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For the Love of a Dog

其他書名	A Memoir
出版	Harmony Books, 2001
主題	Nature / Animals / GeneralPets / Dogs / General
ISBN	06096069219780609606926
URL	http://books.google.com.hk/books?id=ERFZAAAAYAAJ&hl=&source=gbs_api

註釋Following church services, twelve-year-old Elisabeth Rose stands patiently in the reception line, waiting to ask the Reverend Van Dyke if animals go to heaven.
"No, honey," he says dismissively, turning to shake hands with the man behind her.
"Why not?" she persists.
"Why, honey, they don't have souls."
As every animal lover knows, the Reverend Van Dyke is terribly wrong. For the Love of a Dog charts one woman's journey into the joyous, complicated, and mysterious communion people can have with animals. From her first dog, a mischievous fox terrier named Patches, to the thuggish finch, Pavarotti, who rooms with her in grad school and the haughty horse, Shannon, whom she coaxes into docility, Elisabeth Rose's account reveals her special sensitivity to the inner voice of creatures and their particular needs.
Most especially, For the Love of a Dog is the story of Rose's relationship to her border collie, Kierney, a "brooding poet" -- intelligent, exuberant, remarkably conversant, but also anxiety-ridden and difficult -- who is misdiagnosed as insane. Told with power and deep insight, Rose chronicles the life of this extraordinary dog in a narrative infused with keen perceptions on fable and myth, spirituality, and the ways in which consciousness and language interact.
Ultimately, Rose's fascination with the emotional and spiritual lives of her animal companions leads her to the answer to her own question. "If the soul flickers somewhere in our bodies like a wispy genie," Rose writes, "maybe it's in our brain stem, our medulla oblongata, our animal brain."