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Review: LIVING THE FARM SANCTUARY LIFE, by Gene Baur

Our sister Sofia reading Living the Farm Sanctuary Life by Gene Baur with Gene Stone, which we found at Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe, AZ.

We loved this book! It’s a nice, big, glossy coffee table book by the founder of the Farm Sanctuary in Woodstock, NY, Gene Baur. It’s a combination of little vignettes illustrating what it’s like to live at the sanctuary, where your friends consist of cows, pigs, chickens, turkeys, goats, sheep, and ducks, stories about some of the animals and how they came to live there, lovely photos of the animal residents and the people who come to visit, facts about the health benefits – both mental and physical – of eating a plant-based diet, and really wonderful vegan recipes! Witty Kitty can’t wait to try some of these – particularly the Wild Mushroom and Spinach Roulade, the Osso Vita (using parsley root instead of deer bone), and the Lobster Mushroom Tostada Tower. Not to even mention the desserts: Salted Caramel Chocolate Bliss Bites, need I say more!

The book also gives you tidbits on how to find some good cheese and dairy replacements. Witty kitty loves cheese, so knowing some quality artisan cheese companies are out there – like Kite Hill, Dr-Cow, and Miyoko’s Kitchen – is very helpful! They also give you some good sources of protein, such as beans, and tempeh, which WK has heard a lot about and must try.

But the best thing about this book is the happy little stories about some of the animals who live there, such as Opie, the calf who was born on a freezing NY morning in a dairy farm still wet from birth, who nearly died. The dairy farmer was just going to let him die when he was found by a member of Farm Sanctuary, who, despite the veterinarian’s warnings that he wouldn’t live, took him in anyway. After keeping 24-hour watch on him, his body temperature improved and Opie began eating well, mooing happily, and frolicking with the other cows. He grew to be a gentle giant, weighing nearly 3000 pounds, and a favorite of cows and human visitors alike, living for 18 years.

Another story features a hog farmer who became fond of a runt he managed to nurse to good health. His friendship with the little pig grew so that, after ten years, he could no longer bring himself to continue to raise pigs for slaughter. He ended up becoming a vegetarian.

And those are only a couple of the stories. There’s also a section on how to dress stylishly and vegan! Sweet, informative, fun book with lots of colorful pics!

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Review: THE ONE AND ONLY IVAN, by Katherine Applegate

Our sister, Rhea, poses with our copy of the book. Ivan’s coloring on the cover kind of matches her coat 🙂

The One and Only Ivan is an excellent novel by Katherine Applegate, and it very deservedly won the Newbery Medal for children’s literature in 2013. Set in a small circus, it stars Ivan the gorilla, billed as “the Mighty Silverback” by Mack, the circus owner, Stella and little Ruby, the elephants, and a stray dog named Bob, who befriends them. Mack doesn’t treat the animals very well, unsurprisingly. Particularly the elephants, who are prodded with a claw stick, sometimes harmfully, into performing tricks. And they are kept in too-small cages. When the older elephant, Stella, becomes too injured to perform, and George begins beating sweet, young Ruby into submission so she will take over Stella’s tricks, Ivan becomes determined to save her.

Ivan happens to be an artistically inclined gorilla, who can make drawings with crayons and paint. Mack tries to capitalize on Ivan’s talents by selling the paintings. But Ivan outsmarts him and uses the artwork for something more.

Ivan is based on a real gorilla, also named Ivan, who lived in a tiny cage in a shopping mall circus and, after public outcry, was moved to Zoo Atlanta. He also painted, signing his name with a thumbprint.

This is a wonderful book, and the fact that it’s based on a true story, makes it all the more compelling. Non-human animals do have talents, complex inner worlds, and dreams, and they don’t like being in cages any more than humans do.

Witty Kitty gives this one five bonito flakes, and can’t wait to read more books by Ms. Applegate!

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Review: THE RIGHT SIDE, by Spencer Quinn

Because this is a book featuring a dog – and a black dog at that – we have graciously allowed our sister, Sofia, to model it 🙂

Witty kitty, being a cat, of course loves cat books, but she can most definitely enjoy a really good dog book as well. Especially because of that dog sister of hers… Anyway, Spencer Quinn is the author of the super engaging, comical dog / human mystery series, Chet and Bernie, and also the children’s series, Bowser and Birdie. This is not the same kind of dog book as those, in that the dog here does not narrate any part of the story, and for much of the story he does not have a name. But he does have a strong personality, strong opinions, and he helps his human, LeAnne, solve her mystery. So we love him! This book is also quite a bit more sobering than the others.

LeAnne has just returned from the war in Afghanistan, during which she lost one of her eyes. She’s angry, suffering from PTSD, and is trying put her life back together now that combat no longer seems an option. Her Army superiors ceaselessly interrogate her about the attack that disfigured her, wanting to find out who was behind it. But she doesn’t want to try to remember. Too painful. So, LeAnne flees the hospital and goes in search of the missing daughter of a friend she’s made while in the hospital, who died of her wounds. Along the way, LeAnne meets this mysteriously smart, knowing dog, and he helps her solve the missing girl mystery, and in his own way, helps her learn to trust again.

LeAnne was a very compelling character – as was the dog – and WK found herself really rooting for LeAnne to find the girl, figure out what happened in Afghanistan, come to terms with her past, overcome her PTSD and get a grasp on her future, and befriend the dog 🙂

WK gives THE RIGHT SIDE five bonito flakes!

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THE MOURNING PARADE

Can’t wait to read this novel, especially after hearing the author, Dawn Reno Langley, speak about it tonight The Poisoned Pen, our favorite mystery bookstore. The Mourning Parade is about a female veterinarian who, after her two sons are killed in a school shooting, tries to work out her grief by volunteering at an elephant sanctuary in Thailand. There she meets an elephant, Sophie, suffering from PTSD due to abuse. There’s no story we love better than one about human and animal mending each other.

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Review: DOG LOST, by Ingrid Lee

I saw this book in my local library and was immediately drawn to the title and cover. Written in 2008, and based on a true story, it’s a powerful tale of a pit bull puppy, Cash, who, in protecting her best friend, MacKenzie, angers the boy’s father, who hauls her off to the middle of nowhere to fend for herself. At first everyone is scared of the dog, since she’s considered a “dangerous breed,” but Cash is no vicious predator. Not only does she refuse to fight when she is captured by the leader of a horrid dog-fighting ring, but she ends up saving the lives of more than one human, as well as that of a cat used as bait by the dog fighters. Written by a Canadian writer, Ingrid Lee, the book was published at a time when Ontario was considering whether to ban the breed, which would have led to the euthanasia of entire shelters. Cash is a shining example of the ludicrous cruelty of such a law. And yet, I know from the Best Friends documentary, “The Champions,” about the rehabilitation of the Michael Vick dogs, that Ontario does have such a ban, so, sadly, it passed. I remember Montreal was deciding whether to enact something similar a year or two ago. It was put on hold then. This book reminds me to check up on that. I really hope it never passed. As “Dog Lost” shows, it is people who are the villains, not the dogs.

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Review: PAX, by Sara Pennypacker

I loved this book so much. Couldn’t put it down. I’ve been reading so many really compelling children’s books. In some ways they are more full of compassion and heart and soul than many adult books these days.

This is the story of a boy and his little fox named Pax. The boy finds Pax as a small cub and raises him to fox-hood. The setting is rather timeless and placeless. The boy and his father live in the country somewhere near a forest and there’s a war about to begin. But it’s not the Civil War era; it’s a modern war because the father, an engineer, is called upon to create land mines. When the father must leave, he takes the boy to live with an elderly relative, who can’t live with animals. This means the boy must drop Pax off in the forest.

As Pax tries to learn how to survive in the wild, the boy worries that Pax will get killed. The story alternates back and forth between the two, as they search for each other. I won’t say how it ends but it’s full of truth and beauty and love. Both characters stole my heart and I will never forget Pax.

I recently visited Joshua Tree National Park. In their gift shop I found a photo of a fox. It reminded me of little Pax, so I bought it and hung it on my wall. 🙂

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Review: DOG MEDICINE, by Julie Barton

I ended up really liking this book. But I admit I had to struggle through the first third of it. It’s not easy for animal lovers because Barton writes about all the dogs and pets she had before getting her beloved Bunker, and they don’t all fare as well as he did.

Since early adulthood, Barton struggled with clinical depression, though she wasn’t initially diagnosed with it. It stemmed from a horribly abusive childhood at the hands of her older brother, which her mother somehow didn’t realize was happening or just didn’t care about. It’s horrendously sad and you really feel for her. She has a breakdown in New York after starting her first job and returns to her hometown, Columbus, Ohio, to recover. She struggles with her illness, is originally diagnosed, ever so wrongfully and harmfully, with anorexia, eventually receives a proper diagnosis, and then finds Bunker, who changes everything. Through his love – his sheer existence, she is able to begin her life for real, get a job, move to another city on the opposite coast, become independent.

Early on, Bunker gets very sick and the lengths Barton goes to to save him – and thus herself – are beautifully heartbreaking. He, it turns out, needs her just as much as she needs him. You end up empathizing so much with her, loving and needing her best friend like she does, and feeling her panic when he can’t always be around her. That’s what was so amazing about her writing: she drew you into her story, her life so powerfully that you felt like you became her. Even some of her more inscrutable behavior, you came to accept and even want to defend. I’ve never suffered from serious depression before, and by the end, I felt like I really understood the mental illness, the panic, the despair, and how people who go off their meds can tragically end up suicidal.

So glad I stuck with this book. It was so richly rewarding.

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Review: FENWAY AND HATTIE, by Victoria J. Coe

I found this book at my library. Cover was just so enticing 🙂 And I’ve read so many wonderful middle-grade books lately. I read it in one sitting and loved it. Fenway a is jolly, spunky little Jack Russell terrier (and who doesn’t love a terrier!) who loves his “short human,” Hattie. One day the family moves from their Boston-area apartment to the suburbs. Fenway is deeply confused. Where is his beloved dog park? Why is the new floor where Hattie puts his food bowl so slippery and scary? And, most importantly, why is Hattie so interested in her new next-door neighbor and in learning to play softball and not with him? Fenway must find a way to get Hattie back. He tries all kinds of things that don’t work, some of which make you just cringe knowing how much they will backfire – such as eating her new mitt! Makes sense though – if the mitt is taking your best friend from you, well then you must destroy that blasted mitt! But finally, he does it – he and Hattie both adjust and find happiness in their new lives.

This book was cute and funny, but it also made me think about how difficult it can be for pets to adjust to a new environment. One time when we got to our new apartment, my cat wandered around for five seconds then went straight back into her carrier and cried in it all night. I couldn’t entice her into bed with me for anything. Moves can by discomfiting and even scary for everyone in the family, most of all those who can’t be told in so many words not to worry, that everything will be okay. Take time and care with your fur babies!