‘Dog Days’ tells of bond with canines

“Dog Days: Dispatches from Bedlam Farm”

by Jon Katz (Villard, 288 pages, $23.95)

The menagerie at Bedlam Farm continues to grow in “Dog Days,” the engaging new entry in Jon Katz’s memoirs about living the country life with man’s best friend.

Katz, who writes a column about canines for the online magazine Slate, first wrote about his hobby farm in upstate New York in 2002’s “A Dog Year.”

This time around, he introduces readers to Izzy, an untrained but intelligent border collie who is taken in and quickly learns to help round up the farm’s sheep; Jesus, a newborn donkey whose birth was a total surprise (and whose name takes the Spanish pronunciation); and Elvis, a 2,500-pound steer who enjoys slurping people with his enormous tongue.

Katz knows the joys and sorrows that mark the relationships between humans and their pets; he seems to have insight into the canine soul.

He writes with humor and sensitivity and always keeps it interesting.

“The responsibility of caring for these animals mercifully and well humbles me,” he writes.

“I don’t believe animals think the way we do, but they do seem to know when they are loved and safe.”

Katz, who was willing to spend more than $1,000 on multiple surgeries that one of his dogs needed, doesn’t understand why people who would spend thousands of dollars on a plasma television would balk at paying the same amount of money to help save the life of a family pet.