A Small Furry Prayer: Dog Rescue and the Meaning of Life

Bring out tissues; I was crying before I was even through the preface. I will be processing A Small Furry Prayer for a long, long time.

Steven Kolter's writing is easily consumed, almost like breathing. Immediately, I could identify with Kolter, his situation in life and his love for dogs. It is exactly as I feel, but I can't live it the way he can. Because he did this without a financial safety belt. Because he did this despite chronic illness.

The real beauty of this novel lies in Kotler's quiet courage to willingly moved from Los Angeles to a remote, poverty strickened, drug riddled town in New Mexico to give these misfit, "lifer", unadoptable dogs grace and dignity. Sad, yes, because they die. But what a noble pursuit.

A Small Furry Prayer is a misleading title. To me Prayer suggests that the only thing that can save little dogs is god, when people are doing all the leg work in this non-fiction story of dog rescue and the scientific wonder that is the domesticated dog we know today.

A Small Furry Prayer? How about A Small Furry Marvel? Each chapter begins with Steven Kotler's personal stories detailing the pain and joy of dog rescue, and moves into scientific research done that explains what motivates him or the dogs to behave the way they do. I was hoping for an emphasis on the personal stories, but the science behind dog behavior was fascinating to me.

Earlier this year I read Animals in Translation by Temple Grandin. Many of the ideas I read about in show more that book were discussed in A Small Furry Prayer, and in fact, Animals in Translation was referenced in A Small Furry Prayer. One chapter brought up neoteny, which is what biologically makes dogs cuter and more baby-like, which in turn makes people want to take care of them. The notion that dogs and people co-evolved was also introduced in Animals in Translation, but it was gone into with more detail in this book. Aldous Huxley and Aldo Leopold, two other authors I've read in the past few years, were also referenced. If Glee was a book, this was my Mash-Up.

Aside from reading research that tells us why dogs can be homosexual and why dogs might choose to do drugs, there are some funny quotes. My favorites are, "...despite all evidence to the contrary, this was in fact my life."

and,

"Sure, my posse was mostly crippled Chihuahuas, but you'd be surprised how much ass a crippled Chihuahua can kick."

He also swears a lot which I just thought was fun!

Mr. Kotler proposes that dogs are a part of people, have complicated brains capable of thinking, love and altruism, and deserve more than euthanasia in an overcrowded shelter. His ideas may seem idealistic, but it makes me feel good to know there are people like him in the world. show less

The subtitle for this book sums it up perfectly; Dog Rescue and the Meaning of Life. Half the book tells the story of how Kotler came to the vocation of dog rescue and his experiences, with the rest consisting of a free-flowing, philosophy "lite" of his thoughts and feelings. These begin with dogs, but move onto pretty much everything.

I was very interested in Kotler's concrete experiences running a dog rescue in rural New Mexico and much less interested in his musings about the meaning of life. So, for me, half of this book was great.

I enjoyed this book for many reasons, as it certainly made me think about humans and their relationship to dogs and other creatures. At first, I wondered why anyone would be crazy enough to devote their whole life to dog rescue, at huge personal expense, no remuneration, and lots of trouble and hours of sometimes very unpleasant work. The author attempts to answer that question, and along the way delves into a lot of the scientific research about our human understanding of animals and dogs in particular, as well as questions of altruism and spiritualism. The stories of small triumphs and heartbreak spread throughout the book are what kept me turning the pages. Dog rescue is not for the faint of heart, and brings you face to face with show more human evil and even just the small references to it really make me despair about the human race. Thankfully, there are also people like the author and his wife Joy who try to make a difference and combat the evil. Although I still think they have to be a bit crazy, I can now understand why they do it, for the miraculous and joyful difference they see in many of their dogs, and the spiritual connection they feel with another species.

What I like about the book is that it contains a lot of humour, and the author tells it like it is, and does not romanticize his life, including a long period of depression and despair when a number of dogs died or had to be put down. The book is authentic and well worth reading. There is a good chance you will learn a lot as well. show less

The best ARC I've had the opportunity to review/read. Mr. Kotler is a journalist and it shows in his well-researched writing. This is not just a dry recitation of facts about life on the farm where he and his wife Joy take in rescue dogs. Far from it. This is a love story; a story of how a man becomes one with the animals he rescues, how he helps to heal their broken psyches and heals himself in the process.

He studies and writes about dog-human relations from every angle and throughout time. He even looks at it from religion/spirituality and from the depths of neuroscience. But the best information comes from his stories and examples of the dogs themselves. Sometimes heartbreaking and frequently amazing, the work that Steve and Joy are show more doing is beautiful and something that most people could not do. I know I couldn't! His descriptions of morning wanders through his dark house and what comes to be known as "shit foot" would end my attempts to be a rescuer quickly. (One small example... but the "vomit mouth" experience was the real clincher!)

Inspiring, full of humor, and sad too, I can recommend this book to any lover of dogs or other animals. You will learn something new about them and gain respect for their intellect! show less

A Small Furry Prayer was not what I expected. I expected a warm and fuzzy book like Marley & Me. What I got was a delightful collection of essays on dog behavior, religion, philosophy, death, shamanism, canine/human history, travel, psychology, and face recognition software along with the dog rescue stuff. They all related in some fashion back to dogs, even if on the most tenuous thread. I really liked the journalistic writing style. It wasn’t cold and factual though, he wrote with warmth especially when it came to his wife and the dogs they rescued.

I have been turning over and over again about how to write this review. To me, there were two books in one. One book is about the personal experiences of the couple with the dog rescue in northern Arizona and the other is related or not sometimes not of philosophy of religion and animal research.

The part that I enjoyed was the telling of Joy, Steven Kotler’s almost saint like wife and his relationship to her and the dogs. Both of them had chronic illnesses. She has Lupus and he has Lyme disease. So both of them were limited physically in what they could do by their immunological diseases. Joy seemed to be driven in her desire to run a shelter operation. I didn’t know before reading that the many of the rescue dogs are often so feral show more that they could never be pets. They might seek the heat of a human’s body for warmth at night but if that human woke up and started to get out of bed, the dogs might bite them.

The couple moved from Southern California to Chimayo, New Mexico soon after starting their rescue operation. Partly because the place they rented was going to be sold. I had some hunches about which dogs from shelter would be most adopted. I knew without saying that the puppies that are cute and cuddly and especially those that were already housebroken are the first to be adopted. I didn’t know that the color of the dog’s coat made a difference. When searching for a dog in the pound that would be considered a candidate, they looked for the shy, the handicapped, deaf, blind, drooling, chewy, dogs who were probably not housebroken.

I learned that I probably would never be up to heartache and the disappointment of running a dog rescue operation. Joy loved the dogs so much, that it was love me and the dogs or we don’t get together. So since Steve loved her, he decided to accept the dogs and was surprised to find that he was profoundly grief stricken when they died, often of old age.

Now, the part I didn’t like. This may be because of my educational background. I took philosophy and philosophy of religion course and a full year of animal behavior courses. I have also read a great deal about animal intelligence and behavior. That is why, when the author would discuss a study or an animal story, I felt irritated. When I decided to read this book, mainly because of the endearing cover of a dog looking so forlorn, I didn’t expect to review all or most of the material that I had already covered in college. I started skipping through the book whenever a study or a religion thought was discussed.

If you are different from me and are interested in animal rescue operations, love dogs but haven’t read many animal studies than you will probably love this book and wonder at how many things we know about animals and dogs and familiar. But if you are already well schooled in this topic you might not learn very much from this book and will be disappointing.

I received this book from the Library Thing program and that in no way influenced any part of my review. show less