From the author of the classic book, Playing God in Yellowstone, comes a rare book about the relationship of dogs, people, and the land they inhabit. Alston Chase tells a deeply personal and exceptionally moving story of his relationship with his animal companions over a period of thirty years. The title of the book was inspired by the words of Rudyard Kipling: "When we are certain of sorrow in store/ Why do we always arrange for more/ Brothers and sisters, I bid you beware/ Of giving your heart to a dog to tear."


The book is at one level about the Jack Russell terriers Ifrit, Bungee, and their own friends as well as the people who nominally owned them and other dogs as well. Alston Chase tells of his search for the immortality of dogs, what makes them special, and why we willingly give them our hearts knowing that someday they'll die and leave us bereft.


Chase's connection to his dogs is strong as the pull of the land that he loves. He writes of both, and the spirits of both, as "inseparable ghosts." To Chase, land is a community of living things that is born and eventually dies, like dogs and people - but their spirits live on.


Rich in poetic citations, We Give Our Hearts to Dogs to Tear presents a deeply moving belief that though people and dogs may perish and the land may change beneath one's feet, the essence of each individual soul is immortal.