jon's previous work, creeping up on me once more. I decided to stick with it regardless. I am so glad that I did.

Like digging for gold, there's a some hard grinding to get out of the way before you get to the real valuable material, but once there, the rewards are rich.

I loved the detail he gave throughout the book, particularly when referring to his new farm, Bedlam Farm, a place which I'm sure many of us Border Collie owners dream about in our sleep.

Jon purchases a farm so that he can give his dogs the life he always promised himself that he would give them, and let them herd sheep as they were intended to do. Little did he realise the work involved in maintaining a farm (complete with donkeys, sheep and three dogs) and surviving the harsh country winters.

The story is as much about Jon as it is about his beloved dogs. It's about Jon learning to accept help from new friends and neighbours, learning the real meaning of bonds (both canine and human), it's about him learning the harsh realities of living within a farm environment, and about making tough decisions, as he is forced to do with one of his dogs, Homer.

I really enjoyed the book (past chapter three) and was quite sad to get to the end. Defintely a book to curl up on the sofa and relax with. Just let Jon do the work of painting the pictures for you. Great book!

Have the tissues ready around chapter seven!

very confusing and hard to follow
I love dog books, and adore David Kennards A Shepherd's Watch: Through the Seasons with One Man and His Dogs, and thought this would be similar, but it's just not flowing, it seems to jump about and repeat things he has already told you.

Also as he is doing this as a project, in Shepherding and he has been training these dogs for years, I thought he was undertaking it because they were so good at it, but Jon seems to say Homer and Orson couldn't do this and so he relies on his young Pup Rose, she goes out into the drak to find sheep he has let out of the gate, his descision making seems as haphazzard as his writing. There are good bits in the book so far, and maybe it will improve, but I'm really struggling with this book.

boring dog book
after reading marley and me this book jumped of the shelf and I couldnt wait to start it. Only read 100 pages dont know weather to give it up. Some bits are good but it has not really got my attension. I dont think I will be reading any more dog books. Lovely cover.