An afternoon at the beach... what we live for!

With my niece here for the past two weeks I remembered to bring my Canon PowerShot with me to the beach. Here's some of the best pictures from our afternoon walk. We had some unexpected friends join us just past the breakers. It was a lucky capture with my camera.

"Bones Would Rain From The Sky"

Yesterday I finished Jan Fennell's book , "Tales From A Dog Listener", and dove headfirst into "Bones . . ." Wow, Suzanne Clothier is amazing! If you truly want to open up your heart and experience the beauty possible in the relationship we can share with our animal companions, than you MUST read this book. Halfway through chapter one I got out my highlighter and sticky note bookmarks. I now have over a dozen tagged pages and I'm just starting chapter four.

I noted in a previous post, when the book first arrived, an excerpt from the book's jacket, :

"As in no other "dog book" or training manual, in Bones Would Rain Form The Sky an extraordinary woman shows us how to find a deep connection with another being and to receive an incomparable gift: a profound, lifelong relationship with the dog you love."

Copyright © 2002

This book delivers on its promises. I hope those of you who own a dog who are reading this blog will buy this wonderful book. It is not a training manual in the typical sense, but we don't need any more of those. This book goes to the heart of understanding what it takes to build a true bond with your dog. A life long bond based on the love, trust, understanding, and the dedication that every dog deserves.

A new book for my journey

With written permission I am excited to share the following excerpt:

"Bones Would Rain from the sky"

"My only mistake was licking her knee. Until that moment, they had been quite tolerant of me panting quietly under the dining room table, a good place to lie on a warm summer's evening. I was a smart dog. I knew I might have been cooler lying on the slick tile in the bathroom or even outside, shaded by the bushes along the foundation. But I would have missed being with my family. Seen from beneath the table, framed by a tablecloth, my family appeared as a collection of limbs and clothing: plump knees, scabby knees, tired-looking ankles rising pale and thin from sensible white socks, pleasantly grubby feet idly rubbing the rungs of a chair, a flip-flop dangling from a swinging toe.
I shifted to lean against a women's knee, eyes closed as I breathed in the sweetly familiar perfume that rose from a hollow on her ankle. Absently, she reached down to pat my head, and grateful for the attention, I licked her knee. With my aunt's startled cry, my blissful moments as the family dog came to an end. It was not fair, I thought resentfully as I was hauled out from under the table and placed unceremoniously in a chair with the command, " Sit here and eat like a human being!" All I wanted was a dog. If I couldn't have a dog, the least my family could do was allow me to be a dog. And everyone knows that dogs lick the people they like."

Copyright © 2002 by Suzanne Clothier

Excerpt from: If a Dog's Prayers were Answered . . . "Bones Would Rain from the Sky": Deepening Our Relationship with Dogs

And so starts another great book from a true dog lover. Suzanne Clothier is a dog trainer, lecturer, and award-winning author. An excerpt from the book's jacket notes that...

"As in no other "dog book" or training manual, in Bones Would Rain Form The Sky an extraordinary woman shows us how to find a deep connection with another being and to receive an incomparable gift: a profound, lifelong relationship with the dog you love."

Copyright © 2002