BOOKS: It’s a Grand Life

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2010:
(Actual press date November 3.)
 
It’s a Grand Life by Barry Tuddenham
Cats Anonymous Rescue & Adoption
(R.R. #3, Orton, Ontario L0N 1N0, Canada), 2008. Paperback, $12.00.
 
Published as a fundraiser for Cats Anonymous Rescue &
Adoption, It’s a Grand Life is a grand collection of photographs
and stories about animals who live on the banks of the Grand River in
Ontario, one of three Grand Rivers that drain into the Great Lakes.
Author/photographer Barry Tuddenham never actually specifies
which Grand River his work documents, but the wildlife of all three
Grand Rivers overlap.

A robin pictured on a branch munching berries is stunning.
“The robin is usually the first bird to sing in the morning, the
last to sing at night,” says Tuddenham.
Tuddenham recently sold his stone house overlooking the Grand
River, after observing and photographing three decades of ecological
change. “If you had said that I would watch eagles fighting over the
Grand River I would have laughed. Now they appear every year,”
Tuddenham writes.
A few domestic animals share Tuddenham’s stunning array of
wildlife photos, including a big hairy dog named Baby who enjoys a
splash in the Grand River on a hot summer day. Baby had a good life
with Tuddenham, but age finally caught up to him. Tuddenham
describes Baby as “loving, gentle and intelligent.”
Baby was also lucky to live with a caring human.
–Debra J. White