Newest Pets Reviews

Goodnight Buffy: Loving a Lakeland Terrier by Thomasina Price

Pets

Most dog owners will confess that even after a lifetime of ownership there is one dog who holds their heart. Often the close bond has been forged because of the dog’s ill health, although it never seems to be completely one-sided: an interdependence develops and dog and human seem to exist as one. The dog who stole my heart was a Rhodesian Ridgeback - for Thomasina Price it was Buffy the Lakeland Terrier. She had a traumatic start to life, found hiding in a shop doorway in Blackpool she was taken in by a young woman, but she, in turn contracted ovarian cancer and at the age of two Buffy came to what was at least her third home when she was fostered by Thomasina Price’s sister. Full review...

Rescuing Gus by Melissa Wareham

Children's Non-Fiction

Melissa Wareham was convinced that she must be adopted: how could someone like her who loved dogs have been born to parents who, well, wouldn't have them in the house? She wasn't even that convinced when her mother produced her birth certificate. Melissa wouldn't be able to have a dog until she had a home of her own but in the meantime she got a job at Battersea Dogs' Home and it was there that she met Gus. He wasn't in the first flush of youth and his breath was a weapon of mass destruction, but he and Melissa bonded and when he was very poorly - he had kennel cough - she took him home. Full review...

Little Lost Hedgehog (RSPCA Fiction) by Jill Hucklesby

Confident Readers

Grace Fallon was out in her garden one evening, doing what she did every night - making certain that her pet rabbits were fed, watered and safe. When she saw a movement in the flower bed she went to investigate and found a baby hedgehog - or a hoglet as they're correctly called. Wisely she didn't attempt to touch the animal but told her parents and then kept watch from inside the house. When the hoglet reappeared and looked rather distressed her mother rang the RSPCA and was told to give it some food - dog food and crushed dog biscuits (NEVER milk as it can make any hog very sick). Later someone from the RSPCA came round to collect the hoglet and take it to their centre for care. Full review...

The Big New Yorker Book of Dogs with Foreword by Malcolm Gladwell

Pets

I think it's fair to say that you're not even going to pick this book up unless you're a dog lover. If you've always yearned for a cat and shudder at the thought of early morning walks in the rain then this is definitely no the book for you. But - if you know, or are known by a dog then it's the equivalent of that massive hamper of chocolate delights to a chocoholic. Only a magazine like the New Yorker could raid its archives and produce such a massive compendium of humour, illustrations, essays, fiction, poems and cartoons about dogs, or have a cast of writers which could put many a bookshop to shame. Full review...

One Dog and His Man by Mike Henley

Pets

Oberon is a Labrador with a pedigree as long as your arm and One Dog and His Man is his story about what it's like living with the man he generously refers to as The Boss, about life in general and the ways of the world. Think of him as the canine equivalent of the parliamentary sketch writer, there to highlight the idiosyncrasies of human life and bring a gentle humour to situations which might otherwise be taken far too seriously. Before you wonder how this is possible - how a dog can write a book - let me remind you that dogs are very intelligent animals. After all, dogs and their humans might go to what are laughingly called 'dog training classes', but it's the humans who are trained, not the dogs. Full review...

Tricks and Games To Teach Your Dog: How to Turn Your Much-Loved Pet into an Accomplished Performer by Sophie Collins

Pets

Over a lifetime of owning dogs, from the small and nippy Jack Russells to the large and loving Rhodesian Ridgebacks, I've learned that the more you do with your dog - the more you interact - the better your dog will be. People say that they're not great conversationalists (personally I'd disagree) but they have a tremendous willingness to please and they love to have fun with you. Sophie Collins has put together a collections of tricks and games which you can teach your dog and they range from the sit, stay and down of basic training through to quite complicated tasks and agility training. There's something there for every size and every age. Full review...

The Puppy Diaries: Living with a Dog Named Scout by Jill Abramson

Pets

Jill Abramson had a dog whom she adored - a White West Highland by the name of Buddy - and after his death she wasn't certain that she wanted another dog. Would she bond with the newcomer? Would she always be comparing the pup with his predecessor? But - times change - and in 2009 Jill and her husband Henry brought home a Golden Retriever by the name of Scout. Over the following year Abramson wrote a column about raising Scout for the New York Times website and it's this column which forms the basis for 'The Puppy Diaries: Living With a Dog Named Scout'. Full review...

How to be a BAD Birdwatcher by Simon Barnes

Home and Family

Look out of the window.
See a bird
Enjoy it.
Congratulations. You are now a birdwatcher. Full review...

Dogs Never Lie About Love: Why Your Dog Will Always Love You More Than Anyone Else by Jeffrey Masson

Pets

Readers come to books for strange reasons but I don't think that I've ever before picked up a book, looked at the title and being intrigued not by what was suggested but by how anyone could think differently. 'Dogs Never Lie About Love' is a statement of the obvious to me. I've lived with and around dogs for most of my life and I know that dogs are incapable of pretence. I've never met a dog I couldn't trust: if it doesn't like me, it will tell me so straight away. It will not attempt to trick me. I only wish that I could say the same about most of the humans I encounter. Full review...

Canine Perspectives by David Cavill

Pets

David Cavill has spent much of his adult life around dogs, with the Finnish Spitz holding a special place in his heart. Amongst other things - he was founder of the Animal Care College, worked as a senior manager at Battersea Dogs' Home, judging and advising on the selection, care and training of pedigree and mongrel dogs - he wrote a regular column for Our Dogs newspaper and Dogs Monthly. It's these and other articles which are reproduced here and as there's a time span of fifteen years they allow the reader to see what has changed and - probably more importantly - what hasn't. Full review...

Archie the Guide Dog Puppy: Hero in Training by Sam Hay

Children's Non-Fiction

I don't often pick up a non-fiction book for the 7+ age group, find it riveting reading and informative about a subject with which I'm already familiar, but that was the case with Archie: Hero in Training. Archie is a puppy destined to be a guide dog for a blind person and he's just one story in a book about the pups-in-training, the working dogs, the adults who have guide dogs, or struggle to learn the techniques - or even what happens to the dogs who don't turn out to be what's needed. There's a full range as well as information about what a guide dog costs - and it's not cheap! Full review...

Pig in the Middle by Matt Whyman

Pets

I'm so pleased I read this book. It's only the occasional writer who grabs me by the short and curlies with his observation of human nature, but accomplished children's writer Matt Whyman not only grabbed me, but sold me on the mini-pigs as well. Full review...

The Book of Deadly Animals by Gordon Grice

Popular Science

Animals and humans have long mixed, even though the one has almost always proven capable of being lethal to the other. Many scientists in the past decided animals killing humans were aberrant, and that the real animal knew it was second best to humans, having been saved in the Ark, and respected our dominion over them. Even now, it seems, there are opinions that creatures attacking mankind are somehow rogue and need destroying. But where is the wrong in an animal behaving as its nature compels it? Similarly, the human wandering around the wilderness, or even the idiot woman feeding a black bear her own toddler's honey-dripping hand (true story - what the bear thought of the taste of honeyed fingers we don't know) is just the same in reverse - humans behaving as only humans can. Full review...