The Dogs of Bedlam Farm

An Adventure with Sixteen Sheep, Three Dogs, Two Donkeys, and Me

Author Jon Katz

Save

“Dogs are blameless, devoid of calculation, neither blessed nor cursed with human motives. They can’t really be held responsible for what they do. But we can.”
–from The Dogs of Bedlam Farm

When Jon Katz adopted a border collie named Orson, his whole world changed. Gone were the two yellow Labs he wrote about in A Dog Year, as was the mountaintop cabin they loved. Katz moved into an old farmhouse on forty-two acres of pasture and woods with a menagerie: a ram named Nesbitt, fifteen ewes, a lonely donkey named Carol, a baby donkey named Fanny, and three border collies.

Training Orson was a demanding project. But a perceptive dog trainer and friend told Katz: “If you want to have a…

Jon Katz has written many novels, short stories, works of nonfiction, and books for children. He is also a photographer and has written for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Slate, Rolling Stone, and the AKC Gazette. Katz has worked for CBS News, The Boston Globe, The Washington Post, and The Philadelphia Inquirer. He lives in upstate New York with his wife, the artist Maria Wulf, and their dogs, donkeys, barn cats, sheep, and chickens.