WINNER OF THE NATIONAL OUTDOOR BOOK AWARD A moving, insightful love story about the vast possiblities of the relationship between humans and dogs. While on a camping trip, Ted Kerasote meets a Labrador mix living on his own in the wild. They become attached to each other, and Kerasote decides to bring the dog, who he names Merle, home. There, after realizing that Merle’s native intelligence would be diminished by living exclusively in the human world, he installs a dog door in his house, allowing Merle to live both outside and in. Merle shows Kerasote how dogs might live if they were allowed to make more of their own decisions, and Kerasote suggests how these lessons can be applied universally, bringing to bear the latest research into animal consciousness and behavior, as well as insights into the origins and evolution of the human-dog partnership. A deeply touching portrait of a remarkable dog and his relationship with the author, Merle’s Door explores the issues that all animals and their human companions face as their lives intertwine. PRAISE FOR BLOODTIES "The world is lucky to have this book."―ELIZABETH MARSHALL THOMAS, author of THE HIDDEN LIFE OF DOGS PRAISE FOR OUT THERE "[A] sly, funny, and wise look at the world beyond the walls that we erect to keep ourselves safe from the wilderness and to keep the wilderness safe from us."―ALEXANDRA FULLER, author of DON’T LET’S GO TO THE DOGS TONIGHT "Anyone who ever loved a dog will find something to enjoy in Merle's Door ."-- The Christian Science Monitor   Merle and Ted found each other in the Utah desert?Merle living wild and Ted looking for a pup to shape into a companion. But the training went both ways.Ted taught Merle how to live around wildlife and Merle taught Ted that a dog grows more intelligent when allowed to make his own decisions.Their journey is part buddy adventure, part love story, and part insightful explanation of how sharing leadership with your dog will make him a better best friend.   " Merle’s Door is a window into the mind of a dog. You will experience his loyalty, fears, and joys and his true inner self. Everybody who loves dogs must read this book."?Temple Grandin, author of Animals In Translation " Merle's Door  is a compelling, insightful and tender story that opens new doors into the understanding of the nature of dogs."-- Bark Magazine   TED KERASOTE ’s 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. Visit www.MerlesDoor.com . TED KERASOTE is the author of several books, including the national bestseller Merle’s Door: Lessons from a Freethinking Dog and Out There , which won the National Outdoor Book Award. His essays and photographs have appeared in Audubon, Geo, Outside, Science, the New York Times, and more than sixty other periodicals. He lives in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. chapter 1 From the Wild   He came out of the night, appearing suddenly in my headlights, a big, golden dog, panting, his front paws tapping the ground in an anxious little dance. Behind him, tall cottonwoods in their April bloom. Behind the grove, the San Juan River, moving quickly, dark and swollen with spring melt.            It was nearly midnight, and we were looking for a place to throw down our sleeping bags before starting our river trip in the morning. Next to me in the cab of the pickup sat Benj Sinclair, at his feet a midden of road-food wrappers smeared with the scent of corn dogs, onion rings, and burritos. Round-cheeked, Buddha-bellied, thirty-nine years old, Benj had spent his early years in the Peace Corps, in West Africa, and had developed a stomach that could digest anything. Behind him in the jump seat was Kim Reynolds, an Outward Bound instructor from Colorado known for her grace in a kayak and her long braid of brunette hair, which held the faint odor of a healthy, thirty-two-year-old woman who had sweated in the desert and hadn't used deodorant. Like Benj and me, she had eaten a dinner of pizza in Moab, Utah, a hundred miles up the road where we'd met her. Like us, she gave off the scents of garlic, onions, tomato sauce, basil, oregano, and anchovies.            In the car that pulled up next to us were Pam Weiss and Bennett Austin. They had driven from Jackson Hole, Wyoming, to Moab in their own car, helped us rig the raft and shop for supplies, joined us for pizza, and, like us, wore neither perfume nor cologne. Pam was thirty-six, an Olympic ski racer, and Bennett, twenty-five, was trying to keep up with her. They had recently fallen in love and exuded a mixture of endorphins and pheromones.            People almost never describe other people in these terms'noting first their smells'for we're primarily visual creatures and rely on our eyes for information. By contrast,