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We Give Our Hearts to Dogs to Tear: Intimations of their Immortality

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Alston Chase has gone against the popular grain with his fascinating account of life on the edge of the wild in Montana with several generations of real, sometimes difficult Jack Russell terriers. They may be "cute" but they are first and foremost working dogs, with bold hearts and ambitions bigger than their bodies. While he may make you cry, Chase is never cheaply sentimental. In a time when too many people reduce dogs to surrogate children or toys, he reminds us what remarkable creatures real dogs are, and how strong a bond they will make with their human partners.

I read "We Give our Hearts" in one sitting simply because I couldn't put it down. At variance with other "dog" books, this book delves into the man dog connection in a completely new way. Dr. Chase is a philosophy professor and his expertise in this area allows him to investigate our love for our animals in a believable and convincing way, and to answer the question about the soul of a dog. His experiences with his dogs and his love of the land make his ventures ring true. The photographs included portray his life in Montana. His unabashed love for the entities in his life that are meaningful flow beutifully. This book is a real treasure.

On one level, this is a book about the Chases' retreat to Montana wilderness and their discovery of the treasures around them, including the Jack Russell Terriers they began to acquire. But it runs deeper than that, and explores what dogs are and need to be, and how breeders are ruining them by heeding human criteria, such as form and size, and ignoring the genetic traits that keep a breed viable and healthy.

But this is also a love story, about how the Chases and their Jack Russells (and other pets) deal with each other, and how their differing personalities give and receive differing commitments and differing forms of love. There are passages of great tenderness here, but also passages of speculation: do animals have anything we might call a soul, anything that might transcend death? Might we ever be reunited with our pets beyond the grave?

There is warning here as well: we stand on a precipice. If dogs continue to be bred for purely human criteria such as those imposed by the AKC, and not for those qualities that yield a healthy, athletic animal, the time is not far off when some breeds will be ruined. They will suffer more and more disorders such as deformity, and fewer live births.

This is a love song, and we need to listen to Alston Chase's music.

A real scholar pens an absorbing tribute to his tough and stoic terriers whose lives enriched his own with their unfailing love and loyalty. Set in rugged rural Montana, the author paints vivid word pictures of a way of life and its wildlife almost gone from "hollywoodized" Montana. He does not sugarcoat the harsh realities of the poverty and hardships he and his wife endured nor does he sentimentalize the deaths of his beloved dogs. His spare, strong prose makes a much deeper impression than would flowery prose. This is a book one can pick up again and again, open at random and refresh ones acquaintance with some remarkabls people and their animals.

This is a touching account of one man's raising successive generations of Jack Russell terriers, how he trains them to use their natural instincts hunting in the wild, and how he deals with their inevitable passing. Anyone who loves dogs will love this book. But prepare yourself for something more intense than "Lassie Come Home".

Chase does an outstanding job blending the humor, love, and most important for those of us who have experienced it, the relationship: each a part of having a Jack Russell Terrier as a part of our life.

He manages to touch on many aspects of JRTs (and dogs in general) as well as bringing in deeper, more philosophical material that is well worth pondering. I especially appreciate his addressing the "Pure Breed" Show Dog subject, particularly as it relates to Jack Russell Terriers.

One of my favorite quotes regarding dogs: "We long for an affection ignorant of our faults. Heaven has accord that to us in dogs." While the quote is not lifted from the book, the concept is resonant throughout.

You will laugh. You will be anxious. You will feel compassion. You will feel joy. And perhaps, you will shed a tear. But in the end, you will be glad you read the book, and likely give your JRT an extra treat and an extra bit of love.

We Give Our Hearts to Dogs to Tear: Intimations of Their Immortality is a thirty-year love story between humans and their animal companions, Jack Russell terriers, and tells of the authors' search for the immortality of dogs and what makes them special. First-person accounts of his dogs blends with philosophical reflection in a memoir which is warm and fuzzy.

Alston Chase has discovered a way of involving his readers both emotionally and pragmatically with this book about Jack Russell terriers. His insights into our love of dogs and our propensity to try to control nature and the environment in which we live are thought provoking. It is refreshing to read about a family that embraces not only their natural surroundings but their own human nature, without the need to purify or "improve" them. Lovers of the Jack Russells will appreciate Mr. Chases' insights into their nature, but there is much more to receive from this book than simply a treatise on this determined little breed.

This modern-day Pioneer family gave up a secure life as a tenured college Professor of Philosophy to venture West to the sparsely populated state of Montana, complete with primative living conditions and harsh winters. By doing so, they connected with the land, their many dogs and themselves. While reading the book, I obtained a new meaning of my love for our little companions, and why we are so willing to expose ourselves to the sorrow we know we will suffer when their short lives are over. I highly recommend the book!

For me this precious read is best served with tea, a cozy chair, and a ray of light pouring through a window. I waited each day for just the right moment to pick it up. It is a book to savor.

I understand that Alston Chase is quite the intellectual - the author of several very heady reads. I have to say that in "We Give Our Hearts To Dogs To Tear" I can see the heart of the author, splayed for all the world to see.

This book takes the reader aside from the hustle and bustle of life and drops into the true essence of living. Maybe that shift is seen through a canine friend's field of vision or maybe because of these canine friends Alston Chase has made that shift himself.

"We Give Our Hearts To Dogs To Tear" is reflective of days gone by, of pioneers, and grit, and lasting love.

Thank you for such an endearing read.