This is the story of a family and their animal companions for thirty years. It 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. The answer he finds, does not come through attempting to produce exact replicas of them through inbreeding, as professional breeders often do and which he sees as a form of genetic death, but in their embodiment of spirit over mortality. It is through the window of their brief lives that we glimpse eternity.

To speak of the spirit of the eternal for Chase is not to ignore the matter of the Earth itself, of land and the bonds forged between man and dog over thousands of years. Chase sees the threat to dogs and people in terms of the decline and in some cases the utter defeat of rural life as such. The rise of social forces supporting unbridled urbanization, and of dog breeders who see dogs as creatures to be judged by conformation rather than ability are dealt with frankly. At a time when dog “breeding” increasingly follows the whims of fashion, with attendant threats to the future of dogs, the work of Alston Chase is of major concern.

This book is an eloquent tribute to the dogs we love, and a reflection on mortality, the limitations of life, and the final triumph of the spirit. Rich in poetic citations, it can be read as an environmental cri de coeur, as a naturalistic appreciation of a world slowly dissolving, or as a deeply religious reminder that even if individual peoples and dogs perish, the idea of immortality does not. And that lesson, which dogs teach us daily makes this book special to read and moving to feel.

Alston Chase has written widely on natural history, the environment, and animal welfare issues. He holds degrees from Harvard, Oxford, and Princeton universities. In addition to his fiction writing, he has written well-received analytical books including Playing God in Yellowstone: The Destruction of America’s First National Park, In a Dark Wood: The Fight over Forests and the Myths of Nature, and Harvard and the Unabomber. He lives with his wife in Paradise Valley, Montana.

“[An] altogether engrossing book – a wonderful book – exceedingly well written and, for me, more powerful than any of the other excellent books of yours that I have read.”
-- Robert H. Greenwood, The Greenwood Company

"We Give our Hearts to Dogs to Tear is more than a memoir about small dogs in Big Sky country, however; it is a book about an adventurous life, an intrepid wife, and the passing of the baton from a generation to another. What lasts? Chase' surprising answer is a simple one: Nothing loved is ever lost." -- Patrick Burns, author of American Working Terriers

"[Alston Chase] may have written one of the great dog books of our time. "Hearts" is simultaneously a memoir of his decades spent in Paradise Valley, where, before the movie stars arrived, making a phone call could be a three-day affair, and a well-informed rumination on wilderness land use. Mathematician, philosopher, outdoorsman, and amateur economist, Chase addresses many difficult subjects here, in a direct, yes, Thoreauvian prose style. In a chapter titled 'The Soul of a Dog,' he asks, 'Was not the immortality of dogs at least a possibility?' If you care about the answer to that question, read this book." -- Alex Beam, The International Herald Tribune

"This may well be the most beautiful and richest book abut dogs ever penned." -- Richard S. Wheeler, Winner, Owen Wister Lifetime Achievement Award for Literature

"If you haven't read it, get yourself a copy of Alston Chase, We Give Our Hearts to Dogs to Tear: Intimations of their Immortality (Transaction Publishers, 2008). You will laugh, you will cry, and you'll remember again why you gave your heart to JRs. This book's a keeper!" -- Joseph Harvill, Great Scots Magazine

"W. H. Auden once remarked that an important book is one that reads us, not the reverse. In this sense I was read by Alston Chase’s, We Give Our Hearts to Dogs to Tear, for I discovered myself in its pages and my own footprints in his journey. "
--Joseph Harvill, Great Scots Magazine Read the whole review here.

"We Give our Hearts to Dogs to Tear is a fantastic piece of work. I could not put it down. I pray and hope that many will read this wonderful book to understand better the true character of our terriers, and what is happening to our environment."
-- Ailsa Crawford, Founder and President Emeritus, the Jack Russell Terrier Club of America

“We Give our Hearts to Dogs to Tear is a poignant, wise account of dogs, men, the land they inhabit which inhabits them.”
-- Donald McCaig, author of Nop's Trials, Jacob's Ladder & Rhett Butler's People

"We Give our Hearts to Dogs to Tear, the story of Alston and Diana Chase's thirty year adventure with successive generations of Jack Russell terriers in Montana, is a thinking person's dog book. Funny, sad, charming and profound, it will resonate with anyone who has ever loved and lost a dog."
-- Tim Cahill, author of Jaguars Ripped My Flesh, Lost in my Own Backyard and Hold the Enlightenment

“The author is Alston Chase, one of the more interesting and reflective writers about nature and the wilderness...I really like his book….Among the delights of the book are the snippets of poetry and prose Alston has used as chapter epigraphs.”
--John Derbyshire, National Review Online

"Like the Jack Russell terriers who animate its pages, this book will steal your heart, tear it up--and somehow manage to mend it, too." -- Sy Montgomery, author of The Good Good Pig