Gone to the dogs

Do you think you can communicate with animals? Do they have feelings? Do they like to listen to music?
What do animals see?

Find the answers to these questions and more in the book

Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior by Temple Graham and Catherine Johnson.

How do animals think? How do people think? How do people with autism think? Why do these three groups have so much trouble communicating? This wonderful book throws together humorous animal stories, personal anecdotes, and scientific data to provide some intriguing answers. Grandin's new book on animal behavior draws on her experiences as both a scientist and an autistic person. Her compelling thesis is that there is a lot we still don't know about animal thought and learning but that her condition provides her with an insight into the issues that other people lack. Autism, Grandin argues, closely mimics the psychological condition of animals, in part because both lack facility with language. Indeed, she asserts that animals are autistic savants whose intelligence is unseen by most people. Library Journal


Animals are easily spooked by novelties that humans see as trivialities, such as high-pitched noises, drafts and dangling clothes. Other animals accomplish feats of obsessive concentration; squirrels really do remember where each acorn is buried. The portrait she paints of the mammalian mind is both alien and familiar; she shows that beasts are capable of sadistic cruelty, remorse, superstition and surprising discernment (in one experiment, pigeons were taught to distinguish between early period Picasso and Monet). Publisher's Weekly

You can find this book at call number
QL
751
.G73
2005





Or, if you want something a little lighter on the brain cells try:
 Funny Dogs edited by J.C. Suares. 

Filled with amusing and poignant anecdotes by such writers as James Thurber and Mark Twain, this companion volume to Funny Cats makes us laugh aloud at the antics of our canine friends. Fifty illustrations, including vintage images, display dogs at their most playful and unpredictable. (Publisher's description)

Call number 

SF

430
.F85

1995



I especially like the photo on the back cover by Czech photographer Antonin Maly:

Take a look at Maly's web site too:  http://www.antoninmaly.cz/en/ 

Pictures of chickens!

OK.  Want to do something REALLY mindless?  Take a look at
Upside Down Dogs.  Sheesh.

This day is another good one.  Do something in the sun today.

Bookishly yours,

Ingrid