From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1998:

Cats For Dummies
by Gina Spadafori
and Paul D. Pion
IDG Books Worldwide
(919 E. Hillsdale Blvd., Suite 400,
Foster City, CA 94404), 1997.
360 pages, paperback, $19.99.

“Care killed a cat,” Shakespeare
warns us in Much Ado About Nothing. The
best way to avoid that dire fate is to learn
proper cat care, and an excellent starting
place would be this latest entry in the For
Dummies series.
The 22 chapters of this user-friendly
textbook should be required reading for
would-be cat companions. A veterinarian,
Paul D. Pion, has joined syndicated pet care
columnist Gina Spadafori, the author of
Dogs For Dummies, to educate the curious
about the pleasures and problems inherent in
caring for a cat. For example, what you
might assume to be the opening section––
”Choosing Your Feline Companion”––does
not appear until Chapter Four, following a
cat-alogue of sensible advice about the kind
of cat to choose. My favorite section, however,
lists the top ten cat myths, including
“Cats need to drink milk,” and systematically
debunks every one of them.

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1998:

Goodbye, Friend
Healing wisdom for anyone
who has ever lost a pet
by Gary Kowalski
Stillpoint Publishing
(POB 640, Walpole, NH 03608), 1997.
159 pages, paperback, $11.95.

Gary Kowalski, a Unitarian minister,
advises acknowledging the death of a pet
much as one would the death of any other
family member. Services, including eulogies
tailored to the individual comfort level, are
recommended as part of grieving.
The topic of children dealing with a
pet’s death is covered. Significance is given
to even the smallest of companions, as the
author describes his own children’s year-long
series of memorials for a goldfish who had
lived a very short life. He gives advice to
calm children’s fear of death, and on how to
allow children to cope on their own level.

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1998:

The Compassion
of Animals:
True Stories of Animal
Courage and Kindness
by Kristin von Kreisler
Prima Publishing (POB 1260, Rocklin,
CA 95677-1260), 1997.
257 pages, hardcover. $22.95.

On December 28, 1997, in Marion
County, Arkansas, mongrel named Scotty
found Misty Harger, age 12, who was lost in
the woods, and kept her warm until police
found her 22 hours later.
That evening, in Chicago, a yearold
Belgian shepherd named Missy leaped in
front of a car to push Dashun McMiller, six,
to safety, at cost of her own life.

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1997:

Molly
by Joseph S. Bonsall
Illustrated by
Erin Marie Mauterer
Ideals Children’s Books (1501 County
Hospital Road, Nashville, TN 37218),
1997. 32 pages, hardcover, $14.95

Country singer Joe Bonsall of the
Oak Ridge Boys ought to set Molly to music.
Dedicated “To my lovely wife Mary, who
taught me all about cats and their love,” it’s
a beautifully produced but quite conventional
story of how a kitten finds a home. There are
lots of similar children’s stories, but so far
nothing like it on country radio stations, to
tell cowboys and truckers that it’s okay to
love cats as well as dogs, diesel, and departed
women. Taken to the right audience in the
right medium, this sort of thing could even
start folks to rethinking rodeo and eating
meat––especially if Bonsall’s projected Molly
series were to include an item about the waif
kitten making friends with a steer.

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1997:

Dogs Never Lie About Love:
Reflections on the
Emotional World of Dogs
by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson
Crown Publishing Group (201 E. 50th St.,
New York, NY 10022), 1997.
304 pages, hardcover, $24.00.

Pyschologist Jeffrey Masson,
through largely anecdotal evidence, assures us
here that dogs have complex emotional lives.
One need only observe any canine species for
a while to be convinced of that. Anyone who
has had a dog has experienced, for instance, a
dog’s unmitigated delight when “the master”
comes home at the end of the day—or just
ducks back in to retrieve some forgotten item.
It’s all the same to the pooch—you’ve been
gone forever, and is he glad to see you again!
Not that this isn’t an interesting
book. Dog lovers will read it wreathed in
smiles as they identify with one situation after
another. Those who haven’t had the pleasure
of sharing their lives with dogs may decide to
give it a try. The book is irresistible that way,
recounting stories and observations of canine
owners and trainers from the world over.

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1997:

Mrs. Chippy’s Last Expedition:
The Remarkable Journal of Shackleton’s Polar-Bound Cat
by Caroline Alexander
Harper Collins Publishers (10 East 53rd St., New York, NY 10022-5299), 1997.
148 pages, hardcover, $16.00.

Read with clear eyes, the saga of
Antarctic exploration is––like most sagas––a
dismal record of vanity, cruelty, stupidity and
greed, whose protagonists exhibit heroic
attributes chiefly after their own foolishness
puts them in peril of their lives.

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