Bones Would Rain from the Sky: Deepening Our Relationships with Dogs

By Suzanne Clothier

Description from Author’s website: Akin to Monty Roberts’s The Man Who Listens to Horses and going light-years beyond The Hidden Life of Dogs, this extraordinary book takes a radical new direction in understanding our life with canines and offers us astonishing new lessons about our pets. From changing the misbehaviors and habits that upset us, to seeing the world from their unique and natural perspective, to finding a deep connection with another being, Bones Would Rain from the Sky will help you receive an incomparable gift: a profound, lifelong relationship with the dog you love.

Bones is a book like no other, taking the reader on an exploration of our relationships with dogs that moves far past the recipes of how-to books or mere technicalities, and into the very soul of relationship.

Whatever your involvement with dogs or other animals, Bones will change forever how you view the profound, intimate relationships that are possible when we truly open ourselves to another.

Note: Whenever possible, I have supplied link to the author’s “book store” (click on book’s image). If not available from author’s store, I have linked to Amazon. Most of the books included in our recommendations are also available from Dogwise. If you shop at Amazon, don’t forget to check out their AmazonSmile program where Amazon donates a portion of the purchase price to your favorite charitable organization.

In case you are wondering how My Dog’s Best Friend benefits from these recommendations, be sure to check out our Disclosure.

While tolerant and kind to animals, neither of my parents were “animal” people. It was not for want of love or acceptance that I was drawn to animals, though for many children animals do freely offer the unconditional love and acceptance often lacking in young lives. Yet long before I knew disappointment or anger, long before I learned how hurtful and complex human beings could be, there was an instinctive gravitation toward animals. Animals of every description drew me to them simply because they existed. They were, and are, my Mount Everest – ultimately defying any explanation of their magnetism, unbearably inviting – there to be seen and possibly known if I am willing to undertake the expedition.

Even my spiritual life was woven through with animals. Despite the emphasis our church placed on Jesus (who, I noted did not even have a dog!), I felt a more natural alliance with Noah, my childhood hero. Given a Bible with a concordance, I immediately looked up every verse – and there are many – that contained mention of an animal: eagle, ass, horse, sparrow, lion, dog, sheep, lambs, cattle, goats, swine. I took to heart the notion that all God’s creatures were his creation, just as I was. As such, I assumed they were as welcome in Sunday school as any of the little children. And so it was that at a very tender age I had my first crisis of faith, which began with a coonhound I met on the way to Church. 

SUZANNE CLOTHIER