The Animal's Companion
People & Their Pets, a 26,000-Year Love Story
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Narrated by:
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Nicola Barber
About this listen
A New York Times best-selling author's compelling portrait of the universal human need for animal companions—from dogs and cats to horses, birds, house rabbits, and even exotica such as lizards and snakes.
In The Animal's Companion, the acclaimed author of Red: A History of the Redhead, Jacky Colliss Harvey, turns her keen eye for cultural investigation and her remarkable storytelling skills to a pet project: the history of animals as our companions in everyday life. It's a history that dates back as far as 26,000 years ago to a cave in France where anthropologists have since discovered evidence of a boy and his dog taking a walk together. From this point forward, Colliss Harvey takes us on a sweeping journey through centuries and across continents to examine how our relationships with our pets have developed but have also stayed very much the same.
Along the way, she shares delightful stories of the most famous, endearing, and sometimes eccentric pet owners throughout history.
©2019 Jacky Colliss Harvey (P)2019 Hachette AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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How to Tame a Fox (and Build a Dog)
- Visionary Scientists and a Siberian Tale of Jump-Started Evolution
- By: Lyudmila Trut, Lee Alan Dugatkin
- Narrated by: Joe Hempel
- Length: 7 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Tucked away in Siberia, there are furry, four-legged creatures with wagging tails and floppy ears that are as docile and friendly as any lapdog. But, despite appearances, these are not dogs - they are foxes. They are the result of the most astonishing experiment in breeding ever undertaken - imagine speeding up thousands of years of evolution into a few decades. In 1959, biologists Dmitri Belyaev and Lyudmila Trut set out to do just that, by starting with a few dozen silver foxes from fox farms in the USSR and attempting to recreate the evolution of wolves into dogs in real time.
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Amazing
- By paul on 10-26-17
By: Lyudmila Trut, and others
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The Bonobo and the Atheist
- By: Frans de Waal
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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In this lively and illuminating discussion of his landmark research, esteemed primatologist Frans de Waal argues that human morality is not imposed from above but instead comes from within. Moral behavior does not begin and end with religion but is in fact a product of evolution. For many years, de Waal has observed chimpanzees soothe distressed neighbors and bonobos share their food. Now he delivers fascinating fresh evidence for the seeds of ethical behavior in primate societies that further cements the case for the biological origins of human fairness.
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Great research on apes, bad research on humans
- By Christian Bonnell on 07-18-14
By: Frans de Waal
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Our Wild Calling
- How Connecting with Animals Can Transform Our Lives - and Save Theirs
- By: Richard Louv
- Narrated by: Graham Winton
- Length: 11 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Richard Louv's landmark book, Last Child in the Woods, inspired an international movement to connect children and nature. Now Louv redefines the future of human-animal coexistence. Our Wild Calling explores these powerful and mysterious bonds and how they can transform our mental, physical, and spiritual lives, serve as an antidote to the growing epidemic of human loneliness, and help us tap into the empathy required to preserve life on Earth.
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Sharing our world
- By Scott Br on 10-06-21
By: Richard Louv
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Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover's Soul
- Stories About Pets as Teachers, Healers, Heroes and Friends
- By: Carol Kline, Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, and others
- Narrated by: Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen
- Length: 1 hr and 14 mins
- Abridged
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Animals bring out the goodness, humanity, and optimism in people and speak directly to our souls. This joyous, inspiring, and entertaining Chicken Soup collection relates the unique bonds between animals and the people whose lives they've changed: such as the dolphins who helped a paralyzed woman heal when doctors offered little hope; the dog who brought life into a failing marriage; the kitten who helped a mother mourn; and the flying squirrel who taught a man the power of laughter.
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sad
- By Em on 03-26-22
By: Carol Kline, and others
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Cat Sense
- How the New Feline Science Can Make You a Better Friend to Your Pet
- By: John Bradshaw
- Narrated by: Graeme Malcolm
- Length: 11 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Cats have been popular household pets for thousands of years, and their numbers only continue to rise. Today there are three cats for every dog on the planet, and yet cats remain more mysterious, even to their most adoring owners. In Cat Sense, renowned anthrozoologist John Bradshaw takes us further into the mind of the domestic cat than ever before, using cutting-edge scientific research to explain the true nature - and needs - of our feline friends. Tracing the cat’s evolution from solitary hunter to domesticated companion, Bradshaw shows that cats remain independent, predatory, and wary of social contact.
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Not what I had expected
- By Terry on 03-11-14
By: John Bradshaw
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The Underdogs
- Children, Dogs, and the Power of Unconditional Love
- By: Melissa Fay Greene
- Narrated by: Christina Delaine
- Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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The Underdogs tells the story of Karen Shirk, felled at age 24 by a neuromuscular disease and facing life as a ventilator-dependent, immobile patient, who was turned down by every service dog agency in the country because she was "too disabled". Her nurse encouraged her to tone down the suicidal thoughts, find a puppy, and raise her own service dog. Karen did this, and Ben, a German shepherd, dragged her back into life.
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A nice good read!
- By Natalie Baranski on 04-05-22
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A Big Little Life
- A Memoir of a Joyful Dog Named Trixie
- By: Dean Koontz
- Narrated by: Christopher Lane
- Length: 6 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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In a profound, funny, and beautifully rendered portrait of a beloved companion, bestselling novelist Dean Koontz remembers the golden retriever who changed his life. A retired service dog, Trixie was three when Dean and his wife, Gerda, welcomed her into their home. She was superbly trained, but her greatest gifts couldn’t be taught: her keen intelligence, her innate joy, and an uncanny knack for living in the moment.
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Indescribable.... I was totally captivated!
- By Leigh on 04-11-13
By: Dean Koontz
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The Good Good Pig
- The Extraordinary Life of Christopher Hogwood
- By: Sy Montgomery
- Narrated by: Xe Sands
- Length: 5 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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A naturalist who spent months at a time living on her own among wild creatures in remote jungles, Sy Montgomery had always felt more comfortable with animals than with people. So she gladly opened her heart to a sick piglet who had been crowded away from nourishing meals by his stronger siblings. Yet Sy had no inkling that this piglet, later named Christopher Hogwood, would not only survive but flourish.
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Uplifting memoir of a pig + autobiography
- By Diana on 04-04-19
By: Sy Montgomery
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The Zookeeper's Wife
- A War Story
- By: Diane Ackerman
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
- Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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When Germany invaded Poland, bombers devastated Warsaw - and the city's zoo along with it. With most of their animals dead, zookeepers Jan and Antonina Zabinski began smuggling Jews into the empty cages. Another dozen "guests" hid inside the Zabinskis' villa, emerging after dark for dinner, socializing, and, during rare moments of calm, piano concerts.
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Very Disappointing, Terrible Narration
- By jTacy67 on 07-16-08
By: Diane Ackerman
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A Dog Walks into a Nursing Home
- Lessons in the Good Life from an Unlikely Teacher
- By: Sue Halpern
- Narrated by: Karen White
- Length: 7 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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At loose ends with her daughter leaving home and her husband on the road, Sue Halpern decided to give herself and Pransky, her under-occupied Labradoodle, a new leash - er, lease - on life by getting the two of them certified as a therapy dog team. Smart, spirited, and instinctively compassionate, Pransky turned out to be not only a terrific therapist but an unerring moral compass. In the unlikely sounding arena of a public nursing home, she led her teammate into a series of encounters with the residents that revealed depths of warmth, humor, and insight Halpern hadn't expected.
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my mistake!
- By joyce on 02-02-14
By: Sue Halpern