Less Space Chronicles and More Andy Please!

I've been trying to squeeze in a chapter of Neil deGrasse Tyson's Space Chronicles here and there. Andy would prefer I direct 100% of my attention his way, 100% of the time. He's like, "Who cares about NASA, space exploration, pondering the existence of life on other planets, or worrying about the possibility of asteroids blasting us to kingdom come. RUB MY BELLY!"

Recent Reads | Winners and Losers

I started reading Dog Sense by John Bradshaw about a month ago. The tagline for the book is, "How the New Science of Dog Behavior Can Make You A Better Friend to Your Pet." What dog owner doesn't want to be a better friend to their pup? I know I want Andy and I to be best buds. Unfortunately I had a really hard time getting into the book and after a month of picking it up and putting it down I decided it just wasn't engaging enough to keep at it. I might give it another chance sometime in the future.

I'm normally a voracious reader of fiction but this summer I've been dabbling with more non-fiction. I'm currently reading a book called Sex, Drugs and Sea Slime by Ellen Prager. I've always been a nature nut so this book about some of the more curious inhabitants of the sea is right up my alley. Prager writes casually about the life cycles and often bizarre reproductive processes of creatures like the hagfish, the Portuguese man of war, sea slugs, and parrotfish. Throughout the book she also talks about the vast commercial, medicinal, and biotechnological resources of the ocean and various conservation issues. Other entertaining reads along this line I reccomend are Wicked Bugs: The Louse That Conquered Napoleon's Army & Other Diabolical Insects by Amy Stewart and Dr. Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation: The Definitive Guide to the Evolutionary Biology of Sex by Olivia Judson.

Jeff Wells | All My Patients Have Tales

All My Patients Have Tales
Favorite Stories From a Vet's Practice

By Jeff Wells

226 pp. St. Martin's Press. $24.95

I loved James Herriot's All Creatures Great and Small as a child and have been a sucker for personal anecdotes about animals and pet ownership ever since. For the most part literature in this genre is fluff - it's warm, fuzzy, and mindless reading. I think most people would agree though that a little fluff now and then is a good thing. 

All My Patients Have Tales is written in the spirit of James Herriot, filled with unexpected encounters and curious patients; though it falls short of the spirit embodied by Herriot's prose. Wells starts as a greenhorn straight out of vet school and takes the reader through his early years of practice. By the end of the book he's a well seasoned pro, having learned how to handle not only challenging patients and problems but their owners as well.  I appreciate that Wells shares tales about dogs and cats but also includes ones about non-domestic animals. The book is a fast read, filled with lighthearted humor, moments of trial and triumph, and even a little potty humor. The stories are brief, making this a good non-committal pick-up and put-down sort of book or a fast weekend read.

Literary Aspirations

Straight from the mind of a pup. Andy is writing the next great book on canine cognition. A not-so-good book on feline fantasies will follow.

C.S. Lewis

Alexandra Horowitz | Inside of a Dog

Inside of a Dog
What Dogs See, Smell, and Know

By Alexander Horowitz
353 pp. Scribner. $27

It seems to me, until dogs open their mouths and communicate with humans in a language we can understand, much of what is written about the dog's mind is theoretical. Can we ever really know what a dog is thinking or why they do the things they do? That being said I still enjoy reading books about dog behavior and cognition and Alexandra Horowitz's book is interesting because she asks the reader to step away from the all too common practice of anthropomorphizing dogs, and instead, experience the world as a dog might by understanding their umwelt, or "self-world." In order to do this we have to recognize that dog's have vastly different sensory organs (eyes, nose, ears) than our own. These differences mean dogs perceive, and therefore experience, the world in a very different way. 

Dog Memoirs

I heard a story on NPR's Morning Edition the other day on recently published dog memoirs. One of the show's reporters, Julie Rovner, worked her way through a stack of books all having to do with how dogs transform their owner's lives. The books reviewed by Rovner touch upon various aspects of dog ownership: adopting a new breed, adopting a dog through a breed specific rescue group, the story of an Iraq vet and the bond he shares with his golden retriever, another about the business of pure breed dogs and dog shows, and lastly, Jon Katz's book, Going Home: Finding Peace When Pets Die.

Of all the books reviewed I'd like to read the one by Jon Katz sometime in the near future. Katz is a journalist who has also published a number of books about the dogs in his life and the small farm he runs in upstate New York. I read his book, Soul of a Dog, last year and found his writing to be thoughtful and engaging. Having experienced the loss of a pet earlier this year I'm interested to see what Katz has to share in his most recent book. I like reading his blog now and then. He's very open and honest about the ups and downs of farm ownership and life in general. Oh, and his photos are gorgeous!