Adventures with Ari: A Puppy, a Leash & Our Year Outdoors

by Kathryn Miles

Merle’s Door was a sensation because Ted Kerasote writes so beautifully about his dog and his dog’s love of the land. In Adventures wtih Ari , Kathryn Miles takes a step back from the wild places Kerasote describes. When she adopts Ari, an exotic Jindo dog, the two of them begin to explore the outdoors together. A dog sees the world quite differently from a person. For starters, he or she is much closer to the ground—to what we’ve been trying to preserve more and more of these days. A dog is the original environmental The sights, sounds, and smells of nature are what make a dog a dog. And if you want to learn more about nature, try enjoying life like a dog.

Kathryn Miles sets out to do just that when she becomes determined to let Ari live life on her own terms. Once some basic ground rules are set, Kathryn takes the leash off her dog and the blinders off her own eyes. A new world soon She and Ari explore a backyard landscape of grass, mud, snow, trees, and the occasional fox. They find the scent of a northern wind, the footprints of a startled raccoon, and other secrets of the natural world. The puppy’s free-spirited outlook teaches Kathryn to see more when she might otherwise have seen less, while adding a certain excitement and clarity of vision. Soon, Kathryn begins to give up control and know the world as Ari learns it.

Peppered with factual information about our natural world and the creatures that inhabit it, Adventures with Ari makes compelling reading for dog lovers as well as anyone who’s been out and about in the woods. Like most projects of discovery, this process forces Kathryn to uncover much more than the physical—it allows important insight to her thoughts and feelings and her relationship with her entire family, all thanks to a puppy named Ari.

Genres: Dogs, Animals, Nonfiction, Memoir

304 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2009

Reviews

[Andidarling · Rating 4 out of 5]

I miss having a dog. Like almost as much as Jon Katz' books and Marley and Me.

[Linda Power · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful book to finish one year and begin another. This rich, charming and intelligent books follows the author and her Jingo mix dog, Ari, through a year of nature hikes and life in mid Maine. A great read for animal lovers and nature enthusiasts.

[Karen & Gerard · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is very informative about nature and seeing it through a dog's eyes. It is a documentary of adventures of Kathryn Miles and her half Husky, half Jindo dog, Ari, for a year while living in Maine. The author not only shares about her dog but also gives a lot of information about the things they discover together in nature and how she learned to enjoy the moment from Ari. She also had a cat that died which was very sad and brought back memories of when our cat died, but balanced out the sadness with bringing in two feral kittens. That was my favorite part of the book. Ari is a "caninaturalist" that is quite lovable. This is like reading a fun science book, there are so many interesting facts about things I never even thought about before such as a dead animal goes through stages of decay and there is a protocol among animals as to when their turn comes to dive in on the carcass. Ari wasn't interested in fresh dead things, but he liked rubbing dead decaying things on his fur. As the author and her dog walked through the woods together, she would notice his behavior and then research about it and found lots of fascinating things. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys nature, science, and pets. I've never read anything like it before!

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adventures with Ari was just a delightful novel and I loved watching Kate become a ‘dog person’. I read one review on this site that the reader was annoyed that the author went on ‘tangents’. To that reader, I must say that they missed the entire point of the novel. Ms. Miles did not go on ‘tangents’, she, like Ari, smelled something interesting and followed her nose to the information. Information that varied from the process of decomposition, feral statistics of domestic pets, and even the ‘umble’ pie.

A very good book and I look forward to reading her other work, All Standing.

[Tango · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's not much new in AWA and much of it will seem very naive and even a little silly for anyone who has lived with many dogs for many years. But it is relatively entertaining and has some good information about rescue dogs and feral cats. I very much approve of the author's desire to adopt rescues and her high level of commitment to her dogs and cats even in the face of medical and/or behavioral challenges. I have to admit that I think this concept of a caninenaturalist is just for marketing and exceptionally silly. All dogs are naturalists by birth and the challenge of a happy life with them is always about finding the right compromise between their natures and our own lifestyles which are generally not so supportive of "naturalism". (And, for all people complain, most dogs - and cats - are willing to cross more than half the bridge to reach a compromise that works.)

Amanda Carlin is easy to listen to, but I had to rate her down for a cardinal error - FERAL is pronounced with a long A sound, not a long E sound. There is only one pronunciation listed for this word on all the online dictionaries and pronunciation sites. I hate when narrators mispronounce words - I'm paying for the book to be read properly. If saying words correctly was your job, wouldn't you make sure you knew how to say those words? And, this little problem gets huge when a narrator mispronounces a word that is used 100 times and is central to the narrative of a book - every mispronunciation pulls me out of the book. There is just no excuse.

[Holly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whether you are a dog lover or not, Adventures with Ari is a fascinating journey of the natural world with Ari, the jindo-mix dog and Kate, her owner/companion, as your guides. The setting is in central Maine, where I have lived most of my life, and it truly made me look around at my surroundings and take notice. I learned not only about the environment and how we affect it, but also how much our relationships with our companions (both 2-legged and 4-legged) affect US.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a good book about a couple's first year with their pup in the wilderness of Maine and how the author is trying to see the world from the dog's perspective. :)

[Pam Cipkowski · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three-and-a-half stars. Very different from Marley and Me. After the first few chapters, I was convinced I would not like this book. The author has decided that this first year with her dog will be some sort of social experiment in seeing nature in a different way--through the eyes and experiences of her dog. She constantly refers to Ari as "the caninaturalist," which is a bit annoying. And boy, does she go off on tangents! When she chases after Ari in the woods and discovers her eating a deer carcass, she goes through an entire song and dance of, "Why does my animal want to eat deer guts?" "What part of the guts taste best?" and goes into a short history of people eating animals, how the organs are similar to that of humans', etc. etc. Finding a dead animal on the side of the road launches into a description of the six stages of a body decomposing, phone calls to transportation departments to ask questions about how they handle roadkill, etc. Some of these tangents are very interesting, some just exasperating, as in, "Just enjoy taking a walk with your dog!" All in all, I liked it, and found the author somewhat a likeable character.

[Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was about one woman's adventures with an exotic Jindo pup that she brings home and calls Ari.
This is all about them going on walks in the woods together, and becoming bonded with each other in the great outdoors.
Ari us full of curiosity,which takes Kathryn into the wilderness with Ari...and into a delightful year that you will never want to forget.
It was a nice read, and full of the timeless outdoors true story theme and discovery in each other that any dog lover will enjoy.

[Alicia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ok, it took me almost a year to read this book, not because it was terrible, but because it was the kind of book you read a while, then put down and read other books. I finally finished it, and in the end I really liked it. I liked the was Kathryn Miles told a story, but also weaved in research with her story. I would like to read it again someday without long breaks in between.

[Abby · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book reminded me of the importance of reconnecting w/ nature & the importance of taking my dog for a long walk whenever I have the free time to do so. It helped me to value every kind of life out there. Although I felt like the author excessively went off topic, I still very much enjoyed this book.

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

You know when you're reading something academic, and you wonder if it all came from a few simple experiences? This is like that.

While this isn't an entirely academic text, the overarching terms take me back to uni. Canine naturalism indeed.

[Janci · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is hard to not like this book, the author is so earnest. I liked her stories and how she used them to segue into the topic at hand. Her solution to the deer carcass problem was hilarious, I will have to remember that trick for my own pups!

[Linda · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted it to be more interesting.

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although Miles' attention to detail when it comes to her canine-naturalist observations sometimes seems like overkill, the story itself is charming and the observations interesting.

[Catherine · Rating 1 out of 5]

sort of read - didn't quite make it through.

[Dianna · Rating 5 out of 5]

FANTASTIC book. Please see me review on Amazon.