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Average Customer Rating: 
(5 reviews)
Editorial Review: From the author of the classic book, Playing God in Yellowstone, comes a rare book about the relationship of dogs, people, and the land they inhabit. Alston Chase tells a deeply personal and exceptionally moving story of his relationship with his animal companions over a period of thirty years. The title of the book was inspired by the words of Rudyard Kipling: "When we are certain of sorrow in store/ Why do we always arrange for more/ Brothers and sisters, I bid you beware/ Of giving your heart to a dog to tear." The book is at one level about the Jack Russell terriers Ifrit, Bungee, and their own friends as well as the people who nominally owned them and other dogs as well. Alston Chase tells of his search for the immortality of dogs, what makes them special, and why we willingly give them our hearts knowing that someday they'll die and leave us bereft.
Chase's connection to his dogs is strong as the pull of the land that he loves. He writes of both, and the spiri...
Customer Reviews:
1 of 2 found this review helpful:
Our love of dogs, captured by this author, 2008-06-04
This modern-day Pioneer family gave up a secure life as a tenured college Professor of Philosophy to venture West to the sparsely populated state of Montana, complete with primative living conditions and harsh winters. By doing so, they connected with the land, their many dogs and themselves. While reading the book, I obtained a new meaning of my love for our little companions, and why we are so willing to expose ourselves to the sorrow we know we will suffer when their short lives are over. I highly recommend the book!
5 of 6 found this review helpful:
The Deepest Bonds, 2008-05-11
On one level, this is a book about the Chases' retreat to Montana wilderness and their discovery of the treasures around them, including the Jack Russell Terriers they began to acquire. But it runs deeper than that, and explores what dogs are and need to be, and how breeders are ruining them by heeding human criteria, such as form and size, and ignoring the genetic traits that keep a breed viable and healthy.
But this is also a love story, about how the Chases and their Jack Russells (and other pets) deal with each other, and how their differing personalities give and receive differing commitments and differing forms of love. There are passages of great tenderness here, but also passages of speculation: do animals have anything we might call a soul, anything that might transcend death? Might we ever be reunited with our pets beyond the grave?
There is warning here as well: we stand on a precipice. If dogs continue to be bred for purely human criteria such as those imposed by the AKC, and not for those qualities that yield a healthy, athletic animal, the time is not far off when some breeds will be ruined. They will suffer more and more disorders such as deformity, and fewer live births.
This is a love song, and we need to listen to Alston Chase's music.
4 of 6 found this review helpful:
Tea Time, 2008-04-25
For me this precious read is best served with tea, a cozy chair, and a ray of light pouring through a window. I waited each day for just the right moment to pick it up. It is a book to savor.
I understand that Alston Chase is quite the intellectual - the author of several very heady reads. I have to say that in "We Give Our Hearts To Dogs To Tear" I can see the heart of the author, splayed for all the world to see.
This book takes the reader aside from the hustle and bustle of life and drops into the true essence of living. Maybe that shift is seen through a canine friend's field of vision or maybe because of these canine friends Alston Chase has made that shift himself.
"We Give Our Hearts To Dogs To Tear" is reflective of days gone by, of pioneers, and grit, and lasting love.
Thank you for such an endearing read.
5 of 6 found this review helpful:
A book about real dogs, 2008-04-25
Alston Chase has gone against the popular grain with his fascinating account of life on the edge of the wild in Montana with several generations of real, sometimes difficult Jack Russell terriers. They may be "cute" but they are first and foremost working dogs, with bold hearts and ambitions bigger than their bodies. While he may make you cry, Chase is never cheaply sentimental. In a time when too many people reduce dogs to surrogate children or toys, he reminds us what remarkable creatures real dogs are, and how strong a bond they will make with their human partners.
4 of 5 found this review helpful:
This is a keeper, 2008-04-23
I read "We Give our Hearts" in one sitting simply because I couldn't put it down. At variance with other "dog" books, this book delves into the man dog connection in a completely new way. Dr. Chase is a philosophy professor and his expertise in this area allows him to investigate our love for our animals in a believable and convincing way, and to answer the question about the soul of a dog. His experiences with his dogs and his love of the land make his ventures ring true. The photographs included portray his life in Montana. His unabashed love for the entities in his life that are meaningful flow beutifully. This book is a real treasure.
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