Living with Bugs

Least-toxic Solutions to Everyday Bug Problems 

by Jack DeAngelis 

     This book is very straightforward: an entomologist who worked for the Oregon State University Extension Service for some twenty years, wrote it to inform the general public about bugs. The book identifies the creepy crawlies that are commonly found in homes in the States and tells a little about their life cycles noting which ones are problems to be concerned about, and which you can just ignore because they don't really harm anything. Also noting how they all have a useful role in natural ecosystems and so we shouldn't just wipe them out en masse because we don't like them. When insect infestations are a problem, there's information on how to control numbers or eliminate them from the home, with non-toxic methods recommended first and insecticides or poisons used as last resort. In most cases, the advice was simply to keep things clean! Moths in the pantry? throw out the infested flour, clean up spills and seal the food properly. Bedbugs making you itch at night? wash your sheets every week. Holes in the favorite sweaters you only wear in the coldest month of the year? make sure they're laundered before going back into storage, and kept in a tight plastic container. And so on. I actually found the little details about the small creatures pretty interesting, although seeing closeup photos of cockroaches and lice and engorged ticks is really unpleasant. I learned some interesting things, such as that silverfish can jump (by flipping their bodies), boxelder bugs feed on maple tree leaves (which is why I have lots in my yard every summer), and the wasps that make a paper nest with open cells are predators useful in the garden that rarely sting people, while the yellowjackets that make large roundish paper nests without visible cells, are the ones that might attack people who disturb it, and should be removed.

In all, I found this book useful and informative- but there is one little aggravation which I must remedy someday. My copy is missing pages 33-64! Not torn or cut out, the book was bound very neatly without them. So I didn't get to read about lice, ticks, mosquitoes, carpenter ants, termites, powderpost beetles, horntail wood wasps or carpenter bees. Some of which I have personally encountered so it would have been nice to have this author's take on them. Curious how many other copies of this book out there are missing several signatures, I looked for other reviews online. Found just a few- none of them mention absent pages, and one says that the section I'm missing is the best part of the book! That's a bit disappointing. I did acquire my copy used- now I know why someone else discarded it. Maybe I'll find another someday, and this time scan the pages thoroughly before bringing it home.

Rating: 3/5                 176 pages, 2009

All My Patients Have Tales

Favorite Stories from a Vet's Practice 

by Jeff Wells, DVM

     A nice read from a veterinarian who worked in mixed animal practice, first in South Dakota, then in Colorado. Part memoir, mostly stories about the animals he treated, with a broad dash of humor. He tells about going through vet school, first days on the job, attempts to prove his knowledge and skills to the clients, and most of all about the animals in need. Funny or interesting case studies and the outcomes. Similar to James Herriot, if not quite the same quality (sometimes the humor got a tad tedious in my opinion). Most of the stories are about pet dogs and cats, though there are also cattle, potbellied pigs, and even a yak. Note: he doesn't shy away from telling how unpleasant some aspects of the job can be- in particular how much feces and other bodily fluids can get all over the place (quite literally). And while most of the stories have positive outcomes, not all the animals make it. Just a sampling of the stories: a supposed tomcat that surprised its family by having kittens, a puppy that ate too many grasshoppers, horses with injuries on their legs or faces, cows that need help birthing, dogs that repeatedly tackled porcupines, a cat that swallowed a fishhook, a hound that ate rat poison, an elderly cat that became diabetic. There's also an errant bison that escaped its field and needed to be sedated for re-capture before it bred all the neighbor's prized cows. I found that Wells wrote a second book titled All My Patients Kick and Bite, which I think I'd also enjoy. 

Rating: 3/5                    226 pages, 2006

The Rhino with Glue-On Shoes

and other surprising true stories of zoo vets and their patients 

edited by Lucy Spelman and Ted Mashima

     I like reading about veterinary work. This collection about wildlife vet care is light reading (ie: not the highest writing quality) with brief, intriguing chapters. The twenty-eight stories are each related by a different veterinarian, with a preface by the editor team to each of the five sections they're arranged into. Most, but not all, of the stories have happy endings. In a few the medical mystery presented by an ill animal was never solved. Among them are the titular rhioncerous with chronically sore feet who got a custom set of aluminum shoes, a panda with digestive issues, dung beetles infested with red mites, stranded dolphins, a hippo with an infected tooth, polar bear with a hernia, tiny poison dart frog with an injured eye, a young giraffe that needs a leg brace, elephant injured by a poacher's snare, a malnourished bear cub with weak bones, a goldfish with a tumor and weedy sea dragons that suffered "the bends" after an airline flight from Australia to Florida. I think my favorite though, was the story about a moray eel donated by a bartender to a public aquarium when it outgrew its home tank. The eel hid in the rocks of its new home and refused to eat for weeks on end. The aquarium staff finally called the original owner to ask what might tempt the eel to eat. He came to visit the aquarium and when the eel saw him, it came out of hiding and swam up and down the tank glass in front of the man, finally taking food when he offered it. That story warmed my heart. 

Rating: 3/5                310 pages, 2008

The Gift of the Deer

by Helen Hoover

     This is a nice little book about whitetail deer in northern Minnesota. The author and her husband lived in a remote cabin in the woods. They habitually put out food for the birds and squirrels in winter and one particularly hard year, a starving deer showed up. They helped the buck survive- cutting cedar branches for it to eat (recognizing that corn would be too rich and a shock on its system). They named the deer Peter and he became very accustomed to hanging around their cabin, even stamping on the porch to demand food if it wasn't set out yet. Before long other deer joined Peter in their yard, and then the Hoovers watched fawns appear with the doe they named Mama and grow up, several years in a row. The narrative describes the woods and other widlife- birds, squirrels, a bobcat and lynx that seemed to be companions, a moose that trampled their garden, a groundhog that ate cookies from their hands. A young bear that they were troubled to see tourists feeding (yet they had no qualms about feeding the deer and other wildlife themselves). Mostly though it's about the deer, and the social interactions they observed which was really interesting- especially as I was able to connect some details with information I'd learned in Heart and Blood just prior. Sadly and not surprisingly, it turns out that the deer, now being partially tame, were more vulnerable to hunters who showed up even though it was private land with posted signs. In the end I think they regretting having fed the deer so regularly, and were relieved to see the animals grow more wary of people following the hunting season. The author has published several books with titles including A Place in the Woods and The Years of the Forest, which I'll probably pick up if I come across them someday.

Rating: 3/5                        210 pages, 1965

Heart and Blood

Living with Deer in America 

by Richard Nelson

     Marvelous book. It looks at all sides of the relationships deer and people have in this country. The author is a hunter himself but holds great respect for the animals and their environment, which you can palpably feel in his personal descriptions. The opening and closing chapters detail time he spent in the woods with his border collie dog- whom he depends on for alerting him to the proximity of wildlife with her keen senses. He follows deer but also has a close encounter with a marten (riveting scene) and is tailed by a brown bear, and in the final pages tells of witnessing a doe actually giving birth. It's incredible. All the other chapters tell about deer, both from his research and personal experiences as he crosses the country witnessing how people live alongside or utilize the cervids. There is a chapter that tells of the evolutionary history of deer (more in brief than Whitetail Tracks) another that explains the difference between North America's three deer species, their physiology and way of life. Most of the book is about deer / human interactions, with far greater depth and understanding than I once gleaned from Nature Wars.

Nelson visits many areas in turn: first an island in Alaska where deer are being studied, and discusses the impacts of various types of studies in general- including whether or not their means are considered humane. (Some studies have deliberately allowed deer to starve, others subject wild deer to a lot of stress). He visits an island off the California coast, and another near New York, where deer populations have far outgrown the space, looking at the various methods used to attempt controlling population numbers and why they don't work. He goes to an area of Texas that has a very healthy deer population, where the wildlife live alongside cattle on ranches (they eat different plant types) and then are thinned each year by hunters who pay for access- and it's very specifically managed.. He accompanies several Wisconsin hunters on public lands, where the control is slightly different, and contrariwise, also goes along with a group of animal rights activists in a different part of Wisconsin, whose aim is to interrupt the hunters (very civilly done, I might add). The varied hunts include stalking deer through the forest on foot, sitting in tree platforms near open areas where deer might visit, and walking with a group of men on a drive across fields and hillsides. Finally, he visits farmland in southern Wisconsin, where deer are also hunted- in this case mostly to protect the crops. Which is a very serious thing- it sounds like not a single crop grown could be brought to reasonable harvest if deer are not fenced out (which is often impractical) or shot. 

Overall I felt like this was a really well-rounded look at the deer situation, one approached with admiration for the animal, honest friendliness towards various types of people the author visited and interviewed, willingness to try and understand other points of view, interpretation of the science for laypeople like myself, and finally, a love for the beauty of the land and wildlife. I was struck by how time and time again, occasions were reported where deer that were troublesome in suburban areas were relocated in attempts to control their numbers- and what a failure that is. Some die of shock during handling, and most or all of the rest die within the first year of being moved. And it's expensive. Birth control for deer doesn't work, which is explained. Natural predators are for the most part missing, so it leaves human hunters to keep the population in check. Otherwise the deer destroy habitat leaving it unfit for other animals as well. Oh, and there's a chapter about forest growth, and how monocultures of trees replanted after logging usually don't support deer or other wildlife and why. The author himself personally witnessed the state of deer starving in winter in an overpopulated area; it sounds like the misery and suffering of the emaciated animals deeply affected him. He not-so-subtly hints that he disagrees with the animal rights people who assert that starvation is nature's way of handling the problem, opining that a hunter's precise mark which ends their lives quickly and gives them purpose as someone's dinner (for a family, it can supply a year's worth of protein) is a far more humane option.

I found that many of his sentiments closely harmonized what I read recently in Braiding Sweetgrass. In particular I marked a few quotes:

Organisms we buy in stores and array on the table are our makers, the creators and nurturers of our bodies, until eventually we die and nourish other organisms in turn. As a society, we could benefit enormously by finding ways to remember, acknowledge, and celebrate this process, to accept with gratitude and respect the plants and animals who keep us alive, who weave us into the living tapestry of earth.

A true ecological wisdom, it seemed to me, is one that keeps people and land together in the business of producing food while they develop a more balanced and sustainable relationship with the natural environment.

This is one of those books I lingered over, then read through the pages of references in the back, to add more to my never-ending, always-growing TBR. Including now several other titles by the author which look just as good.

Rating: 4/5              390 pages, 1997

Ravensong

A Natural and Fabulous History of Ravens and Crows

by Catherine Feher Elston

     The cleverness and pervasive success of ravens and crows has been recognized by humans in many cultures, for ages. In native american tribes the raven is often seen as a creator or a spirit guide, although in other minds ravens are associated with death (because they feed on carrion). This book is a kind of celebration of ravens- the first part has legends and creation stories featuring Raven from various Pacific Northwest tribes, the middle part is some native american history (with the raven connection a thin tangent that is barely mentioned) and the final section is more factual about raven behavior with quotations from some scientific studies including several from Bernd Henrich and Konrad Lorenz (which in my opinion are better read in their original context). The first part was good, I had mixed feelings about the middle, and the last section wasn't anything new to me. Actually one of the better parts is the afterward, where the author describes some of her own work rehabilitating and caring for injured ravens. So the book feels rather uneven and sometimes the wording was odd or I felt dubious about the content. It would have been nice to have more of the legends, or more detail about the personal experiences. I could have really done without the history section, which had a different tone entirely and felt out of place to me. I did really like the inked illustrations by Lawrence Ormsby, very nice.

Rating: 2/5                       208 pages, 1991

The Hopes of Snakes

and Other Tales from the Urban Landscape 

by Lisa Couturier

I can't quite put my finger on why this book fell flat for me. It's a collection of essays describing the landscape and encounters with wildlife the author had when living in New York City and the area surrounding Washington, DC. Some of the encounters are brief- just a glimpse of a coyote- others are more personal- helping a researcher find and catch snakes in a field, following crows to locate their roosting site. Interspersed with quotes that felt meaningful (and I recognized many of them) but were a bit too frequent- I would have rather heard more of the author's own words. Also interspersed with details or asides about her personal life- including what felt like a disconnect with religion while being surrounded by religious people- but just a glimpse of this, never felt connected enough. It always loops around again to the animal the chapter is about, but sometimes in such a skipping, circling manner I didn't feel it strongly. She describes a longing to know wild animals better, to know more details about their lives- and shares what she's learned from reading (I was interested in the insights about coyotes. For example- I always thought they rebounded from intense "predator control" by having larger litters but this book tells me it's also because if a dominant pair is removed from an area, all the younger coyotes are suddenly free to breed, no longer held in check by their social hierarchy). This book is full of the type of material I usually enjoy- personal encounters with wildlife and interesting facts about them- but the analogies didn't speak to me, the descriptive language often felt too flowery, the wanderings asides left me feeling lost. I shut it at the end feeling disappointed. Maybe it's just that this author's writing style is not to my taste. 

In case it is of interest, the animals featured in this book include mice, red-tailed hawks, crows, snakes, coyotes, peregrine falcons, canada geese, vultures, a barn owl, gorillas (in a zoo), ants, pigeons, cockroaches, toads, bald eagles, foxes and deer. I just wish I had liked it more.

 Rating: 2/5           160 pages, 2005

A Fish Caught in Time

the Search for the Coelacanth 

by Samantha Weinberg

The story of this fish is just amazing. The coelacanth, closest fish relative to tetrapods (ancestors of all reptiles, amphibians and mammals) was thought to be extinct for over three hundred million years until one day in 1938 when a fisherman in southern Africa offered part of his catch to a local museum curator- including a large and very strange fish. She was unable to properly preserve the specimen, so soon hoped to find another- it didn't happen for thirty years- but then when rewards were offered, fisherman began pulling coelacanths out of the sea rather regularly (considering how long they'd been so hidden). This narrative describes the scramble of scientists and museums to get their hands on coelacanth specimens, and the struggles to procure a live one- even though the fish has an oil-filled organ in lieu of a swim bladder (so it doesn't suffer from decompression when brought up from the great depths where it lives) yet all the coelacanths caught and brought to the surface soon died from the stress and other factors. It was rather stunning to read the description of the first person who built a submersible and was able to dive deep enough to view the coelacanths in their habitat- and find out where they were actually living. There are two known extant populations- one off the Comoros Islands near Madagascar and the other off the coast of Indonesia. (They have different colors- the African coelacanth is dark blue with white markings, and the Indonesian one is brown speckled with gold). When the ancient fish was first discovered the scramble was to procure specimens for study, but then people realized it had a low reproduction rate - giving live birth in small numbers compared to oviparous fishes- and they switched tactics to make fisherman release any coelacanth caught instead of rewarding them for bringing them in. I looked it up and there are still the only the two known populations so it's very rare. Makes you wonder what else is out there, lurking in caves under the ocean, that we don't know about!

The book is pretty engaging, but was a lot about the people involved in the discovery, including political squabbles over who had rights to the first coelacanth specimens- rather than details about the fish itself. I would really like to read some of the firsthand accounts or more about the physiology of the living coelacanth, but this was a really good introduction to the species and its wonders. Here's an article I found about the species (which relates a lot of the same found in this book) with a video of a live coelacanth.

 

Rating: 3/5                220 pages, 2000

The Silent Miaow

a Manual for Kittens, Strays, and Homeless Cats 

translated from the Feline 

by Paul Gallico

      A book from the cat's perspective which details how a one may successfully take over and run a human household to their own liking. When done skillfully, the humans won't even realize this is happening. It's all about clever, subtle manipulation, making the humans think they're getting their own way, while really they end up doing everything to the cat's desire. It's more smug and self-assured in tone than The Devious Book for Cats, and very charmingly illustrated with professional photographs of a cat in her home by Suzanne Szasz. It doesn't at all feel outdated, except maybe for a few remarks on the nature of men and women. The feline advice is on things like: getting people to serve what you want to eat, claiming your own chair, making it a given that you will sleep on the bed, dealing with travel and visits to the veterinarian, coaxing the man of the house to give you tidbits from the dinner table, how to treat unwelcome houseguests, making sure doors will be opened for you, training humans to recognize your different miaows (including the voiceless one which must be used very strategically), what poses and attitudes are most becoming to win people's admiration, making the holiday fuss all about you, and finally- if you happen to have dalliance with a tomcat and become a mother- how to properly pass on these lessons to your offspring so that they, too, may acquire and influence a human household. There are also remarks which let you that know in spite of her calm sense of superiority, the cat behind this book obviously loves her humans as well. 

There's more, but really you should have the delight of reading them for yourself! so I will stop here. I still remember very clearly when I first saw this book on my great aunt's shelf. I read it once during a visit there and ever after longed for my own copy. How thrilled I was to finally find one- many years ago now but I think I came across it in a used bookstore. I am sure anyone who loves cats would be charmed by this book, and the photographs, while all black-and-white, are so perfectly composed with precise focus and contrast, you almost forget there's no color to them. 

Rating: 5/5                 160 pages, 1964

The Cats of Lamu

the Feral Cats of an Exotic African Island
by Jack Couffer

     It was lovely to re-visit this book. I would not change one word of what I said on it eleven years ago. Delightful and intriguing account of a study on feral cats the author delved into while living as an expat on Lamu Island (off the coast of Kenya). What I found more interesting this time around, that I don't think I mentioned before: more tidbits of culture, like how the author felt he had to hire a housekeeper and then a cook, because that's simply how it was done on the island. The letter he includes that his housekeeper wrote to him when he was back living in America, is so different in syntax it takes concentration to read as if the person who wrote it thinks in different patterns.

The mention of how islanders interacted with the cats, even thought at first it was assumed most were wild and untouchable. A few would let themselves be petted, or even rub against people in greeting. One man once gave a beach cat a bath in the sea "because he looked dirty". Several people he found out sheltered dozens of cats in their homes- one old woman routinely fed about forty of them in her three-room house. Also at the village school, some fifty cats were regularly fed and hung out all the time, sitting among the children- which surprised the author when he discovered it, and a few photos showing the cats among the boys are just charming. There's mention of the island donkeys that provide nearly all transport and load-carrying, as the streets are too narrow for cars. There are bats- both insect-eaters and frugivores. 

I loved a description of kids on the beach making toys out of palm fronds that skidded across the sand, pushed by the wind, how a kitten pounced on one repeatedly. And of course, all the little observations of the cats' lives in their various groups- some claim the beach, others live at the dump, yet others in town where they get regular handouts. They fight for status, court each other, some move from one group to another. Kittens are born and raised, hierarchy shifts when an older male dies. Many hours just spent in quiet companionship, the cats sitting together, or each in its little patch of shade spaced evenly apart. They often go about their own affairs, where the author couldn't follow (through strangers' gardens and private courtyards), much of their lives remaining a mystery that he tried to piece together. Beautiful photographs. 

Though relatively brief, the book spans many years, and he mentions at the end how things have changed from when they first moved to Lamu. I can only assume it has changed even more since then. Yet it looks such a timeless place in the pictures, the ancient-looking cats strolling independent on the beaches under the bluest sky.

 

Rating: 4/5                  156 pages, 1998

The Encyclopedia of the Cat

Comprehensive Illustrated Guide to the World's Recognized Breeds, Varieties and Colors 

by Bruce Fogle, M.D.

     I've had this book a long time, and thumbed through it to admire the pictures before- now I've actually read through the text as well. It really is very comprehensive. The first section has double-page spreads with detailed summaries on the history of cats- their evolution, their relatives in the wild, how they have featured in art and culture throughout history, including folktales, superstitions, comic strips and film appearances. Next there is a section on cat physiology- everything from how their skeletal structure makes them so flexible, to how the brain responds to messages, muscular function, digestive system, reproduction, the skin and fur (barrier and beauty), and genetics. In most of this the book is far more detailed than the last one I read, but the genetics here are explained more simply so I think I actually understood that better. When you get past diluting genes into how some colors mask others it still gets confusing though. 

Going through the pages on cat breeds- more than sixty of them- it's easy to see that many breeds which I once knew mainly for their distinctive coloring, now come in patterns brought in from other cat breeds. So there's Siamese with tortisehell points and Exotic Shorthairs with dark Siamese-influenced points, and vice versa all over the place. To me this seems a bit odd- the desire to always make one cat have the colors of another, but I often feel the same about flowers that are bred to look specifically like ones they aren't. I tend to like the classic, outdated appearances. Seems there are only a few that still have just one, two or three "allowed" colors. This book has quite a few cat types I had never heard of before- especially the ones with curly fur! Do an online search for longhair Selkirk Rex or the La Perm, they look so striking. I had heard of the Japanese Bobtail, American Curl, Sphynx and Munchkin cats before, but the Pixiebob was a new one to me. Purportedly comes from a cross of domestic cats and wild bobcats, but it's never been proven. There are other cats I was vaguely familiar with in this book that come from crosses with wildcats- the Ocicat and Bengal, but there's no page for the Savannah. Maybe in newer editions- I see a lot of different cover images for this book online and guess that there are updated versions. One of my favorite breeds is the Egyptian Mau. 

Finally, at the end of the book there's a section on general care and health issues, including basic first aid in case of accident or injury, with instructions on how to do CPR and artificial respiration for a cat. I hope I never have to do so, but now I also know how to treat a cat for shock and safely move an injured one to the vet. 

It's a stunning book that's very engaging to look through, with so many beautiful and interesting felines depicted. The photographs are not quite as good quality as in Legacy of the Cat, many of them a little grainy or rough around the edges, but that's a small quibble I have.

Rating: 4/5            240 pages, 1997

Legacy of the Cat

the Ultimate Illustrated Guide 

by Gloria Stephens 

     A showcase of some forty-seven cat breeds (I think there's a newer edition as someone else's review on LibraryThing mentioned fifty-one). It has a short intro with basics of a cat's body, very brief history of the species' evolution, and then a more detailed explanation of genetics that determine the many breeds' eye color, coat color and pattern, plus some of the unusual traits (like curled ears, bobbed tails or hairlessness). I read through the entire section on genetics because hey, I like to learn stuff- but I did not get it. I felt like the author, who herself is a cat breeder, knows the subject so well she doesn't realize how little ordinary people grasp it. I then read the entire glossary so I'd understand all the unfamiliar words, and some of it is still incomprehensible to me. Well, that's fine, because the photographs by Tetsu Yamazaki are really what make this book stunning. Most of the book is breed profiles, many with two or three pages showing different colors and expressions of the breed, very beautiful and expressive pictures. My nine-year-old demanded that I give her this book when she caught me in the middle of reading it, because she wanted to look at all the adorable kitties! (I refused and loaned her my cat encyclopedia for bedtime reading; tonight we're going to trade).

There's one odd page, right before the glossary, that has a blurry graphic of a cat running, black with red outline- very rough and feel completely out-of-place in a book full of exquisite photographs. Why they didn't just put another cat photo on that page- like on the title page and front flap- I don't get. Also, I learned a sad fact about the Manx- correct me if I'm wrong, but it sounds like the gene for tailless is dominant, and must be paired with a recessive gene for regular tail, which makes the cat born with no tail. If there are both dominant genes, the kittens die before they're born because the spine never forms completely. So that's why the Manx is rare, because so many kittens die for every healthy Manx that lives. I think that's very sad. (The Japanese bobtail has a different gene that causes its short tail, with no issues). Also I was surprised the book didn't mention health issues for other breeds- Persians and exotic shorthairs having flat faces which affects their breathing, for example.

Some photos in the book show cats in home settings, and this one is my favorite:

Rating: 3/5              137 pages, 1990

Red-Tails in Love

a Wildlife Drama in Central Park 

by Marie Winn

    In 1991, a rather light-colored red-tailed hawk was spotted by some regular bird-watchers in NYC's Central Park. Observers were excited to see the hawk engage in courtship display and win a mate. Their first nesting attempt was foiled by mobbing crows, but the next year the pair built a new nest on the side of a building, an unusual site for red-tailed hawks to choose. They laid eggs which failed to hatch, but later on had success- and eager bird-watchers counted the chicks, watched the parents going to and fro to feed them, witnessed the young hawks' first flight. Meanwhile they also did all they could to protect the birds without disturbing them- stepping in when the city poisoned rats and pigeons, or when maintenance workers attempted to remove the nest. The notably pale hawk is a mainstay through the story, but had several different mates in a row- and one that apparently returned to him later on- because some of them met with misfortune. The book isn't all about the hawks though- in fact I'd say it's more about birds of all kinds in Central Park and the people- from dedicated scientists and locals to visiting tourists who never took an interest before. There are downy woodpeckers, saw-whet owls, flickers, green herons, killdeer and one rare seagull escaped from a zoo mentioned in particular, and many many more species mentioned just as sightings. The account as a whole is really engaging and lovely to read, although I felt the title and jacket description a bit misleading since the hawks aren't the entire focus of it. The hawk pair became pretty famous for thriving and raising so many young year after year in the heart of New York City; if you just do a search for Pale Male you can find plenty of websites with photos or video and more books about him. 

Rating: 3/5                   333 pages, 1998

More opinions: Living 2 Read

anyone else?

The Goshawk

by T.H. White

     Relates a time when the author bought a young wild goshawk and attempted to tame it, using several old books on falconry as a guide- with outdated methods. I am not, of course, a falconer myself but I've read just enough about it to recognize when things were going wrong. White admired and loved the bird for its fierce beauty, but also seemed to mostly want to dominate it and take pride in forcing it to his will- so it seemed to be all one step forward and two steps back. He didn't have a mentor and succumbed to very human failings- frustration, impatience, brash decisions. Some of the scenes are hard to read, I cringed for the bird. But there's also riveting descriptions, and interesting little asides (also many that really wandered or at least I had no frame of reference). My favorite passage was how the hawk carefully examined water when once he was set on a board in a small pool, and eventually dipped his feathers to bathe. I liked very much the author's joy and satisfaction in figuring out and making things to use in his endeavors. Also appreciated how brutally honest the whole account was- White tells at the end, how later on he successfully trained other hawks (using more modern methods I gather) and explains plainly how many of his efforts didn't work and why, in hindsight. If I hadn't read H is for Hawk I might not have approached this one, so I'm very glad I read the other first, as it gave me more perspective. 

Rating: 4/5            215 pages, 1951

more opinions: Vulpes Libris

anyone else?

The Village Horse Doctor

West of the Pecos 

by Ben K. Green

     This one was plenty interesting and got a few chuckles from me as well. Has a lot of similar subject material to The Time It Never Rained, but it's more lighthearted in tone and feels like you're listening to someone sitting telling you tales. Some of the stories are very brief, others draw out over several chapters. It's also about ranching in a dry area of Texas, but in this case the author is relating his own experiences, working as a veterinarian. He travelled vast distances to treat and care for rancher's livestock- namely sheep but also horses, cattle and sometimes pet dogs and cats. He tells of his early years trying to get a foothold in the region and gain the trust of the local people, and of his ongoing efforts to diagnose illnesses caused by animals eating toxic desert plants- especially during times of drought. He ran a small laboratory and describes his methods of inquiry- doing postmortems on dead livestock, taking samples of plants, stomach contents, etc and extracting the toxins, even how in a few cases he developed medicine specific to plant issues in the region- and the great difficulties in getting the medicines made so he could distribute them. In many cases his efforts to find out what had caused animals to sicken or die took a lot of thought and sleuthing, which is engaging to read about. Sometimes when all the adults were at a loss, it would be some keen observations made by children on the ranch that helped him figure it out. He's also pretty good at drawing character studies and pointing out failings of human nature around him, admiring jobs well done and fine animals, watching shady deals happen, being somewhat involved in local horse racing, and so on. At one point he has to deal with a rabies scare, during another time a serious outbreak of sleeping sickness among horses. The strangest case was when he saved a horse's eye by extracting a foreign object that somehow got into the eye socket behind the eyeball- it was a glass marble. I'm still scratching my head over that one. Overall a rather a different slant from the other Ben K. Green books I've read before, and quite enjoyable.

Rating: 4/5                306 pages, 1971

Wild Ones

-Looking at People Looking at Animals in America

by Jon Mooallem

     In this book the author explores the attitudes of everyday people to threatened and endangered wildlife, and the convoluted efforts of conservationists and scientists to save them. Convoluted because the more closely you look at each issue, the more insurmountable and unrealistic the effort appears to be- even though of course we can't bear to let go and stop trying. In this regard, it shared a lot of sentiment with Inheritors of the Earth- the world is going to keep changing, we have now moved beyond the point of being able to halt our impacts on wildlife and the land.

It starts with the author deciding to visit three areas where he can see in person animal species that are struggling, on the brink of extinction as it were. For some of the trips he takes his young daughter along- so part of this is also looking at what children understand of wildlife issues (most young kids don't care and are very human-centric and selfish, he concludes, while older children express concern for the welfare of wild animals) and how his own three-year-old responds to seeing them. He goes to Churchill to view the polar bears- which every year face a longer stretch of fasting waiting for sea ice to form, while more cubs starve and never make it to adulthood. He goes to Antioch Dunes, a place where the endangered Lange's metalmark butterfly lives on one host plant species that thrives on shifting dunes- but by the time it was made into a wildlife refuge so much sand had been mined and trucked away the ecosystem changed drastically, and now it's only through the constant efforts of humans to eradicate 'weeds' and plant the butterfly's naked stem buckwheat that keeps the species going. Finally, he travels to Michigan to join the team of Operation Migration and see how whooping crane chicks, raised in captivity by men masked in crane costumes, are led by ultralight planes on their first migration. In each case, the author talks with scientists, conservationists, and bystanders alike. He interviews the camera crews and the host who puts out birdseed (whooping cranes unexpectedly visited her yard). He talks about shifting baselines, how the public's perception of wildlife issues is influenced and changes over the years, how charismatic species get all the attention while lesser-known and smaller ones quietly disappear. There's discussion on how bison were nearly wiped out and since recovered and how canada geese went from being seen as rare harbringers of changing seasons to outright pests. There's the true story about a humpback whale that swam up a river and stranded itself- and so many people came to view this one animal in trouble, they trampled all over the butterfly refuge which was even worse for that species and its host plant. The parts about the legal tangle of how individual species get protection, are listed or de-listed as endangered, and suffer from lack of funding, was a bit tedious to read through. 

But it becomes very clear that for many species, people are obviously propping them up, and if we withdrew our support, they would simply disappear- in some cases, very quickly. How long do we continue that effort? (For example, the whooping cranes led by aircraft on their flight paths have successfully migrated on their own afterwards- considered a success because now they can live free of human assistance. But when this book was written, none of them had raised their own chicks. So that population could only continue if people kept hatching, raising and releasing cranes to supplement it. Never was self-sustaining). I don't know what to think of the message this book gives me. On the one hand, it's encouraging to see how many people do care about wildlife and are going to great efforts to help our fellow creatures survive- even if some of them don't act as wild as they used to (whooping cranes visiting bird feeders, whitetail deer in backyards). On the other hand, the glum none-of-this-matters-in-the-end attitude makes me feel very depressed. What we have done to our Earth is dismal. As long as humans keep taking up so much space and increasing our numbers and use of resources, I don't see how things can change or even be sustainable. Much less remain habitable for the diversity of species it once supported, in the long run.

Note: I shortened the subtitle in my heading. In entirety it is: A Sometimes Dismaying, Weirdly Reassuring Story About Looking at People Looking at Animals in America.

Rating: 4/5                339 pages, 2013

Summer World

by Bernd Heinrich

I've been wanting to read this one a long time, ever since I read Winter World by the same author. Somehow, it wasn't quite as good, but still very satisfying. Based mostly on first-hand observations made on his property in the Maine woods (and sometimes in Vermont), he goes into minute detail about how trees and wildlife prepare for and make the best of the warm summer months. The wildlife part really only covers small creatures- birds, frogs and insects- but of those I learned a great deal. Particularly the insects. There were many mentioned in this book that I never even heard of before, much less knew the particulars of how they live. Lovely details on just watching closely what is going on around us in the plant and animal world, and investigating when questions arise: why does this do this? or that the other? (although an answer is not always arrived at or given). Interesting observations on the raids of ants and laments about the loss of bees. In particular a few sentences at the very end of the book filled me with a sense of dread and fear- how warmer winters lately are killing off populations of insects that are the very basis of the food chain- and not in ways I would have expected. Not in ways that are easily overcome or undone, either. I was surprised (although I shouldn't be) at how the book digressed in a few places- there's a chapter that talks about how animals survive the desert heat in other places, and one speculating on the lives of prehistoric humans. I could see how parts of this book got developed later into the full-fledged Why We Run and Life Everlasting, but it made the latter half of Summer World feel a tad unfocused. 

Also, this little detail keeps bugging me, although it has nothing to do with the book itself, really. In the front endpapers, there's the usual collection of quotes praising the book. One by an unnamed writer in the Los Angeles Times says "Bernd Heinrich is one of our greatest living naturalists in the tradition of Gerald Durrell; he's John Muir (without the wandering), Edward Abbey (without the politics), Jacques Cousteau (without the ocean), Ernest Seton (without the talking animals) . . . " This guy got his comparisons wrong. I've read fourteen books by Seton, and there are no talking animals! They show emotions, and the storytelling is lively, but they definitely don't talk.

Rating: 4/5                       253 pages, 2009

Bandit

Dossier of a Dangerous Dog

by Vicki Hearne

This is the difficult book I have been reading intermittent with all the latest Animorphs. I'd read a chapter, or sometimes only a few paragraphs or even just one sentence, before my head would hurt or I couldn't focus anymore and had to switch to something lighter. (Not that Animorphs are light in subject matter, but the writing style is far easier on the brain!)

Vicki Hearne was an animal trainer and in 1987 she got involved in a court case about a dog named Bandit who bit someone. He bit a woman who was attacking another person on his property, which Hearne feels was wholly justified by the animal's way of reasoning, but there was a huge outcry about the dog being vicious, uncontrollable and dangerous. The dog was impounded and during that time probably mistreated; when he was finally returned home he urinated on the front porch and his owner smacked him so the dog bit his arm. Bandit was taken away again, and this time due to get euthanized but the author argued for him, so he was given into her custody to see if she could train him. Into better behavior supposedly, but the evaluations of this and all other things regarding the issue were so complicated and messed up it's hard to say. Hearne feels that she did a good job training Bandit (and she had the utmost admiration for his staunch character as a dog), but she wasn't allowed to demonstrate his manners properly, so the restrictions set on him (to be always muzzled and on lead when out in public for example) were never lifted, nor was she able to return him to his original owner. 

The book is interesting because a lot of it is about how animals think and behave, and also how a lot of people assume they think and behave, but they're wrong. Including, according to the author, many people in animal rescue work and humane societies. She has a lot of issues with them. And a lot of issues with how people can't be saying what they really mean, because their words, syntax or grammar don't make sense- she's very right about that in my opinion but it sure put my thoughts in a tangle to tease out understanding of how she explains these examples. The most straightforward being, that she considered the ban against pit bull dogs nonsensical because there is no such actual breed, and saying any "type of pit bull dog" is open to a lot of interpretation. In a lot of cases though, the author veers off into widely different subjects and sometimes I could not make head or tail of what she was saying anymore. She studied philosophy and wrote poetry which is all very evident in her writing style and thought process, and I just didn't get it. Sometimes I didn't even get a single sentence that covered a third of the page, read it three times, scratched my head what and had to put the book down. Also there's quite a few instances where she describes and analyzes some artwork- paintings and sculptures- and what they say about dogs (or horses) or our ideas about what dogs and horses are like. Except search as I might, I couldn't find the actual pieces she referred to, aside from one by Degas, and I did not at all see what Hearne did, in the painting. Another example mentioned several times is the Capitoline Wolf sculpture, which she says must really be of a dog. I kinda get her point there?

This title had been in the back of my mind for years- placed on a mental TBR so long ago it wasn't even on the handwritten paper list I kept before the blog. Yet still it leaped out at me when I saw it secondhand, and I'm glad I struggled through reading it, at least this once. I would have given it a 4 if I had been able to understand some of it a little better.

Rating: 3/5               307 pages, 1991

Homer's Odyssey

A Fearless Feline Tale

by Gwen Cooper

  or How I Learned About Love and life with a Blind Wonder Cat. Homer is a small, black cat. He was found as a very young stray and brought into a vet's office with a terrible eye infection. The vet had to remove his eyes to save his life, and then tried to find him a home. Gwen took him in. Even though he couldn't see, Homer soon found his way around the apartment by touch; his hearing and sense of smell were also remarkably sensitive. The story recounts his many exploits- some funny, others just amazing, or incredibly brave- he once chased an intruder from their home, and regularly would climb heights or leap up onto furniture, shelves, etc that he knew were there even though couldn't see it. Funny how Gwen was the vet's last resort before sending Homer to a shelter- nobody wanted a blind kitten- yet as Gwen's friends, roommates and family got to know Homer, everybody loved him. She always had offers to leave him behind if she couldn't keep him (she had two other cats). He was just so engaging, bold, inquisitive and amusing. Most of all, his audacity and eagerness to be involved in life inspired Gwen when she had difficulties of her own. I thought the book would get tiresome when it shifted from talking mostly about the blind kitten to going over Gwen's struggles to find a new place to live, deal with a string of job losses, relationships with different boyfriends, moving back in with her parents and then out again- but through it all, her concern for her cats, especially Homer's safety- and tying things she learned from them back into her own story kept it intriguing. Then near the end of the book, something huge happens which I did not see coming, and I suddenly could not put the it down. I knew (of course) of this incident but had never read the aftermath described in such detail. This was a much better read than I expected going into it. Even the final chapters, about a new relationship the author got into, and how her three cats won over her boyfriend-then-husband (who was much more of a "dog person" at first) was really good. Four stars.

Rating: 4/5               299 pages, 2009

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Making the Rounds with Oscar

the Extraordinary Gift of an Ordinary Cat
by David Dosa, M.D.

In spite of it's serious subject matter, this book was a light read- I finished it in two days. The author is a doctor who works at a nursing home that provides end of life care, where many of the patients have dementia. This nursing home welcomes animals- there are six cats in residence (also a bird, I think but that didn't get much mention). The cats provide comfort and distraction to the residents. One of them, Oscar, caught the attention of visiting family members and staff- he's not a very social cat, but when a patient is within a few hours of death, Oscar enters the room and sits on the bed until the end. The doctor was skeptical about this at first, until he started asking details and opinions from those who had seen Oscar performing his vigils. He couldn't deny there was something unusual- and very comforting- in the cat's behavior. Most of the book is actually stories about patients and their families, especially how they come to terms with later stages of Alzheimer's, and make difficult decisions about care and treatment. The cat kind of feels like a side note for most of this. I found it all very thoughtful and compassionate, a good read even though it's not mainly about the cat, as the cover might lead you to expect. There is some speculation near the end about how Oscar could actually know when someone was near death- he never appeared to be wrong- and maybe it was from a scenting a chemical given off by cell death. Like how dogs can sniff cancer. There's also mention of cases where people have been ill, and their cat sits with them unusually close, for longer periods, sometimes never leaving the bed. Certainly seems like they can sense more than we often give them credit for.

Rating: 3/5              225 pages, 2010

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