Description:
Some things you didn't want to know about working in an animal shelter.
Many things you ought to know.
More than a few things you need to know.
Brief description: Writer & poet Kat Brown worked in Bay Area animal shelters for more than thirty years. It is her life's work to bring these stories and essays forward for public (re)view. In these times of mass extinctions and habitat destruction, she finds this work more important than ever before.
Review Quotes: "While her dedication to the more-than-human world is obvious, Kat Brown is also a word lover, and can't resist that playground with chapter headings like Introduction/Intro-Duck-shun or entitling a scholarly chapter about shelter history and their internal workings, 'Making Do with Doo-Doo.' And don't be surprised, in the midst of a nail-biting scenario, to find her suddenly pouncing on a word's etymology and layered meanings, relentless as a terrier digging out a gopher. Each story is quite unique and some will live in my psyche forever. In one, a woman brings a monarch butterfly with a torn wing to the Animal Shelter front desk and asks, 'What can you do for this butterfly?' The worker, a youngish man with advanced AIDS, tells her the vet is very busy but what if they work together at the desk with super glue and repair the wing? Eventually, in this tiny tale that feels like a parable, the monarch is able to fly off, the kind worker dies, and the woman becomes a dedicated volunteer. What would this world be like if we treated all beings with such earnest respect and care?"-- "Earth Dialogues, online blog"