To Absent Friends: A Collection of Stories of the Dogs We Miss

by Jameson Parker (Editor)

Of all the animals in the world, only the dog has chosen to share his life with man, and while the dog may have benefited from the arrangement, man has gotten the much better end of the deal.

With one notable the dog mercifully has no foreknowledge of his own mortality.

Even more mercifully he has no knowledge that he and the person he loves won't be together forever.

Man, for all the gifts he has been given, for all his cleverness and adaptability, his ingenuity and imagination, has been cursed with the knowledge of his own mortality and, perhaps even more painful, the knowledge that his best friend will leave him behind.

To Absent Friends is a collection of stories of dogs told by those they left behind.

Most of the dogs in these stories were good dogs; some were what we may politely describe as eccentric, some were mischievous, some were just plain bad, but all were loved, and all are missed.

224 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Jameson Parker was a working actor for over a quarter of a century. While he has appeared in countless movies, television movies, and plays, he is best known for his role as A.J., one half of the team of "Simon & Simon," the long running hit television series in the '80s.

Jameson has been a freelance writer for the past twenty years. As an actor-turned-author he is unique, because his work has appeared in such a wide range of outdoor magazines, including Gray's Sporting Journal, Sports Afield, Western Horseman, Ranch & Reata, Ducks Unlimited, and many others. Currently he writes regular columns for Sporting Classics and Texas Sporting Journal.

He lives on a small ranch in the mountains of California with two rescue dogs, three rescue cats, and an ever-changing number of horses (down to two, at the moment).

The above paragraph used to be accurate, but due to a major horse wreck (you can read about it on my website in series of blogs lumped together under the heading "Fistfuls of Balloons") which ultimately resulted in eight hours and a quarter of a million dollars worth of spinal surgery, I can no longer ride and we have sold all our horses and the ranch. The proportion of dogs and cats has also shifted, being now two cats and three dogs. Since two of the dogs are Australian shepherds, we are still very, very busy.

You can read more about his books on Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Jameson-Parker/...)

He is married to the actress and singer Darleen Carr.

Reviews

[T.D. Bauer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent book for anybody who has owned a dog that has passed on. It is actually a fairly sad book to read, but also in some ways uplifting. It helped me and the misses get over the loss of our own dog by sharing our grief along with the various stories of dogs and owners in the book.

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you are a dog person this is guaranteed to bring in the water works. Short but emotional stories.