Garden & Gun is a magazine devoted to the best of Southern food, music, arts, literature and sports. The "Good Dog" column, which highlights stories about purebreds and mutts--good or bad, living or dead--has become a reader favorite. In Good Dog: True Stories of Love, Loss, and Loyalty, David DiBenedetto and the editors of Garden & Gun offer a compilation of the most memorable essays and some new additions.
The 51 stories in the anthology are from notable writers--novelists, journalists and humorists--most of whom have a connection to the South and whose lives have been affected, for better or worse, by dogs. The anthology is broken down into five sections: The Troublemakers, Afield, Man's Best Friend, Family Ties and Life Lessons.
Some essays are profound, such as "Swim Team" by Dominique Browning, about teaching a frightened Labrador retriever to follow his natural aquatic instincts. "Last Rites" by Mary Lou Bendrick details the experience of her dog's grand exit from the world. Daniel Wallace writes about a host of dogs with whom he's shared his life in "How to Name a Dog." In "A Marriage for the Dogs," Jill McCorkle expresses the challenge of assimilating dogs into blended families.
Straddling the line between pathos and humor are essays such as "Licked to Death by a Pit Bull," in which Bronwen Dickey fights the prejudice against a notorious "bully breed." Blair Hobbs writes about the differences between owning felines and canines in "From Cat to Dog." Susan Gregg Gilmore shares how a beagle purchased in California found his inner hunting dog after the author moved back to Tennessee and boarded him at a working family farm in "An L.A. Beagle."
Comic relief infuses several essays, such as "Fetch Daddy a Drink," in which P.J. O'Rourke draws clear parallels between training gun-dogs and raising children. In "The Trophy Huntress," Jonathan Miles offers a send-up of his quirky, wanna-be bird-dog who loved guns more than birds. And in "My Mother, My Dog," Donna Levine believes her cockapoo is her mother reincarnated, noting their relationship "has never been better."
Hunter Kennedy illustrates an overarching theme of the collection in "Believing in Chance," a story about his rambunctious, troublemaking English springer spaniel: "Dogs are like barbecue--everybody is an expert on the subject of what makes for a good one." Regardless of whether the pets have been adopted from an animal rescue or purchased from a breeder, acquired to offer companionship or protection, each story conveys the endearing sense of love, loyalty and resilience that comes from sharing a life with dogs. --Kathleen Gerard, blogger at Reading Between the Lines
Shelf Talker: Notable writers contribute a range of personal essays about dogs and why we love them--no matter what.