From the Mouths of Dogs What Our Pets Teach Us About Life, Death, and Being Human

About this book

What is it that dogs have done to earn the title of "man's best friend"? And more broadly, how have all of our furry, feathered, and four-legged brethren managed to enrich our lives? Why do we love them? What can we learn from them? And why is it so difficult to say good-bye? Join B.J. Hollars as he attempts to find out – beginning with an ancient dog cemetery in Ashkelon, Israel, and moving to the present day.

Hollars's firsthand reports recount a range of stories: the arduous existence of a shelter officer, a woman's relentless attempt to found a senior-dog adoption facility, a family's struggle to create a one-of-a-kind orthotic for its bulldog, and the particular bond between a blind woman and her Seeing Eye dog. From the Mouths of Dogs culminates with Hollars's own cross-country journey to Hartsdale Pet Cemetery – the country's largest and oldest pet cemetery – to begin the long-overdue process of laying his own childhood dog to rest.

Through these stories, Hollars reveals much about our pets but even more about the humans who share their lives, providing a much-needed reminder that the world would be a better place if we took a few cues from man's best friends.

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Biography

B.J. Hollars is an assistant professor of creative writing at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, USA. He is the author of Opening the Doors: The Desegregation of the University of Alabama and the Fight for Civil Rights in Tuscaloosa (winner of the Society of Midland Authors Award and the Blei/Derleth Nonfiction Award) and Thirteen Loops: Race, Violence, and the Last Lynching in America, among others.