This is a wonderful celebration of the life of a pretty special dog and has to be the best dog book I’ve ever read.......

Ted Kerasote is an outdoors sort of guy. He writes about outdoor places and pursuits - wilderness adventures and such like. This is the story of his relationship with Merle, a dog who he meets on a canoe trip with some friends. The young dog has clearly been surviving on his own and joins them on their trip. Ted ends up sharing his life with Merle and it is really a love story of man and dog. In truth, I fell in love with both of them.

Once Ted got the measure of Merle in terms of just how bright he was and how much he could trust him, Merle was allowed to become a free thinking dog. In the main, he could come and go as he pleased through his own dog door; chose to spend time with Ted in whatever activity, be it hunting or hiking or go and lead his own life, off doing dog things with his own dog and human friends. There was a fair amount of dog psychology and animal behaviour-type references, but as a lot of this was to books or authors that I already really rate, I relished that. It was a book that made me think on all sorts of levels. I delighted in it and know that it is a book that I will probably read more than once. ( )

Dogs, love and grief - This is a long book. I know that sounds like a simpleton opening, but somewhere slightly past the middle of this tome, I started finding some of the corroborating scientific information about the relationships between men and other mammals just a bit "teedjus," ya know? I mean I bought the book because I love a good dog book, so I wasn't terribly interesting in learning about horses and chimps along the way. That said though, Kerasote has written an extremly thoughtful book about men and dogs, and why they love each other - or don't. There are several places in the book where Kerasote protests a bit too much, methinks, that he does NOT anthropomorphize Merle, or the other dogs in this book, then rationalizes like hell, using esoteric bits of scientific trivia to "prove" he doesn't. But hell, he does. He knows it, and so do we. And we don't care. Because this is just a great love story that any dog-lover cannot help but enjoy. I have a neighbor who has, over the years, owned three retired greyhounds. When he lost the second one, who died very suddenly of a twisted gut, I felt badly for Jim. But he acknowledged quietly the age-old problem that comes with loving a dog. He told me sadly, "Dogs. No matter how much you love 'em, it always ends in grief." And that is certainly how MERLE'S DOOR ends. Oh, I know that Kerasote tried to dress it up a bit with that last (anthropomorphic) line from Merle's spirit: "I dance! I DANCE!" But my God, that last chapter was just gut-wrenching, and it brought back all the tearful times of losing dogs of my own over the years. Yes, I cried. And because of that beautiful last chapter, Ted, I forgive you for all that pseudo-scholarly "teedjusness" in the middle of the book. That final chapter clinched the 5-star rating. Thanks for sharing your story. I know, of course, there'll never be another Merle, but I hope you've found - or will soon find - another golden pal. ( )

This is the best dog book I have ever read. It has stayed with me for a long time after finishing it, I think of Merle frequently! Kerasote manages to humanize Merle so that you think you "know" him as a good friend! Great book, not to be missed by dog lovers. ( )

Wonderful story about Merle and his human friend/companion. Told through Ted's eyes, the story is drawn with great respect for Merle's independence and intelligence; by the end of the book you will have felt as if you have walked through Merle's life and with a greater appreciation for life's journey with your own companions, ( )

What a marvelous biography of an awsome dog! I am in awe of Kerasote's open-minded approach to his developing relationship with Merle and his ability to allow this magnificent animal to determine his own lifestyle. The result was a life and relationship so much richer by far then the "normal" human-dog pairing. Be sure you grab a box of tissues before you start the last chapter. It is heartbreaking! (Amazingly, as I read it in bed, hardly able to control my sobs, Muggs - one of my two feral black cats - jumped up on my bed and curled up against my legs. The only other time he had done that was the night after I buried my 18 year companion little tiger cat Molly! How DID he know?) The book has references and an index in the back. Also, for lots of photos of Merle, go to Kerasote's website: http://www.kerasote.com/ ( )