From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2006:

Cousin John: The Story of a Boy
& a Small Smart Pig by Walter Paine
Bunker Hill Publishing (285 River Road,
Piermont, NH 03779), 2006. 95 pages,
paperback. $17.95.

Raised in Brookline, Massachusetts,
Walter Paine found the outdoors and nature an
endless source of interest. He was far happier
roaming the open acres he called “my magic
kingdom’” because of the many fascinating
creatures he found there, than he was playing
with school friends. He had difficulty relating
to other boys his age because he was far more
interested in picking up bugs and inspecting
anything that crawled or flew than in playing
conventional games.
Paine did once try hunting, shooting a
squirrel out of a tree with a BB gun. “As it lay
twitching pathetically at my feet, I felt a
sudden surge of shame and sorrow for taking an
innocent creature’s life,” he writes.

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2006:

First Light:
Animal Voices in Concert
by Ardeth DeVries
Publishing Works (c/o Revolution Booksellers,
60 Winter St., Exeter, NH 03833), October 2006
186 pages, paperback. $15.00.

First Light is a collection of short stories about dogs and
an African elephant named Sonny, who was orphaned by herd-culling in
Zimbabwe circa 1980, was sold to a zoo in New Mexico, was
eventually deemed incorrigible, and was sent to the Popcorn Park
Zoo, a rescue facility run by the Associated Humane Societies of New
Jersey, in 1989. He died in early 2001.
The stories are told largely through the mouths of the
animals themselves, including Zippy, a little terrier who rescues
birds and finds time to teach inter-species communication, and
Angus, a blind shelter dog whose caring guardian was able to give
him the gift of sight. Angus lives with author Ardeth DeVries and
joins DeVries at benefits for animal charities near their home in
Coupevlle, Wasington.

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