I never been a pet person. My parents weren´t either - for too many reasons to explain right now - and although they never harmed an animal, they never allowed us to have pets. Not that we - me and my brother - didn´t insist - be it only for the pleasure of annoying my stepfather who was organically opposed of sharing his living realm with any kind of four-leg creature. But the answer was always a clear and loud ´no´. Even when I dared to bring up a small dog, hoping that will stay under my bed and take care of my room when I was to school, without figuring out that he may need a place for a toilet and also he may bark, both occurences diqualifying him automatically from receiving a resident permit in our house; the very moment when my stepfather stepped into the house, he started to bark violently, which left me with only 5 minutes to clean all the way up. After that, I never tried to bring any pet in the house, and when I was living on my own, I was too busy to take the responsibility of someone else.
Alas, an adult myself right now, I inherited the same opposition - although in a more gentle way - towards forcing pets to be my companions. Once in a while, I hear requests for acquiring a cat, or a dog or even a hamster that most probably will be left unanswered. Unless one day I will inherit a farm and will decide to leave my urban lifestyle behind and dedicate my time and energy to animals, not pets.
In fact, although the pets were absent from our upbringing, we had animals. We had hens and roosters - therefore, fresh eggs in the morning - and also a cat and a dog which had to fulfill some very specific functions in the household: catch a mouse, respectively guard the household safe from intruders. On my mother side, we often heard about stories about how fond my maternal grandfather was of horses, that even saved his life, and until today, horseback riding remains one of my favorite sports.
On Animals - which I had access to in audiobook format, narrated by the author herself - Susan Orlean is developing a topic that she previously approached in other books of her - in Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend, for instance - about the intersection between human and animal´s lives. A relationship that is going both ways, while maintaining the animal´s autonomy, without degrading them to a companionship level.
The personal experience plays a role in shaping the richness of an experience. After all, how many of us had a boyfriend bringing a lion to pet for Valentine´s? Or a husband - the same person, a couple of years after - wanting to offer a donkey as a birthday gift?
A couple of years ago, the international media reported about at least one country in the Middle East who launched a massive campaign of arresting squirrels, pigeons and dolphins and some eagles. who were suspected of being spies on behalf of a foreign power. On a more serious and documented note, Orlean is reporting about Tennessee mules - not the drink - dispatched to Afghanistan in order to help the mujahideens to carry on their supplies needed to fight the Soviet military.
Animals are everywhere. They may have invisible lives, as the cats in Manhattan or work as municipal workers in LA, as the goats who are operating as living mawn lowers. There are the working animals of Fez - mostly donkeys or Orlean´s own collection at her farm in Hudson Valley, of guineafowls - like Prince Charles and Camilla - and chicken and rabbits. Or the oxes transporting oil. Not to forget about the business of dead animals, taxidermy highlighting a different side - dark, still - of the relationship between we and animals, dead animals, to be precise.
On Animals is a reminder of how intertwined our lives are with animals. Even when we don´t own any pets. But animals not only sustain us - with meat and milk and eggs - but as responsible partners in the ecosystems but also as part of a larger nature-written story. The story are not only unique, interesting and well documented, but also remind us about the complexities of life and at what extent we still depend, at various extends of their existence. Not only for companionship.
Rating: 4.5 stars
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