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The Dog Who Came to Stay: A Memoir
During a fierce snowstorm, an abandoned and hungry animal howls at the back door of nature writer Hal Borland’s farmhouse, announcing the beginning of a transformational friendship
Hal Borland and his wife Barbara have recently moved onto a hundred-acre farm in northwest Connecticut, where both hope to write and live in harmony with nature. From his New England home, Borland travels the country searching for material for his New York Times “outdoor editorials”—but soon nature comes searching for him, in the form of a miserable, half-starved, deeply trusting, black-and-white foxhound mutt that wanders onto the farm during a blizzard. The dog, Pat, becomes a member of the family and teaches Borland that, often, our most immediate connection to the natural world is through the animals we live with.
Hal Borland and his wife Barbara have recently moved onto a hundred-acre farm in northwest Connecticut, where both hope to write and live in harmony with nature. From his New England home, Borland travels the country searching for material for his New York Times “outdoor editorials”—but soon nature comes searching for him, in the form of a miserable, half-starved, deeply trusting, black-and-white foxhound mutt that wanders onto the farm during a blizzard. The dog, Pat, becomes a member of the family and teaches Borland that, often, our most immediate connection to the natural world is through the animals we live with.
192 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1961
2046 people are currently reading
1260 people want to read
About the author
Hal Borland
57 books78 followersHarold Glen Borland was a nature journalist. During World War II he wrote radio programs for the government and served as special magazine correspondent. He had written several documentary movies, two volumes of poetry, a volume of essays, has collaborated on a play, and has contributed many non-fiction articles, short stories and novelettes to leading magazines here and abroad.
Mr. Borland was graduated from the Columbia School of Journalism. He also attended the University of Colorado and received a Litt.D. from there in 1944.
Mr. Borland was graduated from the Columbia School of Journalism. He also attended the University of Colorado and received a Litt.D. from there in 1944.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 231 reviews
October 21, 2019
One of my animal lover friends assured me that the dog in this story doesn’t die, otherwise I would not have read it, and if I had not read it, I would have missed out on a good dog story. And yet, it is a hard book to review as there isn’t much to say, and that is also obvious by all the short reviews on this book.
So, what is so special about this book? I don’t know. Let’s see if we can find out somehow:
It is set in the country on a farm, or at least I believe it is a farm, only I don’t think the ownners produce anything for market. Next, enters two dogs, and I asked myself, why doesn’t this book say, The Dogs Who Came to Stay? Well, because only one stayed. Pat and Mike showed up on their porch one day and wouldn’t leave. Isn’t that just like a dog? I bet they fed them.
Well, they kept them both until a neighbor told them that the dogs were chasing deer and chasing deer in the area of the country where they live, was illegal. The dogs could be putdown. It was decided that Pat didn’t chase the deer; it was Mike. Mike found a home with a great family who had children. No tears here.
Well, Pat loved to chase groundhogs, and so they had a large cemetery for groundhogs. Now this was rather sad. As we see the owner of Pat taking the groundhogs away from Pat and burying them, and then later on, Pat began burying them in the same area, but not before he had dug one up and rolled in it. Pat had a lot of baths in this book. He also had a lot of visits to the vet to be patched up from his chasig the wrong kind of animal.
|Well, we feed our groundhogs and have learned if you plant a garden for them, they will almost leave your garden alone. After all, there is very little for critters to eat when we have destroyed their food source, whatever that is. I know that they love clover, but my husband always mows it down, so there are no flowers for them to eat. They love cat food, so you can add cat food to their meals. Still, they are pigs, I know, and if you don’t give them enough food and put a fence around your own garden, well, forget it. They will also burrow under your fence.
And then every night Pat asks to go outside to sleep in his own shed. What? Whoever heard of putting a dog out at night? They are supposed to sleep on your bed or beside your bed. I bet if his owner had children, one of them would have insisted that Pat sleep with him or her, and if his or her parents didn’t allow it, one of the kids would have stepped outside to get Pat and sneaked him into the house. I know this to be true.
So, what is so special about Pat? I don’t know. He is just a dog that they loved, and it made for a very good story. And while he grew old by the end of the book, you knew that he had a few more years to live, so you didn’t cry yourself to sleep when you finished the book.
So, what is so special about this book? I don’t know. Let’s see if we can find out somehow:
It is set in the country on a farm, or at least I believe it is a farm, only I don’t think the ownners produce anything for market. Next, enters two dogs, and I asked myself, why doesn’t this book say, The Dogs Who Came to Stay? Well, because only one stayed. Pat and Mike showed up on their porch one day and wouldn’t leave. Isn’t that just like a dog? I bet they fed them.
Well, they kept them both until a neighbor told them that the dogs were chasing deer and chasing deer in the area of the country where they live, was illegal. The dogs could be putdown. It was decided that Pat didn’t chase the deer; it was Mike. Mike found a home with a great family who had children. No tears here.
Well, Pat loved to chase groundhogs, and so they had a large cemetery for groundhogs. Now this was rather sad. As we see the owner of Pat taking the groundhogs away from Pat and burying them, and then later on, Pat began burying them in the same area, but not before he had dug one up and rolled in it. Pat had a lot of baths in this book. He also had a lot of visits to the vet to be patched up from his chasig the wrong kind of animal.
|Well, we feed our groundhogs and have learned if you plant a garden for them, they will almost leave your garden alone. After all, there is very little for critters to eat when we have destroyed their food source, whatever that is. I know that they love clover, but my husband always mows it down, so there are no flowers for them to eat. They love cat food, so you can add cat food to their meals. Still, they are pigs, I know, and if you don’t give them enough food and put a fence around your own garden, well, forget it. They will also burrow under your fence.
And then every night Pat asks to go outside to sleep in his own shed. What? Whoever heard of putting a dog out at night? They are supposed to sleep on your bed or beside your bed. I bet if his owner had children, one of them would have insisted that Pat sleep with him or her, and if his or her parents didn’t allow it, one of the kids would have stepped outside to get Pat and sneaked him into the house. I know this to be true.
So, what is so special about Pat? I don’t know. He is just a dog that they loved, and it made for a very good story. And while he grew old by the end of the book, you knew that he had a few more years to live, so you didn’t cry yourself to sleep when you finished the book.
September 20, 2018
This beautifully crafted prose transported me to the farm in New England where Pat, the hound, wandered in one day. I accompanied Pat and his “person”, he has no master, as they routed the rabbits and woodchucks who decimated their garden, I agonized as Pat protected his farm from poachers and caught a bullet in the chest, and Pat brooked no trespassing dogs. His explorations landed him in an animal trap. His adventures were shared in a flowing style that was mesmerizing and beautiful. Do no miss this literary treasure.
October 4, 2024
Hal Borland's touching memoir about his dog, Pat, and how they bonded through the years. Pat, a stray, loved to hunt, chase rabbits, and spend time with Borland. The dog had some fiercest encounters with wild animals, other dogs, and humans, but survived them all. The book provides insights about farm dogs, as opposed to city dogs, and presents a picture of life in rural America (Northeast) in the mid-20th century. I will give a spoiler: Pat doesn't die at the end!
July 23, 2017
Pleasant reading
Good book about man's best and most dependable friend.
Well worth the time, made me appreciate my friend that I just lost. E
Good book about man's best and most dependable friend.
Well worth the time, made me appreciate my friend that I just lost. E
January 11, 2019
Loved this book. It was very easy to read and enjoyable. The dog had quite a life and it was a delight to share his adventures.
August 4, 2023
Growing up we had a dog like Pat that "owned" our area and chose to love and protect our family. This book brought back many happy memories. The author's style is quiet and his writing is rich with images of nature. This book compares, in my estimation, to the animal books of James Herriot. I recommend it for anyone that enjoys a good dog story.
October 6, 2024
Literally woof. Gave this book a shot and enough time/pages to see if anything would improve. Do not feel bad for this DNF. There was no actual plot other than the daily account of two retired people owning dogs. The book just continued to repeat itself and what they did everyday. Each chapter was like Deja vu. This memoir seemed as if the author was just working towards a page goal or perhaps a daily journal recollection.
September 29, 2017
Okay book about a country dog
I didn't have a dog until I was 62 when I adopted a small shelter dog. I love this dog and he is family to me. I had a hard time with the author's attitude towards dogs in general and toward Pat in particular, the dog who came to stay with Hal and his wife at their country home in Connecticut. Maybe it's the difference in era since this book was written some time ago. I don't know why this book rubbed me the wrong way. I can't imagine a dog really preferring to sleep in an unheated shed in the middle of winter rather than a warm house, but my dog sleeps in my bed under the covers with me. This is a series of anecdotes about life with Pat the dog. The passage of time is not easy to figure out. I never felt Pat was secure in his life or his home, despite HaI's warming up to the dog eventually. I don't regret reading this book but if you love your dog like family and you didn't grow up or currently live in the country where animals are for work, you may want to skip this book.
I didn't have a dog until I was 62 when I adopted a small shelter dog. I love this dog and he is family to me. I had a hard time with the author's attitude towards dogs in general and toward Pat in particular, the dog who came to stay with Hal and his wife at their country home in Connecticut. Maybe it's the difference in era since this book was written some time ago. I don't know why this book rubbed me the wrong way. I can't imagine a dog really preferring to sleep in an unheated shed in the middle of winter rather than a warm house, but my dog sleeps in my bed under the covers with me. This is a series of anecdotes about life with Pat the dog. The passage of time is not easy to figure out. I never felt Pat was secure in his life or his home, despite HaI's warming up to the dog eventually. I don't regret reading this book but if you love your dog like family and you didn't grow up or currently live in the country where animals are for work, you may want to skip this book.
December 3, 2019
This is not great literature or great memoir, but it is a moderately enjoyable account of a suburban writer's relocation to rural Connecticut and his acclimation to its landscape, wildlife, and human inhabitants. Since the author is a writer, I was surprised at the number of punctuation errors; commas are either missing or misplaced. It has more adjectives piled one upon another than the most florid of Lucy Maud Montgomery's prose, and that's saying something. However, you will love the dog; Pat is charming and not overly anthropomorphized.
May 14, 2019
The Dog Who Came to Stay: A Memoir is an enjoyable, pleasantly-written story. I looked forward to sitting down and relaxing with this book and it did not disappointed. I will read more of Hal Borland's books.
In particular, I greatly appreciated the love, care, and companionship Hal and his wife showed to the stray dog they adopted without ever devolving into the current "fur family" drivel.
In particular, I greatly appreciated the love, care, and companionship Hal and his wife showed to the stray dog they adopted without ever devolving into the current "fur family" drivel.
October 1, 2024
Great read wonderfully written. About a dog the world around him and the man he chose to stay with.
February 7, 2020
Love
Hal and his wife never wanted a dog but 2 starts showed up on his property and never left. They eventually have Mike away and kept Pat. Pat's adventures are told in this book. Hal's emotions show when he believes Pat is gone and when Pat is injured. This was an enjoyable read.
Hal and his wife never wanted a dog but 2 starts showed up on his property and never left. They eventually have Mike away and kept Pat. Pat's adventures are told in this book. Hal's emotions show when he believes Pat is gone and when Pat is injured. This was an enjoyable read.
May 6, 2025
This is my least favorite dog story to date. It was not charming, sweet, or endearing. It was full of chasing and killing other animals, continuously calling a yellow stray female dog the B word (multiple times), and getting rid of dogs when they no longer suited their owner’s purpose.
November 26, 2024
A pleasant nostalgic read reminiscent of Frost’s New England. A writer adopts a dog in Vermont and the tales of life on a farm and the antics of scoundrel.
February 9, 2019
This was a delightful story about a dog who wanders up to a couples home in the country and stays. It was enjoyable and funny in so many ways with a dog being just a dog.
September 30, 2020
A good dog story. It was interesting to see how much our feelings about pets has evolved. The writing style was very journalistic. I enjoyed this book. It was far superior to “Lily and the Octopus.” I’m now good on books about dogs for a couple of years.
July 30, 2017
Memoir?
One of the best I can recall reading about a dog. Makes me wonder how the other dog in the story made out (Mike was his name). Delightful read and truly sorry there is no more to be read....
One of the best I can recall reading about a dog. Makes me wonder how the other dog in the story made out (Mike was his name). Delightful read and truly sorry there is no more to be read....
December 28, 2020
I love books about people and their relationship with the animals for whom they care. I won't say this is the most engrossing book I've ever read (I could read it, put it down, and come back to it a few days later) but it drew me in and introduced me to the world of working dogs, dogs who keep groundhogs from tearing up a garden, or a dog who connects with another dog and along with their human counterparts (or sometimes on their own) roam the countryside together - flushing rabbits and barking in sheer joy. The relationship the Borland's have with Pat is similar to the one described in "Merle's Door: Lessons from a Freethinking Dog" by Ted Kerasote - unsentimental, respectful and based on love.
July 16, 2017
Good Dog
This is a good book and an excellent story. Hal Borland writes about the stray who shows up and stays, turning into his dog..
This is a good book and an excellent story. Hal Borland writes about the stray who shows up and stays, turning into his dog..
February 19, 2021
Published in 1961, this is another snippet of Hal Borland's life of how a stray dog chose to own him. The last book, "High, Wide and Lonesome: Growing Up On the Colorado Frontier", set in 1910 in the wild Colorado frontier portrayed five years of his life from age 10 to 15. In this story, he is now married to Barbara, both freelance writers, looking to live a more carefree life out in the country. They are quite aged, having just purchased a 100 acre farm in the upper part of the Housatonic Valley called Weatogue, in the fartherest upper northwest corner of Connecticut, when two stray male dogs appeared in the middle of the night and also called it home. Pat, part foxhound, is the prominent dog to become a part of their lives. The other was too young and restless, so they eventually ended up giving him away to a family with a young boy who was down because he had just lost his dog.
If you have a dog or dogs that are part of your family, you will completely love and understand just what he is talking about in this book, if not, then you might find it pretty boring. I could relate to just about every subject he touched on while learning Pat's, sometimes insufferable, behavior and dog language (barks). They had a lot of adventures together living in the valley with a river running through it and pasture on one side and mountains on the other. Dogs do have a way of stealing your heart and, eventually, breaking your heart.
I have only owned strayed dogs, and they have all had their very own distinct personalities. We've never owned more than two dogs at a time since we have a tendancy to let them come indoors and live a life with us. That's all we can handle, and they show up just in time. As one dog dies, another dog seems to choose us to own. Love that!
If you have a dog or dogs that are part of your family, you will completely love and understand just what he is talking about in this book, if not, then you might find it pretty boring. I could relate to just about every subject he touched on while learning Pat's, sometimes insufferable, behavior and dog language (barks). They had a lot of adventures together living in the valley with a river running through it and pasture on one side and mountains on the other. Dogs do have a way of stealing your heart and, eventually, breaking your heart.
I have only owned strayed dogs, and they have all had their very own distinct personalities. We've never owned more than two dogs at a time since we have a tendancy to let them come indoors and live a life with us. That's all we can handle, and they show up just in time. As one dog dies, another dog seems to choose us to own. Love that!
May 13, 2024
I recently read Alive and at the end, I was able to download a free book from Early Bird Books. I decided on this one as it’s about dogs and a National Bestseller. I only got to chapter 8. I was trying to give it the benefit of doubt but I couldn’t continue. I understand that Hal was a hunter but the way he treated the dogs and animals in general was horrible. Slapping them and making them sleep outside, calling animals stupid and the poor woodchucks. Just no respect, in my opinion. If you’re an animal lover, I wouldn’t recommend this book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 18, 2015
A Dog Who Owned a Man
I spent a lot of my adult years in Connecticut and that influenced my decision to read this memoir. It was a good decision. The book is timeless in the sense that the love of a good dog is similar from generation to generation, since humans and dog first accompanied one another, I suspect. Yet it also describes an earlier time in the mid-twentieth century. I thoroughly enjoyed it and recommend it.
I spent a lot of my adult years in Connecticut and that influenced my decision to read this memoir. It was a good decision. The book is timeless in the sense that the love of a good dog is similar from generation to generation, since humans and dog first accompanied one another, I suspect. Yet it also describes an earlier time in the mid-twentieth century. I thoroughly enjoyed it and recommend it.
November 22, 2015
Because I own a dog, I have a weakness for a good dog story. This was a great story about a dog who comes and stays. The descriptions of his antics and behaviors are spot on for how some dogs are and they made me smile. There were a few tears for me too in this memoir. The author is very good at descriptions of the area where he lives, giving me a true sense of the colors, smells and beauty all around them.
September 3, 2016
I really enjoyed getting to know both the owner and his dog by reading this book. It's a story about a dog who showed up as a stray one Christmas eve, and adopted the author and his wife. Lots of stories of man and dog hunting, living, and sharing their lives.
Spoiler alert: I especially appreciated that, unlike most dog stories, this didn't end in the tear-jerking death of the dog. Great book.
Spoiler alert: I especially appreciated that, unlike most dog stories, this didn't end in the tear-jerking death of the dog. Great book.
February 17, 2012
This is a wonderful dog book, a fast enjoyable read, compelling, concise, and informative, suitable for all ages. I didn't want it to end. Hal Borland was a talented journalist and nature writer born in 1900. This is the second of his books that I read, and I had to buy both as they are unfortunately not available in my library.
July 21, 2015
Great Read!
I enjoyed every page of this book. Anyone who is a dog lover would enjoy reading this about
the adventures, and misadventures of Pat. He is a well mannered dog with a lot of spirit and joy. He found his family and moved in with them even though the weren't looking for a pet. The love grew between dog and humans, and their lives together were rewarding.
I enjoyed every page of this book. Anyone who is a dog lover would enjoy reading this about
the adventures, and misadventures of Pat. He is a well mannered dog with a lot of spirit and joy. He found his family and moved in with them even though the weren't looking for a pet. The love grew between dog and humans, and their lives together were rewarding.
September 8, 2016
Old attitudes good story
This book was written in 1961. Attitudes about dogs were quite different back then in the farming community that Hal Borland lived in. Dogs then were disciplined with rolled newspaper. Having said Pat chose the Borland's and this book is a good story about an older time and place and the relationship between man and dog.
This book was written in 1961. Attitudes about dogs were quite different back then in the farming community that Hal Borland lived in. Dogs then were disciplined with rolled newspaper. Having said Pat chose the Borland's and this book is a good story about an older time and place and the relationship between man and dog.
October 6, 2016
If only someone had cared......
Wish someone could have or would have had sympathy for the "bitch" because, even though she wasnt a purebred, she had a story of her own that also was important. just felt sorry for her and felt she deserved more than death. otherwise, a great book.
Wish someone could have or would have had sympathy for the "bitch" because, even though she wasnt a purebred, she had a story of her own that also was important. just felt sorry for her and felt she deserved more than death. otherwise, a great book.
July 8, 2020
Loved the story about this adventurous dog because the author’s detailed descriptions made me feel like I was there with Pat. I celebrated his accomplishments and felt his pain and anguish during his explorations. It would have saddened me if he had died at the end of the book. Highly recommend this wonderful book!
February 24, 2017
Being a dog person... I loved the personality of Pat! What a great read
Displaying 1 - 30 of 231 reviews