Merle's Door by Ted Kerasote

ISBN:9780156034500

About the book:
Now including a wonderful new photo insert chronicling Merles life,
this national bestseller explores the relationship between humans and
dogs. How would dogs live if they were free? Would they stay with their
human friends?
Merle and Ted found each other in the Utah desert Merle was living
wild and Ted was looking for a pup to keep him company. As their bond
grew, Ted taught Merle how to live around wildlife, and Merle taught
Ted about the benefits of letting a dog make his own decisions.
Using the latest in wolf research and exploring issues of animal
consciousness and leadership and the origins of the human-dog
relationship, Ted Kerasote takes us on the journey he and Merle shared.
As much a love story as a story of independence and partnership, Merles Door is tender, funny,
and ultimately illuminating.
About the author:
TED KERASOTEs writing has appeared in more than fifty periodicals, including Audubon,
National Geographic Traveler, Outside, Field & Stream, Salon, and the New York Times. His
most recent book, Out There: In the Wild in a Wired Age, won the National Outdoor Book
Award. He lives in Wyoming.
Discussion Questions:
Click here to download the reading guide for Merles Door.
1. Discuss the books epigraph, regarding the effects of captivity on a wild animal. Do Jeffrey
Moussaieff Massons words apply to the lives of pets you have known? To your life? To what
extent do you live on a leash?
2. In the initial meeting between Merle and Ted, Merle conveys to Ted, You need a dog, and
Im it. Ideally, what guides the selection of a pet? Is the process very different from the
experience of searching for compatible human companionship?
3. Discuss Teds attempts to communicate with Merle, and vice versa. What kind of language do
they develop between them? How do they avoid the difficulties so often encountered when
animals and humans try to explain themselves to one another?
4. What were the most surprising facts you discovered about canine physiology and evolution?
What are the greatest limitations of being a domesticated dog, or a domesticated human? How
can we best rekindle our remarkable but often unutilized capabilities, as perfume makers do with
their heightened olfactory capabilities?
5. Chapter eight is devoted to Gray Cat. What distinctions between cats and dogs become clear in
that chapter? What made Gray Cat and Merle surprisingly compatible? In what ways did Brower
also complete Merles circle?
6. Discuss the landscape of the Rockies as a character in Merles Door. How does the
breathtaking scenery in Teds memoir create a meaningful backdrop for the way Merles story
unfolds?
7. How does Teds approach to hunting compare to that of other hunters you have known or
heard about? Did he change your perception sustenance and the way humans distinguish between
their wants and their needs? Would you be content leading a more rural, self-sustaining
existence?
8. How did you react to Teds observations regarding alpha dogs and the general concept of
power and dominance in the animal world? Is Chamonix, described in A Looser Leash, an
unattainable utopia? Do behaviorists such as B. F. Skinner offer good solutions, or do they
contribute to the problem? In what ways is the process of training a dog similar to promoting
good behavior in a child?
9. When Ted describes his opinion of Merles sterilization, he reverses decades of conventional
wisdom. How well had you previously understood the process of spaying or neutering a pet?
What does the popularity of current procedures indicate about widespread attitudes toward pet
care in America?
10. What do quotations from philosophers such as Ren Descartes and references to gruesome
vivisections tell us about the history of humanitys approach to animals? How do you personally
resolve such questions as whether nonhuman animals have souls?
11. The author describes several romantic interludes that did not last as long as he had hoped.
What sometimes prevents dating and marriage from unfolding as smoothly as forging a bond
with a favorite pet?
12. What might Merles Door have been like if Merle had been the author, interpreting Teds
actions from a dogs point of view?
13. Compare the end-of-life care Merle and Brower received to the care humans receive. Have
you been in a situation that could have been gracefully resolved by applying Bernard
Hershhorns criteria, described in Through the Door? Should distinctions be made between the
rituals, medical treatments, and euthanasia procedures we apply to pets and those we apply to
humans?
14. By the end of the book, what lessons did you learn from Merle? What enabled him to become
more freethinking than many other dogs?
15. Discuss the title and its many meanings throughout the book. What did Merles door come to
signify for Ted and for Merle? What are the most significant passages Merle encountered
throughout his life, and what gave him the wisdom (and the freedom) to navigate them safely?
Where do you imagine he went when he passed through his final portal?