Get Your Hands On Dogs Have The Strangest Friends Other True Stories Of Animal Feelings Illustrated By Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson Offered As Digital Edition

in beautiful watercolor paintings, here are fifteen stories about both wild and domestic animals showing their capacity to feel emotions to love, share joy, feel sorrow, play tricks, help one another, and so on.
The graceful prose from this bestselling author can be read aloud story by story to younger children or by middlegrade readers on their own, Fun and interesting short stories about animals and their behavior, This is a quick read, Anyone who loves animals will find this book a good read, Masson distills his bestselling books on animal emotions into this volume for young readers, True stories of unusual friendships between species, as well as courageous acts of heroism by animals are profiled in this colorfullyillustrated book,

Friends is not just an enjoyable read for grade school animal lovers, but a tremendous humane education resource, as well, Masson, for example, explains the concept of empathy, a cornerstone of humane values:

When we see a dog chained up in a yard all by herself, looking lonely and sad, we cannot say that the dog feels exactly what we would feel if confined somewhere.
But we know for certain the dog is feeling something like what we feel when we are lonely, We can feel empathy for the dog, just as a dog who has lived with you for years knows when you feel sad and comes over to lick your face or your hand in sympathy.


We are, at times, reminded of both our differences and our similarities with the animal kingdom, After an especially touching story about an elephants dramatic rescue of her calf, the author notes:

We are not alone in our love for children.
Many animals share this with us,

An especially sobering thought when we ponder the ways we destroy the maternal bonds of these magnificent creatures: elephant herds are poached and “culled” before the eyes of their terrified youngsters, and circuses routinely pull baby elephants away from their mothers to put them on

the training and show circuit.


Friends would be a remarkable, proanimal work even if Masson had not inserted discussion of animal ethics into the mix, Happily, he does take this extra step, drawing his love for animals to his logical conclusion,

Many of us think we love animals, Some of us can carry that love pretty far, We take animals to doctors when they are sick we sleep in the same room with them we celebrate their birthdays we buy them toys and games.
I do not like the thought of eating my friends, so a while ago I stopped eating animal flesh,

Despite some awkward lines here and there, this ones an animal ethics winner, The only complaint I have is relatively minor: the illustrator depicts images of African elephants even when the stories clearly identify the principal subjects as Asian elephants.


I purchased this book for my library,
He has written several books books critical of psychoanalysis, psychotherapy and psychiatry as well as books on animals, their emotions and their rights, He currently lives in New Zealand with his wife, two sons, three cats and three rats, .