The national bestselling memoir of a friendship between a New England outdoorsman and the scrawny foxhound who came to his door one snowy day. In the midst of a blizzard, late one Christmas night in the 1950s, author Hal Borland heard a howl at the back door of his home on a hundred-acre farm in the Housatonic Valley of northwest Connecticut. Resistant at first, he called around trying to find an … trying to find an owner whose dog had gone missing—with no luck. Finally, with the encouragement of his wife and haunted by memories of his childhood collie, Borland brought some scraps of leftover steak outside. This was his introduction to Pat, a miserable, half-starved, but deeply trusting black-and-white foxhound mutt.
Pat would soon become a member of the family, accompanying Borland on hunts and terrorizing the local woodchuck population—and teaching him that sometimes our most immediate connection to the natural world is through the animals we live with. A longtime journalist and a winner of the John Burroughs Medal for distinguished nature writing, Borland tells the tale of the time he shared with Pat in this touching true story that “will appeal to many sportsmen and to all people who have ever been closely attached to a dog” (The New York Times Book Review).
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Very boring!
Really enjoyed this book
Starts out well enough but becomes very slow. I found it repetitious & eventually lost interest altogether.
I love books about dogs. This was a great one, telling about the life of a couple with a dog who adopted them.
This is the story of a dog that chose his humans when they were not looking for a dog’s company. The story is set in rural New England where there are lots of places for a dog’s (and his human’s) adventues. Very enjoyable reading. Great story.
The writing was slow and not very interesting. I am a huge dog fan and wasn’t even particularly impressed about how he treated the dogs. He gave the pup to a man whose dog just got hit by a car with no interest in whether the same fate awaited Mike.
a good read.
A real-life story about a man and his dog. Even though we know the dog is getting older, he doesn’t die in the story. He lives to hunt woodchucks again.
I found the story to be interesting and witty, I also loved the characters. I had to read it to the end right away, I couldn’t put the book down.
Well written, insightful, just excellent
Short story enlarged to Novel form. Interesting quick read.
As a dog lover I found it to be inspirational and a page Turner. I too have had dogs who decided that I was their mom. Great read
The dogs were great; the writer was a narcissistic jerk. Waaaay too many chapters on killing animals, especially woodchucks. Author’s ego was always front and center. Dog was loyal ; human not so much.