OBITUARIES

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1996:

Juliet Prowse, 59, died of pancreatic
cancer on September 14. An accomplished
classical ballet dancer in Europe, her
first movie in the U.S., Can Can, (1960) with
Frank Sinatra and Shirley MacLaine, thrust
her into stardom. Over the years, Prowse
appeared in many films, TV shows, and
musicals. Her last stage appearance was in a
west coast theatrical production of the musical
comedy Mame, costarring Gretchen Wyler.
Prowse shared her Los Angeles
home with three dogs and two cats, all
foundlings. During a recent nightclub appearance
as the star of Sugar Baby, she insisted
that special housing be constructed around a
window for the live doves used in the show,
so they might receive light and fresh air.
Outspoken about the treatment of
captive wildlife and the Atlantic Canada seal
hunt, Prowse was for the past two years a
celebrity presenter at the Ark Trust’s Genesis
Awards ceremony. The Genesis Awards
honor individuals in the major media who have
raised public consciousness on animal issues.
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BOOKS: The Doctors Book of Home Remedies for Dogs and Cats

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1996:

The Doctors Book of Home Remedies for Dogs and Cats:
over 1,000 solutions to your pet’s problems
by the editors of Prevention Magazine Health Books. Rodale Press Inc.
(18 Minor St., Emmaus, PA 18098), 404 pages, $27.95, hardback.

The best part of this handy how-to
is that the panel of advisors responsible for
the advice under each heading are identified
by name and either institutional affiliation or
place of business. The advisors are diverse,
as are their recommendations, and as many
experts may have contributed (I didn’t
count) as there are tips offered. Both the
table of contents and the index are comprehensive;

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BOOKS: Dog Love

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1996:

Dog Love
by Marjorie Garber
Simon & Schuster (1230 Avenue of the Americas,
New York, NY 10020), 1996. 346 pp., $24, hardback.

Marjorie Garber, director of the Center for Literary
and Cultural Studies at Harvard, is perhaps best known for two
groundbreaking scholarly works on what used to be called
abnormal sexuality––Vice Versa: Bisexuality and the Eroticism
of Everyday Life and Vested Interests: Cross-Dressing and
Cultural Anxiety. Both challenged readers to rethink perceptions
of just what “normal” means.
Not surprisingly, Garber is at her best in Dog Love
when discussing the sexual aspects of dog-keeping, both overt
and covert, normal and aberant, from sexual self-identification
with the dog, a common factor in male reluctance to neuter
dogs, to active sexual involvement with dogs. Her discussion
is frank without being smarmy, she cites verifiable sources,
and would seem credible but for two points.

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BOOKS: Dogs For Dummies

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1996:

Dogs For Dummies
by Gina Spadafori
IDG Books (919 E. Hillsdale Blvd., Suite 400, Foster
City, CA 94404), 1996. $19.99, 384 pages, paper.

Gina Spadafori, who occasionally writes for ANIMAL
PEOPLE, is better known as America’s most respected
pet columnist, syndicated by major metropolitan newspapers
across the U.S. and by America OnLine. Spadafori’s day
job as real estate editor for the Sacramento Bee conditions her
to get the facts first, while the challenge of writing interestingly
on a daily basis about a subject as mundane as real
estate has taught her how to write how-to without inducing
quick sleep.

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BOOKS: Choosing & Caring For a Shelter Dog & Dog Tales From the Heart

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1996:

Choosing & Caring
For a Shelter Dog:
A Complete Guide to Help You
Rescue & Rehome a Dog
by Bob Christiansen
Canine Learning Center (POB 10515, Napa, CA
94581), 1996, 190 pages, $12.00, paperback.

Dog Tales
From the Heart
edited by Sue A. Hershkowitz
High Impact Publications (Scottsdale, AZ 85254)
1995. 208 pages, $9.95, paperback.

If you’ve ever wondered how a publisher sets its
price for a book, Bob Christiansen’s Choosing & Caring for
a Shelter Dog will keep the trade secret a mystery. Just shy
of 200 pages, Choosing fits more into one compact volume
than you would expect. Every aspect of living with a dog is
noted, including much information not found elsewhere.

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BOOKS: Two Perfectly Marvelous Cats

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1996:

Two Perfectly Marvelous Cats
by Rosamond M. Young
J.N. Townsend (12 Greenleaf Drive, Exeter, NH
03833), 1996. 176 pages, $20.00, hardback.

Faith, the first cat in these two stories, is a “perfectly
marvelous cat,” but the rector who cherished her is an utterly
dreamy dish. Are there, were there, anywhere such men? He
wanted to understand his cat, to allow her independence as
well as protection. From her first entry, uninvited, off the
street, he accorded her full equality with any of God’s creatures,
and respected her as the wonderful work a cat is. He
drew from his prayer book to create a touching and beautiful
funeral service for Faith. In his unabashed tenderness toward
his little cat, he sets an example of the truly religious. Faith,
on the other hand, while showing indubitable courage in saving
her kitten from peril, is simply being a typical cat mother.

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BOOKS: The Great Antler Auction

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1996:

The Great Antler Auction
by Susan E. Goodman, with photos by
Michael J. Doolittle.
Atheneum Books (1230 Avenue of the Americas,
New York, NY 10020), 1996.
40 pages, $16.00, hardcover.

Apparently aimed at the school library market, containing
more facts and figures than story line, The Great
Antler Auction describes how the Boy Scouts of Jackson’s
Hole, Wyoming, have since 1968 maintained a monopoly on
collecting the antlers shed each year by the 7,500 elk within
the 25,000-acre National Elk Refuge. The Scouts sell the
antlers at auction, then use the proceeds to feed the elk over
the winter. The herd has predictably grown well beyond the
winter carrying capacity of the refuge. The conclusion asks
whether the Scouts should let elk starve, or encourage more

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BOOKS: Sweet Magnolia

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1996:

Sweet Magnolia
by Virginia Kroll, illustrated by
Laura Jacques.
Charlesbridge Publishing (85 Main Street, Watertown,
MA 02172-4411), 1995. $6.95, paperback.

As ANIMAL PEOPLE pointed out at length in our
January/February 1993 edition, people of color have been
substantially and actively involved in the hands-on aspects of
the humane movement for as long as there has been a humane
movement, and have done much humane educating, too, but
no one would ever know it from the visible face of the cause.

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BOOKS: Gifts That Save The Animals

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1996:

Gifts That Save The Animals:
1001 great gifts sold by nonprofits
that protect animals, by Ellen Berry.
Foxglove Publishing (POB 292500, Dayton, OH
45429), 1995. $9.95, 410 pages, paperback.

Currently a substantial purse-sized paperback,
Gifts That Save The Animals could and should be expanded
into a lavishly illustrated catalog, supported by full-color ads
from the many animal-related charities whose fundraising
merchandise author Ellen Berry describes. Any organization
that wouldn’t advertise just doesn’t understand merchandising.
If it had attractive illustrations and order blanks to help,
I might do most of my holiday shopping with this volume in
hand; since it doesn’t, I’ll probably turn to catalogs from
for-profit mail-order stores instead.

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