In the Company of Newfies is a visionary book filled with stunning insights that teach us much about the profound bond between human and dog, about the almost limitless possibilities in our relations. Refusing to limit herself to standard animal-behavior explanations (sex and food, fight or flight), Lerman examines the actions of her dogs from a less deterministic points of view, always seeking to understand and to communicate with them. Under her gaze, actions that seemed puzzling, eccentric, or delinquent suddenly become understandable as intentional and meaningful attempts to behave and to bond. Lerman's observations and meditations startle us, revealing dog thinking and behavior in new and wonderful ways. Reading her book, it is hard to deny her belief that dogs want to commune with people, want to leave their feral selves and join our human community.A year in the life of Lerman's Newfies is a year of many victories and some losses, and it is through both that we experience the full sweep of the emotions dogs and humans share. By book's end, we will have laughed at the antics of the irrepressible Toby; admired the quiet strength and intelligence of the mother, Molly; delighted in the growing maturity of the pups Rosie and Silky; cheered as Ishtar takes her first championship ribbon; and wept for the death of Ben, the original backyard dog.We will have learned a great deal about Newfies in particular and dogs in general. We will have learned even more about love. Perhaps only a novelist of Rhoda Lerman's skill and sensitivity could have ranged so freely to tell us so much. Read Less