Jon Katz is best known for charming readers with autobiographical observations of the assorted animals who live with him at Bedlam Farm in upstate New York, particularly his dogs. In Dancing Dogs, his first collection of short stories, Katz captures the multifaceted spirit of dogs and the ease with which we humans come to love them.
In "Away to Me," a dog grows depressed when the farmer gives her herding job to a slick new border collie, only to have her life changed by a surprising revelation. At "The Surrender Bay," an animal control worker comforts surrendered animals and their distraught owners during the first throes of the Great Recession. A woman with an out-of-control border collie wants desperately to train her dog but finds she must first retrain herself in "Instinct Test," while the protagonist of "The Dog Who Kept Men Away" teaches her single-and-looking owner that sometimes "must love dogs" can become "dog must love you." These are just a few of the treasures in Katz's sometimes imaginative, sometimes true to life inventory of stories.
Although dogs and their owners predominate the collection, a loyal barn cat with a surprising best friend also makes her way into a starring role, and Katz pulls a fast one more than once on readers who make assumptions about a character's species. Katz's unornamented style makes his short fiction accessible to a younger audience, although occasional thematic elements are more appropriate to an adult audience. These moving tales will make readers smile, chuckle and occasionally wipe away a stray tear. --Jaclyn Fulwood, blogger, Infinite Reads