Dancing Dog: Stories, by Jon Katz

Dogs can have a huge impact on the lives of humans.  And humans can have an even greater impact in the lives of dogs.  See the profound nature of the symbiotic relationships that can be formed between man and dog in this collection of short stories.

I feel like I was reading a totally different book than everyone else who has reviewed it so far.  I really disliked this book.  A lot.  I felt like the stories were trite, and the character development was very superficial.  And, in many of the cases, the stories portrayed humans perpetrating terrible acts upon these animals.  I anticipated that this book would be uplifting, and to me, it just was not.

One story actually made me pretty angry.  It involved a woman dying and visiting her dog in the dog portion of heaven.  In dog heaven, they can run all over, defecate and urinate all they want, eat rotten food and never get sick, tear apart homes and furniture, and that is their version of heaven.  And the angel that guards dog heaven says that hell is a place where dogs on tethered on leashes, forced to eat what the masters chose, must void themselves in specific locations.  In other words, dog hell is life on earth as pets to humans.  As an extreme dog lover and owner of two dogs, I take great offense to the idea that canine hell is life in a home that provides safety, shelter, and nutrition.  I do not crate or leash my dogs to be cruel or to have mastership over them, I do not chose their diet to be in control of them.  I do these things to keep them safe and healthy.  Hell might exist on earth for dogs with abusive owner, for sure, but to paint all life on earth as hell is a total slap in the face to people, like me, to would do anything to insure our pets are happy and healthy.

Perhaps I just missed something, but this book simply did not connect with me.  

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