Inspiring Animal Tales: Heartwarming Stories of Courage and Devotion.

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

Each of these titles contain nine examples of animal-human interactions, accounts of true situations in which animals demonstrate outstanding amounts of devotion, trust, loyalty, bravery, and selflessness.

Inspiring Animal Tales includes stories of people who rescue and heal animals, and of the animals that give healing and love in return. Examples include a police dog, service dogs that work with autistic children, a horse that played a key role in a woman’s rehabilitation after a car accident, and a group of dogs that learned sign language. There’s an account of a sanctuary for exotic animals rescued from zoos, of the Donkey Sanctuary of Canada, and of the Second Flight Parrot Sanctuary. The stories are from Ontario.

Celebrated Pets gives a brief historical perspective on pet ownership in early Canada, then turns to examples of animals that became well known in their day, such as Jumbo the elephant, kept happy with Scotch whisky when he was brought to the U.S. from England in 1882. Equally famous was the Manitoba bear cub that became Winnie-the-Pooh. (After A.A. Milne’s books and the “Disney-fying” of the honey-loving bear, it’s good to be reminded that “Winnie” was named for Winnipeg.) Other animals to achieve fame in Canada include the beaver kits raised by Grey Owl, Prime Minister Mackenzie King’s three dogs (all named Pat), and Emily Carr’s monkey/parrot team that cooperated to answer the phone.

The work includes commentary on and examples of the changing standards of what humane treatment of animals meant at different points in our history.

The books each have a smooth, easy-to-read style. The content is of the heartwarming variety yet not maudlin. The animal subjects are handled with dignity and respect, keeping the accounts factual without exaggeration or excessively dwelling on the sentimental.