Dog Years by Mark Doty-A Book Review Hosted By Tubby-And Blog Hop

This is kind of a cheater book review because I have read this book several times, and even mentioned it on this blog before in this post.  However, I love the book, recently re-read it, and after coughing up 600$ big ones to have Dr. Zira's teeth cleaned (right after paying multiple thousands of dollars for Norbert's bloat surgery) I thought it would be a good idea to use a book I already owned.   The book in question is Dog Years  by Mark Doty.

Mark Doty is an accomplished poet, memoirist, and of course dog lover.   The  book deals with aging, mortality, and loss, but it isn't depressing or maudlin.    What happens is that Doty and his partner are living happily with their black lab mix Arden when Doty's partner contracts AIDS.   Doty has written another memoir dealing with his partner's death so it isn't the focus of the book,  but no one writes about loss better and the images of the partner watching The Incredible Journey as the disease reduces him to an ever more child-like state are heartbreaking.   In order to bolster his own, and his partner's spirits, Doty adopts a golden retriever, Beau, during the final days of the illness.   After Doty's partner passes the dogs provide the sort of solid and non-judgemental support he needs.


The rest of the book moves somewhat back and forth in time dealing with Doty's life with the dogs and  his new partner and their travels and accounts of dogs he loved and lost as a child.   Of course the dogs age, as is inevitable, and around the time of September 11 2001 Beau develops kidney failure and later a neurological disorder and passes away.   The loss of the dog is placed against the destruction of the city and Doty writes about it very effectively.  

Over the next several years Arden, the other dog, gets older and Doty grows even closer to him.   At one point Doty writes a really sweet list of the things Arden enjoys in his advancing years.  At the age of 16 Arden passes and Doty writes one of my favorite lines in the book: " A long life, we say, a fine life, and not nearly long enough."  Anyone who has loved an older dog can't help but understand that line.  Out of four paws we would give this is a four paw review-read it!


Oh and its Saturday Pet Blogger Blog Hop Weekend (though I am linking up on Sunday)