Animal Blessings: Prayers and Poems Celebrating Our Pets - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0062516450 ISBN 13: 9780062516459

Publisher: Harperone, 2000

Synopsis

Our pets. They are our loyal companions and our faithful friends, a constant source of joy and inspiration. In this endearing anthology of prayers and poems, June Cotner has handpicked choice writings by some of the world's most notable animal lovers to celebrate the playful, the poignant, and the profound ways these wonderful creatures touch our daily lives.Selections include Emily Dickinson's astute observations of her cat, Roger Caras' thoughts about the love a dog brings to a home, and a cat's rules for running a house. Readers will be delighted by Anne Porter's poem exalting a spring symphony of peepers and Rumi in praise of birds in flight. The section "Partings" includes Annie Dougherty's lovely poem "Time to Say Good-bye" and Lord Byron's epitaph to his dog. "Reflections" includes the words of St. Francis, Jane Goodall, and Chief Seattle, reminding us that we are all interconnected beings, and James Herriot and Walt Whitman honoring the humble dignity of all creatures.Animal Blessings makes a wonderful gift for all animal lovers. This delightful volume is a charming companion that reminds us to be grateful for everything our pets and all the other animals of the world bring to our lives.

About this title

Review:

Sometimes it's easy to find the right gift for that difficult aunt: if she's devoted to her cat or dog, ship her a copy of Animal Blessings. The latest in a line of inspirational books from dog-lover June Cotner (she also wrote and edited Graces, Bedside Prayers and Get Well Wishes), this one, like the others, is slim, compact and filled with entries that melt into the mind as easily as M & Ms in the mouth. The writers range from the great (Whitman and Keats, Eckhart and Dostoyevsky) to children and Anonymous. So too do the entries vary widely: rarely extending beyond half a page, they move from the humorous ("Say something idiotic and nobody but a dog politely wags his tail") to the sublime (Eckhart's "If I spent enough time with the tiniest creature ... I would never have to prepare a sermon. So full of God is every creature") to the silly ("scratch a dog and you'll find a permanent job"). Given that there are more than 100 million cat and dog owners in the United States alone, this book should fill a niche in many of their lives. And where else can you find Doris Day next to Elizabeth Barrett Browning? --Doug Thorpe

Review:

"Bless yourself with love, joy, and inspiration by reading "Animal Blessings!"--Mark Victor Hanson, co-author, "Chicken Soup for the Soul series..".an adorable collection of special thoughts on our animal friends."--"USA Today

About this edition

• Publisher: Harperone
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0062516450
• ISBN 13: 9780062516459
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 168
• Editor: Cotner June