{"id":23687,"date":"2016-01-14T00:01:30","date_gmt":"2016-01-14T08:01:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/?p=23687"},"modified":"2016-01-14T00:01:30","modified_gmt":"2016-01-14T08:01:30","slug":"dog-medicine-a-dog-lovers-journey-from-depression-to-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/dog-medicine-a-dog-lovers-journey-from-depression-to-health\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Dog Medicine’ — A Dog-Lover’s Journey From Depression to Health"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Cover<\/a>
Cover photo by Bev Sparks<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Barbara Falconer Newhall<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI hope you\u2019ll see yourself in this book,\u201d Julie Barton writes in the prologue to her new memoir \u201cDog Medicine.\u201d<\/p>\n

No, I don\u2019t see myself in this book. I don\u2019t have depression, not the major type anyway. My brothers didn\u2019t beat me up as a kid. And I\u2019m not crazy about dogs.\u00a0But I am crazy about this book.<\/p>\n

I bought a copy (two of them actually, an extra for my dog-loving hiking pal) even though the doggie face on the cover \u2013 complete with jowls, whiskers and snout \u2013 set off alarm bells in my reptilian brain.<\/p>\n

\"Julie<\/a>
Author Julie Barton. Photo by Coleen Gallagher<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That\u2019s where I keep stored sharp memories of an attack by an 80-pound rescue dog that took place in my neighborhood a few years ago. The dog had a wide, pit bull muzzle, and its teeth left a shiny scar on my upper arm. You can\u2019t miss it if I\u2019m wearing short sleeves. There\u2019s another scar on my hip, where his teeth tore into me a second time after he\u2019d knocked me to the pavement.<\/p>\n

That scar is located not too far from the site of yet another bloody dog bite inflicted during an attack by of a pair of neighborhood Dobermans a few years earlier.<\/p>\n

So, yeah, I\u2019m not keen on dogs. But that doesn\u2019t keep me from enjoying this book and recommending it to you.<\/p>\n

If dogs make me nervous, why would I bother to buy and read this book? I bought it because a writer friend wrote it. I read it because it was a good book. A really good book.<\/p>\n

\u201cDog Medicine\u201d begins with Julie\u2019s mental breakdown as a young woman just getting started in the New York publishing industry. A desperate phone call brings her mother to the rescue.<\/p>\n

A ride back home to Ohio ensues. And soon Bunker, a golden retriever puppy, arrives on the scene. With that, the story of how a beloved pet helped restore this not-so-fragile-after-all young woman to health gets under way.<\/p>\n

My writer friend is a brave woman. She\u2019s written a story that\u2019s ostensibly about a deep friendship with a dog. In fact, it\u2019s the story of mental illness and childhood sibling abuse told from the inside out.<\/p>\n

Julie is brave. Even braver is her brother, who apparently abused her\u00a0regularly, physically and verbally, when they were children. That he has given his consent for their story to be told is a<\/p>\n

\"Julie<\/a>
The author\u00a0with her soul mate Bunker, 2007. Photo by Heather Knape<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

remarkable act of generosity \u2013 to his writer sister, but also to other victims and perpetrators of past sibling abuse, many of whom no doubt suffer in isolation.<\/p>\n

Dog lovers will enjoy this book hugely; I was fascinated by its insights into dog psychology and training. Lovers of memoir will appreciate Julie\u2019s skillful retelling of a poignant story.<\/p>\n

But the most significant contribution this book makes is perhaps the light it sheds on sibling abuse. We\u2019ve heard about clergy abuse, parental abuse, teacher abuse \u2013 but very little about how a brother or sister can wreak havoc on a sibling.<\/p>\n

Congratulations, Julie. This book is a winner, and I\u2019m pretty sure it\u2019s going to find readers all over the place. With a little luck, some of them will be dog-phobic folks like me.<\/p>\n

“Dog Medicine,” by\u00a0Julie Barton, Think Piece Publishing, 2015.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If you enjoyed this post you might like “At Point Reyes — Animals Wild and Tame.<\/a>” \u00a0Also, “I Can’t Believe I Got in the Water With That 1400-Pound Whale.”<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"Julie<\/a><\/p>\n

I\u2019m not crazy about dogs. But I am crazy about a book called “Dog Medicine.”\u00a0(“Soulmates” photo by Heather Knape.) Read more.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23690,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[70,50],"tags":[1617,71,1618,1619,34,1620,55,88,488,480,69],"class_list":["post-23687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book-openers","category-on-writing-reading","tag-animals","tag-book-review","tag-dog-medicine","tag-dogs","tag-dont-miss","tag-julie-barton","tag-family-stories","tag-nature","tag-the-writing-life","tag-writers","tag-writing-tips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23687\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}