No comments about Angel Dogs with a Mission: Divine Messengers in Service to All Life.

5 comments about Saying Good-Bye to the Pet You Love: A Complete Resource to Help You Heal.

1. I read the book but it didn't help me with the grieving of my pet. It is a good book to read if you aren't in the midst of recovery. There are good points as far as the ceremony but other than that it was nothing that I didn't already know.



2. Finally, a well written and very helpful book on grieving the loss of your pet. Dr. Greene shares a nice mix of pet owner stories and wonderful, proven exercises to help you move through your own emotions.
   
   Best of all, for us, was her suggestions on how to respond to others who may not share as strong a bond with pets. Her simple paper-pencil assessment helped us understand where we fell on the continuum from pets are animals to pets are family members. Our 14 year dog was definitely a family member to us!
   
   Her book provided us comfort, humor, and a sense of peace about not having to defend our grief over the loss of our dog. We highly recommend this book to anyone whose pet recently passed away, and to those with dogs and cats faced with the tough decision about putting their pet down at the vet due to a serious medical condition. Get it, read it, and allow yourself to celebrate your pet's life and its positive impact on you.



3. I found this book in a program that offers courses for R.N. continuing education. What a wonderful book! We have had many pets over the years. With three kids in the family, we've loved frogs, lizards, fish, cats, dogs and a horse. My horse is 25 yrs. old now and that's why this particular book caught my eye. I think it is very well thought out and written. I give thanks to Lorri Greene and Jacquelyn Landis for addressing the love that we have for our companions and how to help them-and us- to go on when their time comes. My daughter is in Vet school. I'm giving this to her. Good Book!



4. I got this book soon after I lost my 10-year-old Persian male soul mate, and it really helped me through a time of great sorrow. There are exercises to do that help you work through your grief and help you to understand your feelings. I highly recommend it for anyone dealing with the loss of a pet.



5. I ordered this book and waited for it eagerly, based on "Search Inside" reading I did on Amazon. I hoped the chapter devoted to guilt experienced by "animal guardians," as the author considerately calls pet owners, when euthanasia or an accident precipitates a pet's death would speak to me. Therefore I was surprised to find the book more clinical than inspirational. I also found it emotionally distant from its subject...which perhaps is to be expected, considering that it was written by a psychologist. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone suffering from deep grief over a lost pet.

5 comments about The Parrot Who Thought She Was a Dog.

1. This book is touching and wonderfully written. It gave me a deep understanding of exotic birds and a new respect for them. Wonderful gift. Amazing true story.



2. I have to agree with the other one-star reviews. As I read more and more of this book I became more horrified and angry. Whatever books she claimed to read were evidently published in the 1930s to judge by her treatment of her birds -- there's no such "macaw wasting disease" caused by not flying, for heaven's sake. When I read that the bird had been allowed to die (murdered) I threw the book down and couldn't finish it for several days. The author evidently didn't educate herself on anything regarding the welfare of parrots -- she simply took the word of the rescue person that the macaw couldn't be touched. Of course the macaw could have been touched -- IF the author had educated herself and worked at it and been patient. The macaw was bonded to her and probably was begging to be touched. But she didn't seem to care if she ever touched the macaw or not. And after losing (killing) two parrots she ran out and got another macaw, barely before the bodies were cool -- this time, of course, she got the deck screened in. Too bad she couldn't have thought that far ahead the first time. And now that I think about it, I don't believe she ever said she was sorry or that she regretted what she'd done or even admitted that she handled things very badly. I certainly won't go back to the book to check that out though. The title is false advertising -- there is only one small instance of the macaw playing tug o' war with a dog and a short rope. The book should have been titled How I Killed Two Parrots and Made a Killing Writing a Book About It. Please don't encourage people to buy this book; the author doesn't deserve it.



3. I fell in love with the central character of Sarah in this book, and I've rarely been as angry as I was when she died in such a senseless, unnecessary way. I kept wanting to go and save Sarah from what the inevitable. I am giving the book 2 stars because Ellis-Bell does do a good job of describing the wonders of macaw personality and makes you fall in love with Sarah. I have a blue and gold, a rescue, unclipped, and I was so excited to find a book with a blue and gold as a central character. Unfortunately, the ending devastated me for weeks, and I still tear up at what happened with Sarah.
   
   Guilt is a central theme in the book. Ellis-Bell feels guilty for Sarah's capture, for keeping her in a cage, for Sarah's screams (note to the uninitiated - screaming is NORMAL in a macaw and any parrot, it is loud, expect it and learn to live with some screaming), for Sarah not being able to be free, and for Sarah ruining the lives of her husband and other animals. Of course, Sarah doesn't ruin their lives on purpose, she's simply a macaw and one that's set free without guidelines or structure in her life.
   
   Misinformation is rife in the book, and it is, if anything, a guide to how not to keep a macaw. Some of this misinformation is further perpetuated by the owner of the sanctuary - for one thing, meat is fine for macaws in small amounts. I'm not impressed by her either - letting Ellis-Bell adopt a sick, special needs bird knowing she believes the bird should be free and can never be handled. Most of this misinformation has already been mentioned, but the biggest one of all was letting the bird out without any training or attempt to see if Sarah could have been handled. The macaw I adopted was considered vicious when we got her, but we've worked through that. She was also my first bird, but unlike Ellis-Bell, I did a ton of research and found some good people to help me. I have lost her outside overnight (ironically, when she was clipped), we found her very early the next morning, and because she could be handled, she climbed right down and onto my arm after a little coaxing. I can't help but think Sarah would have had a better chance had she been touchable. Also, the author is married to a contractor - why not build an aviary for Sarah so she could go outside while Ellis-Bell gardened? Also, why not put food in the trees so that Sarah could have some chance of surviving?
   
   Even with the dogs, Ellis-Bell interprets their actions on a human basis. She goes overboard with Sarah, thinking that what Sarah wants is freedom without any kind of structure, when what Sarah probably wanted (based on my own macaw) was to be with her human flock and be secure in that flock.
   
   The ending is just horrific, compounded by the idiotic loss of Zoey, and worst of all, before Sarah is even gone, she adopts another macaw, and then proceeds to compare him favorably to Sarah. You wonder then if Sarah's death affected her as much as it does her readers. It scares me that she has another macaw, in this case one that is known for behavioral issues and said to be perhaps the smartest of the macaws. I hope things go well for her new bird, but I have my doubts.
   
   Sarah was a wonderful bird; the author clearly has issues and problems, and it's horrible that her problems led to Sarah's death. If you want to read the book, I'd stop at page 189. The rest tells of Sarah's death in excruciating detail, and it's horrific.



4. The image that comes to my mind when I think about the woman who wrote this book is a manic woman living in a run-down trailer on a garbage strewn lot surrounded by more animals than she can care for. And certainly more animals than she can care for properly. Perhaps she is an animal hoarder, that is someone who believes that it is her mission to save or rescue animals and who believes that whatever treatment she provides is better than anything that anyone else could do.
   
   But she did a terrible job taking care of this bird and let it try to fend for itself in the chilly forests of Northern California. (SPOILER: the bird starved to death or died from exposure.) This macaw and the conure and something like 39 cats lost their lives as a result of her irresponsibility. She fed the birds inappropriate foods and gave the bird gin-and-tonics! She let the birds torment the dogs, she accumulated stray cats and then wrote off their lives. One wonders what sort of veterinary care any of these animals received. She repeatedly disregarded the advice of bona-fide bird rescuers. She gave the bird gin-and-tonics! (I had to repeat that. I just cannot believe that someone would do this.) All the while the phone is ringing, the birds are squawking, the dogs are cowering, the cats are being eaten by mountain lions, food and poop cover the floor of the trailer, old machinery rusts in the "garden", her husband has moved into his office....
   
   She imagined what these animals think, in fact the very title of the book demonstrates her tendency to anthropomorphosize. It's unlikely that the parrot thought she was a dog. It's unlikely that any of these animals had the thoughts (I'm a dog, I'm bad, I'm good, I'm clever) she claimed for them or felt the human emotions (jealously, longing, shame, sorrow due to injustice, remorse) she attributed to them. These are the classic characteristics of an animal hoarder: that she has some sort of special, perhaps innate, ability to understand what animals think and that animals possess some sort of special ability to always do what's best, to predict the future, to understand any situation, to understand the things she says to them.
   
   This woman is irresponsible at best, negligent probably, and perhaps mentally ill and, so, not fit to take care of this many animals, or any animals. The book is not well-written and it appears, from the comments of other reviewers, that some of the more technical facts are incorrect. The discussion of her sex life is gratuitous.
   
   Dr. Doolittle she is not. Someone should call animal control.



5. A bit of lucky serendipity brought me to "The Parrot Who Thought She Was a Dog." Ironically, I was looking for a book to help me train my moronic dog to hunt birds, but I found the ultimate bird book instead.
   
   The author has created something unique and wonderful here: a contemporary tale of interspecies civilization. Apparently, the Biblical imperative for people to rule the earth does not fully apply at Nancy Ellis-Bell's hill top retreat: dogs, cats, fish, wildlife -- even contractor husbands -- sort it out and learn to live and love together in close proximity. I would imagine that animal trainer purists might find it objectionable that the fine and regal macaw, Sarah, is allowed full and destructive reign over the household; I'm sure that is not tolerated in well appointed apartments and homes where macaws are something of a curious accessory. But I have no patience for that view. As a matter of fact, I own a ranch in Montana where a neighbor raises beautiful horses that are sold primarily for "lawn furniture" to wealthy folks in Jackson Hole. Nancy's bird Sarah is definitely no accessory or piece of moving animate furniture: she's alive, complicated, emotional, and fully engaged with Nancy on nearly every level. Not since reading the works of my former teacher Jane Goodall, who developed an epic relationship with the great apes in Africa and was thus able to look outside the scientific paradign and see the apes as fellow creatures, have I read anything quite so compelling as Nancy's book.
   
   The story builds to an Icarus conclusion that is sad, powerful, deeply human. Would the bird still be alive if she had kept it indoors? Perhaps. Then again, it would have lived for a long while with its wings taped to cardboard, as the poachers do who ship them out of the Amazon. But that's no life for a bird! Nancy tells a tale of living with a macaw as an equal. That is the great challenge for a world in a time of growing environmental crisis. Can we live with salmon, buffalo, migrating birds, bears -- macaws? Nancy has shown us the path with her one true bird and we should all learn from it. I loved this book.

1 comments about Dogs We Love: With Jane Smiley, Armistead Maupin, Ann Beattie, Edward Albee, and 14 Other Dog People.

1. This is a chunky, endearing, handsome book that's just confirms everything we most love about dogs. But these are MASTERS of prose here, as well as being "masters" of their family dogs. So just imagine the novelists and short story writers you love sharing stories of their own canine companions. Jane Smiley on her golden's insatiable fetching, Armistead Maupin on his dog's uncanny ability to interfere with anything romantic, Merrill Markoe on her small dog's undeniable love affair with her slipper. There's Danny Shanahan writing and illustrating a short guide on how to read your dog's behaviors. There's--well, there are sheep dogs, mixed bred wonders, Labs, bull dogs, unruly dogs, cockers, spaniels...and a pack of other dogs photographed in black and white by Robin Schwartz that make this book the perfect gift to give or keep. Plus the book's profits are part of Rosen's ongoing efforts to support animal welfare agencies.

5 comments about Walking Ollie: Or, Winning the Love of a Difficult Dog.

1. This was yet another clueless person gets out of control dog book. None of it was new, and other than the dog being a rarer mix it wasn't even that interesting. It was slightly more interesting that it was in the UK, but that just led to the author relating useless dog superstitions not based on fact from a different country than the norm.
   
   Anyone who habitually lets a saluki mix off the leash near roads without fences has a screw loose. Especially after the dog has shown that catching it is near impossible. Why would you keep letting it loose outside a fenced area? I had trouble believing anyone sensible would keep letting it loose.



2. This is a difficult read, although very interesting, as the author (Ollie's owner) kept demonstrating that he was not qualified to own a dog, let alone a very difficult dog. There were some very good insights (not usually intended as such!) into Ollie's behavior system.



3. I felt a little frustrated with this book. The author never found a way to help this poor creature. I kept waiting for Ollie to be happy... The end of the book was not really an end.



4. This is another dog rescue biography (I suppose the dog equivalent is caninography?) that has the novelty of being set in the UK and involving a particularly British combination - a saluki lurcher cross that one doesn't come across much in the U.S. Part of the book's interest, then, is that it discusses the whole getting a dog from a shelter and rehabilitating it in a Brit setting.
   
   Truthfully, there's not a great deal to interest one other than that in the content, because, plotwise, not much happens. The author principally relates his trials and troubles acquiring and then walking his dog. Though the author claims to be a pro writer, the book rambles. It doesn't have much structure. As for the characterization, the dog remains something of an enigma even to the book's relatively uneventful conclusion.
   
   The book has a few moments of entertainment and humor, but not many. A lot of it is taken up by this first time dog owner relating in a partially astounded, partially complaining tone about how his schedule has been disrupted by all this dog walking and pooper scooping. I suppose it's not a bad idea for a newbie owner to relate to the equally clueless the work involved in dog ownership.
   
   There's somewhat proportionally less of the book relating various fitful attempts to turn around this fearful dog. Ollie the dog fears most men, including his new owner. So the story is supposed to be how the dog slowly - very slowly - moves past that and what the author did or didn't do to make it happen.
   
   Part of my issue with the book was that the writing style mirrored the dogs equally unimpressive and fitful progress. And no particular sense went into getting the dog past his issues. It's pretty common in shelters to "office foster" a particularly shy dog, to get him used to people. But though the author works at home (a perfect setting for letting the dog learn to relax in your presence and look forward to frequently thrown treats) the dog stays on one floor, and the author on another, to which the owner periodically decends and invades into the dog's room to throw treats, with the result that the dog, instead of relaxing from a constant presence, gets even more nervy by the author popping in on him. And even in the 80s the Monks of New Skete talked about the advantages of having your dog sleep in your presense to get used to you and relax, and the benefits of binding or later, crate training. But none of this was done with Ollie. So he seems to make much slower progress than he might have. Keeping the dog with him, crating him at night (because the author relates his frustration that Ollie is not housetrained to last the night) would have perhaps brought Ollie around a lot quicker and eliminated at least half of the author's complaints about nighttime incontinence and that the dog grew no better or even more fearful of him during his pop in and throw treats schedule.
   
   The rest of the complaints deal with his frustrations in "walking Ollie". I couldn't help but wince every time the dog (running off leash close to traffic) comes in near contact with a car, or the repetitive tales of how the owner just lets the dog run wild to rough house with other dogs (whether the canine targets appreciate it or not). The author's disparaging comments re those owners that responsibly keep their dogs on leashes contrast with his frustration and despair over his attempts to recollar his dog at the end of these walks or just when he's attempting to prevent it from harassing humans (such as when it disrupts a riverbank full of men attempting to hold a fishing competition) or pull it off some other dog that may not appreciate its rough play. The reader quickly gets that the dog is impossible to control off leash. That the author hasn't attempted to gain control prior to taking him off leash. We come to understand that the author (as well as the dogs victims) find Ollie's off leash behavior very frustrating. But what is difficult to understand is why the author keeps letting him loose. The author claims he wants the dog to run free and play with his kind. I have to admit I'm not one to much appreciate the idea of the impotent owner and the out of control dog repeatedly (daily or more often) being inflicted upon the neighborhood. How about exhausting the dog jogging with it for an hour, and then keeping it on a flexilead until it you meet up with a fellow dog owner whose dog appreciates being slammed? It just seems like a little control or attempt at trying such would have gone some toward relieving the idea that the owner was pretty pretty irresonsible and somewhat of a neighborhood nuisance to boot.
   
   The author and his dog do find their way to eachother after predictable events unwind, and you are glad for them. They've been through enough to get there. And you're glad the author hung in there since he did find it all so frustrating. But both author and dog stumble around in such a clueless, anxious (both dog and human) and frustrating way to get to that reconcilation, that while you're glad of it, it seems like there would have been numerous ways to make it far more easier and far less stressful and dangerous for all involved. Of course, that would have eliminated half the content of the book.
   
   It's not a bad book. It's just not a great one. I didn't find it very heart warming nor inspiring. It's not amusing. Nor does it have any good advice or tips for the novice with a similarly troubled dog. You finish it with a sort of a nod - another rescue story: clueless owner, difficult dog made more difficult by clueless owner. It was more interesting for me due to the Brit background and the fact that it was a lurcher dog. We also had a rescue lurcher, another very difficult dog, whom we picked up off the I-95 with a dislocated hip after it was thrown out of a car. Like ollie, it had also been abused based on it's temperament -- a fear biter. He lived to the ripe age of 17, but like Ollie's owner, the journey wasn't all peaches and cream. One good thing about all these dogographies is the truism that misery loves company, and drives book sales. People who work with difficult dogs like to read they're not in it alone. And we're already interested in reading out how someone else did it, to pick up any tips, or laugh, or commiserate. This book was a little thin in some departments.
   
   In conclusion, rehabbing any difficult dog is no picnic. And while all such tales are essentially the same, they're also interesting to read for those who have interest in that activity, both for the circumstances and the dog portraints. For the general population, I'd gues there's not enough of a story here to make this worth the purchase.
   
   This book's main flaw to me was that the author's complaints through 3/4 of the book tend to be wearing even though you acknowledge he is doing pretty well to hang in there with Ollie. The ending is a happy one, though. With that, and points for the novelty of the setting and dog, and seeing how these things may be handled across the pond, I'll give it a (generous) three stars.



5. Yet another "My dog was unruly so I had to write a book about him" tome. The fad of writing books about unremarkable dogs acting like dogs is getting really old. This is standard stuff and not book-worthy.

5 comments about You Are a Dog: Life Through the Eyes of Man's Best Friend.

1. "You are a Dog" offers painfully funny, yet adroit, insight into dog-brain-logic (or relative lack thereof). Dogs really are man's best friend, and in Terry Bain they've found their voice.



2. Cute, clever, funny. Great bathroom reading. My dogs enjoy it when I read it to them.



3. YOU ARE A DOG: Life Through the Eyes of Man's Best Friend by Terry Bain is an entertaining romp with words as they might have been written by the family dog. Mr. Bain reveals to readers that the family dog is quite aware that you have many names for her; but more interesting is the dog's many names for the family members, names such as: He Who Leaves the Seat Up So That You Might Drink (it has been my experience with dogs that it is usually the male dog that drinks out of the toilet, not the female); He Who Smells of Garlic, Tastes of Salt, and Will Let You Lick His Feet (Grandpa?); She Who Does Not Allow Licking Ever (Mother-in-Law?); She Who Drops Food From Her Plate (and always has a diaper full), are but a few of these titles the family dog bestows on its family members.
   
   YOU ARE A DOG informs the reader of the dog's relationship with the household itself, including his relationship with the furniture, the sofa monopolizing much of the spotlight. Terry Bain speaks of the dog's ability to mimic human expressions, especially the smile, which the dog often uses to deflect a scolding when he has been caught sleeping on the sofa. (In my house, it is the love seat, which my Border collie, heeler, and Boxer mix mutt sleeps on every night. I need to share with you here, dear reader, that this mix of mutt is the nuttiest on four legs, sometimes two. Her name is Maggie Peppers; but as crazy as she is, she would never drink out of the toilet: However, the male cat does, every chance he gets.)
   
   Most significant of the household items to the family dog is the vacuum cleaner. While most all threats to the family members arrive from the outside in, the vacuum is already in the house, hiding in the closet, which is quite agitating to the family dog. She can smell the vacuum hiding in the hall closet, just waiting to burst, roaring, from its hiding place, intent on eating everyone and everything in its path. It is the dog's responsibility, therefore, to see to it this monster does not eat the kids, and that any food or nonfood items on the floor are eaten by the dog only. Hence, the vacuum is not only a danger to the family, but also a competitor for food, and must be destroyed, at all cost.
   
   Terry Bain writes humorously about Fido's perception of training, traveling, visits to the vet, health and hygiene, and even doggie politics. If you are a dog lover, you will love this book. Highly recommended.



4. Dogs are not JUST man's best friend. I think the title lacks... obviously. Ladies, if you are feeling a bit offended I would like to suggest reading: "Woman's Best Friend" By Barbara Cohen & Louise Taylor. Ever since I can remember dogs have always been referred to as "Man's Best Friend" so not true.



5. When I got this book for Christmas, I  thought I would treated to a sincere attempt to get inside the mind of my dog to view the world as he might. The jacket cover has this great picture of a deliously happy pup with his head out the car window. How many times haven't I tried to envision what a creature with a dog's sense of smell must be experiencing on our morning rides down to the town park.
   
   What I got, instead, was a series brief vignetts ranging from one paragraph to several pages in length. I have to say some were cute, but many were hard to finish. They were grouped into categories that really don't organize material in any meaningful way.
   
   Although you can certainly read 150 pages over a weekend, that approach doesn t work. But to be fair, the author might well have intended his readers to read one scenario each morning and to reflect on them throughout the day. That's an approach I can appreciate.
   
   Wasn't that what "Dogs Don't Bite When a Growl Will Do" by Matt Weinsteinand and Luke Barker was about?
   Let's put it this way, "It worked for them."

5 comments about We Give Our Hearts to Dogs to Tear: Intimations of their Immortality.

1. Alston Chase has discovered a way of involving his readers both emotionally and pragmatically with this book about Jack Russell terriers. His insights into our love of dogs and our propensity to try to control nature and the environment in which we live are thought provoking. It is refreshing to read about a family that embraces not only their natural surroundings but their own human nature, without the need to purify or "improve" them. Lovers of the Jack Russells will appreciate Mr. Chases' insights into their nature, but there is much more to receive from this book than simply a treatise on this determined little breed.



2. This modern-day Pioneer family gave up a secure life as a tenured college Professor of Philosophy to venture West to the sparsely populated state of Montana, complete with primative living conditions and harsh winters. By doing so, they connected with the land, their many dogs and themselves. While reading the book, I obtained a new meaning of my love for our little companions, and why we are so willing to expose ourselves to the sorrow we know we will suffer when their short lives are over. I highly recommend the book!



3. On one level, this is a book about the Chases' retreat to Montana wilderness and their discovery of the treasures around them, including the Jack Russell Terriers they began to acquire. But it runs deeper than that, and explores what dogs are and need to be, and how breeders are ruining them by heeding human criteria, such as form and size, and ignoring the genetic traits that keep a breed viable and healthy.
   
   But this is also a love story, about how the Chases and their Jack Russells (and other pets) deal with each other, and how their differing personalities give and receive differing commitments and differing forms of love. There are passages of great tenderness here, but also passages of speculation: do animals have anything we might call a soul, anything that might transcend death? Might we ever be reunited with our pets beyond the grave?
   
   There is warning here as well: we stand on a precipice. If dogs continue to be bred for purely human criteria such as those imposed by the AKC, and not for those qualities that yield a healthy, athletic animal, the time is not far off when some breeds will be ruined. They will suffer more and more disorders such as deformity, and fewer live births.
   
   This is a love song, and we need to listen to Alston Chase's music.



4. For me this precious read is best served with tea, a cozy chair, and a ray of light pouring through a window. I waited each day for just the right moment to pick it up. It is a book to savor.
   
   I understand that Alston Chase is quite the intellectual - the author of several very heady reads. I have to say that in "We Give Our Hearts To Dogs To Tear" I can see the heart of the author, splayed for all the world to see.
   
   This book takes the reader aside from the hustle and bustle of life and drops into the true essence of living. Maybe that shift is seen through a canine friend's field of vision or maybe because of these canine friends Alston Chase has made that shift himself.
   
   "We Give Our Hearts To Dogs To Tear" is reflective of days gone by, of pioneers, and grit, and lasting love.
   
   Thank you for such an endearing read.



5. Alston Chase has gone against the popular grain with his fascinating account of life on the edge of the wild in Montana with several generations of real, sometimes difficult Jack Russell terriers. They may be "cute" but they are first and foremost working dogs, with bold hearts and ambitions bigger than their bodies. While he may make you cry, Chase is never cheaply sentimental. In a time when too many people reduce dogs to surrogate children or toys, he reminds us what remarkable creatures real dogs are, and how strong a bond they will make with their human partners.

5 comments about Dancing with Your Dark Horse: How Horse Sense Helps Us Find Balance, Strength and Wisdom.

1. This is a really wonderful book. It is full of amazing insights into the interior world of horses and humans. It is a truly incredible experience to read this book. You will learn so much you will feel as if you have had your eyes and ears closed your whole life. Do yourself a favor and read it twice. Thank you Chris Irwin for changing my life.



2. I loved some of the insights and it's worth reading. However, I thought the Author could have been more focused on the overall picture and less focused on himself toward some of the later chapters.



3. Chris is open but he tries unsuccessfully to convince the reader that he was humbled and knocked off his high horse during a session with Stella the horse. Seems to me that he wants to believe he has become altruistic and has written a book to try and convince himself.
   
   To his credit he has come a long way in life and conquered many demons. But, many irrelevant photos and self praise show that his ego is huge, and insecurities large.
   
   Sadly, I suspect this book was an insincere effort to try and save face in the business arena. It is highly likely that Chris will have another greater fall and the resultant book will reach sincerity.



4. Interesting ideas linked with inisghts into Chris Irwins personal life, trials & tribulations. Very readable.



5. Chris Irwin wrote this book after beating a mare named Stella at a demonstration. He'd been working hard and shouldn't have accepted the invitation that day; he had been pushing himself too hard. The manager of the event set him up by sending three mares that didn't pasture together into the arena, and a fight broke out between the horses. Chris fueled the fire by reacting to the situation and beating Stella after getting the other two mares out of the ring. He nearly ruined his career as a result. And this book of excuses is his attempt at finding a silver lining in that situation.
   
   If you want to hear about how Chris' life has unravelled... how a young man his age has been married four times in his attempts to overcome his dysfunctional childhood, then this story may peak your interest.
   
   If you want to see a picture of Chris skiing, and a photo of Chris teaching his son to ride a bike, and a photo of Chris playing guitar and singing at a wedding, and a photo of Chris in his cowboy cocaine days in the 80's, and a photo of Chris when he was 15 on the rowing team in high school and won the championship -- then this is the dark horse book for you.
   
   Every photo is "Chris this" or "Chris that" -- and most of the photos don't relate to the text. It felt egotistically motivated, and I began to realize that Chris' dark horse is his insecurity -- and he hasn't conquered it yet.
   
   I'm very interested in learning about the spiritual connection between humans and horses; but this wasn't the book for me.
   
   I respect everything that Chris Irwin has accomplished in his career, but he needs to forgive himself and stop making excuses, before he can stop dancing with his dark horse.

5 comments about It's a Dog's Life...but It's Your Carpet: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Your Four-Legged Friend.

1. Since purchasing this book...I have not been able to read it...Why...because my wife can't put it down!!! It really does explain all of those little things that a dog does! It is funny and entertaining. It covers things you have always wanted to ask...and things that you never even thought of asking. Can't wait for the next one to come out!!!



2. I loved the book so much I also bought a copy for my mother-in-law (the hardest person to shop for) and for my veterinarian for Christmas. The book is informative, entertaining and answers questions that I had always wondered about but didn't want to ask. I can't wait for Dr. Lee's next book.



3. This book makes a great gift for your dog loving friends! It's a funny, light and informative read. Dr. Lee gives plenty of advice and offers a compassionate and caring opinion, interspersed with lots of wit and sarcasm.



4. Lots of people have mentioned how funny this book is -- rather than echo those comments, I'll mention how touching and heart warming the book is too. The author is clearly an expert and is very funny, but the thing that stood out the most for me is how deeply she cares about our 4-legged friends.
   
   The author provides sage advice on how to best care for our dogs, maximize their quality of life, and even discusses the best options for when it is time to say goodbye. This book is a fantastic tribute to the slobering little buggers that bring joy to ours lives like nothing else in the world. Bravo Dr. Lee! Can't wait for more from you!



5. This book is funny and informative! It covers serious and not so serious questions with a sense of humor and some interesting facts. I couldn't put it down!

3 comments about Angel Animals: Divine Messengers of Miracles.

1. Purchased for our 10 year old daughter, she has not put it down. The stories are touching and funny and intense. Good quick read!



2. We all have our own anecdotes about how important our animal friends are to each of us. In some small (or large) ways we have all experienced the miracles of angel animals. In daily life they teach us patience, show us unconditional love, and expect us to be nothing less than ourselves with them at all times. In times of crisis, they stand beside us reminding us that we are stronger and more courageous than we think. In short, they change our lives, for the better. Animals really are pretty amazing creatures.
   
   Angel Animals is an anthology of animal experiences that changed the lives of various individuals. The types of animals and the dynamics of these relationships vary substantially as do the lessons learned and the gifts given by these beings. As expected household pets are common heroes and heroines in these stories. However, in quite a number of the entries, the animals depicted are quite out of the ordinary including seals, raccoons, bees, and spiders. In all cases, these creatures bring with them special gifts and lasting lessons that guided their humans through very difficult or challenging times.



3. Updated and revised to include a new introduction, ANGEL ANIMALS gathers stories about spiritual lessons they've learned from animals and comes not from new age leaders but from ordinary individuals, making for an even more powerful collection. From a sparrow's influence on volunteering to animals who promoted spiritual growth, ANGEL ANIMALS is an outstanding survey for any who would reveal the underlying importance of animals.