Love Me, Love My Dog

Americans are taking the notion of dogs' being man's best friend quite literally. In Jon Katz's fine book The New Work of Dogs (Villard), the author explores how in our increasingly fragmented and disconnected society, dogs are often treated as family members and human surrogates. A growing number of people, according to Katz, say they get more support from their dogs than their spouses or parents. The author zooms in on 12 dog-human relationships in Montclair, N.J., a prosperous community with a large canine population. In Montclair, pet-human bonds take on a variety of forms: a twice-divorced wife puts her dachshund puppy in diapers; a woman with breast cancer, left by her husband, depends on her corgi for solace; a teenager who has been abandoned by his father abuses his pit bull. Katz, who has two border collies, has nothing against closeness with pets. Indeed, he writes with sensitivity about human relationships with animals. He is just worried that we're asking more of our canine friends than nature intended.