While on a camping trip, Ted Kerasote met a dog--a Labrador mix--who was living on his own in the wild. They became attached to each other, and Kerasote decided to name the dog Merle and bring him home. There, he realized that Merle's native intelligence would be diminished by living exclusively in the human world. He put a dog door in his house so Merle could live both outside and in. A deeply touching portrait of a remarkable dog and his relationship with the author, Merle's Door explores the issues that all animals and their human companions face as their lives intertwine, bringing to bear the latest research into animal consciousness and behavior as well as insights into the origins and evolution of the human-dog partnership. Merle showed Kerasote how dogs might live if they were allowed to make more of their own decisions, and Kerasote suggests how these lessons can be applied universally.

A guide to canine care covers such topics as the comparative health of purebred and mixed-breed dogs, the benefits and consequences of common health care practices, and how to identify best pet foods.

The bestselling author of Merle’s Door offers a “moving, pictorial love story” of man and his new best friend—full of dog care knowledge and insight (People). After Ted Kerasote’s beloved dog Merle passed, the author received thousands of emails asking two questions: “Have you gotten another dog?” and “Are you writing a new book?” Now, the bestselling canine lover answers both, in the most heartwarming way. Told in Pukka the pup’s charming voice and accompanied by more than 200 photos, Pukka: The Pup After Merle tells the story of how Ted found Pukka. It recounts the early days of their bonding as they explored both Ted’s hometown of Kelly, Wisconsin, and the wider world. As walks become hikes and hikes become climbs, pup and man’s adventures culminate in a rugged wilderness journey that teaches both Pukka and Ted something new about the dog-human partnership. Filled with stunning images of the West—and adorable pictures of Pukka—this book also shares Ted’s in-depth research on the best food, toys, and medical choices he could provide to ensure that Pukka would live the longest, healthiest life possible. “Glimpses of Pukka’s charmed life are interwoven with vast amounts of important information . . . that [encourage] you to draw your own conclusions and make the best choices for you and your dog.” —The Bark

Describes how the author adopted a wild dog by installing a dog door so that the dog could live both inside and outside, in a study of human-dog partnership, and animal consciousness and behavior.

AN ARDENT ENVIRONMENTALIST AND HUNTER SEEKS OUR PROPER RELATIONSHIP TO THE ANIMAL WORLD For all readers who are perplexed over humanity's proper relationship to animals, Ted Kerasote's provocative exploration of the ancient human urge to hunt will dramatize the issues that fuel this controversial debate. In his opening section, "Food" the author travels to the frozen shores of coastal Greenland, living and hunting with Inuit villagers-true hunter-gatherers-who are utterly dependent for sustenance on the seals, polar bears, and narwhal that they can wrest from their punishing environment. In "Trophies," Kerasote accompanies the first Western sportsmen permitted into a remote stretch of Siberian wilderness, one of whom uses unethical stratagems to bag the worlds most coveted hunting trophy. In "Webs," we meet a hunter caught between these two extremes-the writer himself. Stalking elk near his home in Wyoming, seeking a winter's worth of meat, Kerasote encounters the pall of himself that yearns to make the kill and take the wild creature's life force into his own body. Nearing the end of his odyssey, the author attends meetings of the Fund for Animals with the organization's director, a vehement opponent of hunting. Kerasote also examines the ecological consequences of eating food produced by our agri-business system and transported in fossil fuel-consuming refrigerator trucks; next he considers the environmental impact of the death of the prey that has given its life to the hunter. Scrupulously balanced, Bloodties is a memorable book for all lovers of the outdoors-both hunters and nonhunters-and a landmark in the evolving discussion of our proper relationship to the animal world.

WINNER, 2004 NATIONAL OUTDOOR BOOK AWARD! (Outdoor Literature) Who hasnt wanted to get away from cell phones, e-mail, roads, and traffic? And what better place to escape our wired world than the far northwestern corner of Canadas Northwest Territories and a river that flows through uninhabited country, 400 miles to the Arctic Ocean. But what if your canoeing partner brings along a satellite phone to use in case of an emergency? And, struck by the novelty of anywhere-on-earth communication, he proceeds to use the phone to check in with his law office, his wife, kids, sisters, father, and friends? Noted wilderness traveler and author Ted Kerasote deals with just such a situation as he journeys along the Horton River through the largest ice-free, roadless area left on Earth, a stunning wilderness of grizzly bears, caribou, and migrating birds. Between navigating rapids, slipping around musk ox and grizzlies, and being pinned down by Arctic storms, the two friends prod each other into a finer understanding of love, marriage, parenting, and the meaning of solitude in an increasingly wired world. Contrasting his own experiences with those of the regions earliest explorers--Sir John Franklin and Vilhjalmur Stefansson--Kerasote provides a compelling and humorous take on how travelers from any age adjust to being away from their civilizations and how getting "out there" has inevitably changed but has also remained the same--especially if you shut off the phone.

Traces the author's forays into experiencing nature and promoting green agendas in accordance with a dog's perspective, describing the rewards she enjoyed while exploring the natural world at the side of her free-spirited puppy.