The Gist: Good morning everyone! We are into our second week of reading Animal Camp by Kathy Stevens. This has been a very enjoyable, easy read, and I hope you're having as much fun with it as I am. We've read the next 50 pages, which talk about the end of Stevens' summer camp with the three rescued farm animals—Franklin, Hope, and Tucker. They are returning to Catskill Animal Sanctuary, and she's interested in seeing how the three will adjust to living with other animals again. The transition isn't seemless for Tucker the cow or Franklin the pig, but Stevens makes some adjustments, and things work themselves out.The rest of our reading consists of different stories of animals in the sanctuary, and Stevens' experiences with them. One such story is about Norman the turkey, who's actually a girl, and who Stevens rescues during a frozen turkey bowling competition at Thanksgiving time. There's also Rambo the sheep and Hannah, the other sheep who's madly in love with him. The stories show the individual personalities of the animals.
The Discussion: I'm finding this book incredibly fun to read. Like I mentioned last week, I have never visited a farm sanctuary, so it's wonderful to read these stories. Here are two discussion points. I can't wait to read your comments!
1. Do you have a fun and interesting story about an animal's individual personality, like one of Stevens' lovely stories?
2. Have you ever rescued an animal? What happened, and what was the outcome?
The Assignment: Please read pages 96 to 148 of Animal Camp for our discussion on Monday, October 18.
~VN Book Club Hostess Lyndsay Orwig
I love this book. The stories have really cemented my commitment to being vegan. I had a dog, Girdie, she would save part of her food and drag the bowl around outside. We wondered why she did this until we saw her give it to a homeless dog. We had a dumpster up the street and people would drop their abandoned pets there. They would find their way to Girdie ,her food dish and her open heart. She would even share her dog house. This included cats as well.I really miss her. We could only keep one pet at the house and luckily for us we had a neighborhood that was willing to take animals or knew someone who would take them. It angers me that people abandon their pets, they should be responsible enough to try to find a place for them.
ReplyDeleteThis book is great and I want to read Kathy's other book Where The Blind Horse Sings. I hope she writes many more books. Her website is fantastic as well. Check it out.
1. My dog Pebbles used to sing along to the opera, in private, much like people sing in the shower. We would have an opera on, and when it came to the soaring vocal acrobatics of a particular aria, she would raise her head to the sky and howl along. Her pitch was pretty good! If we walked in on her, she'd run away and hide. Animals have such dynamic personalities, and no one seems to be more aware of that than Kathy Stevens! This book is so heartwarming.
ReplyDelete2. I have yet to rescue an animal, but my dream is to live on farmland with plenty of room for rescued dogs, and perhaps other animals, if I have people involved who know how to care for them properly!
Thanks for your comments Hope-g and Bobby! Those animal stories really made me smile, and made me remember my childhood pets. My family had a dog, Pepper, and a guinea pig, Samantha, whom we called Sam. Sam was no ordinary guinea pig—we took her outside so she could nibble on grass, and also let her roam the living room at times. This was before Pepper. Once Pepper arrived, she would literally guard Sam when outside. She wouldn't let anyone or anything come close to that guinea pig. It was always so fun to watch. I hope to read more of your stories, as well as your questions for Kathy!
ReplyDelete~VN Book Club Hostess Lyndsay Orwig
I want a dog like Girdie, mine will only chew on cats & bark at dogs.
ReplyDeleteAnimals are such individuals, I wish everyone could see that.
Throwing a question out there for Kathy Stevens. Ok, let's if I can phrase this properly.....How "easy" is it to get a sanctuary/rescue started? Do you need a lot of money behind you? What is the one thing someone should know (or few things)?
Basically I would kill to start my own rescue but of course I also need to afford my bills (nothing outlandish) but I need to be able to feed myself & the animals. What would she suggest?
Yikes! Where does Kathy get the chicken for her dog to eat???? Say what????
ReplyDelete"Have you ever rescued an animal? What happened, and what was the outcome?"
ReplyDeleteI once found a baby bird that I thought was a turkey vulture. We brought it to a local wildlife rehab center but it belonged at a farmed animal sanctuary. Turns out it was a turkey!
Twice I've seen cats hit by cars. Both times I stopped, wrapped the cat in a piece of cloth (towel or jacket) and put them in my car to take to the vet. Both times the cats died on the way. I was with them to experience their last breaths. It was HORRIBLE.
2 years ago a dog ran in front of our car. We stopped before we hit her and then we parked and took an hour to coax her into the car with us, take her to the vet to scan for a chip and look her over. We were just going to foster her a while and look for a home, but... as might be expected we fell in love and now she's living with us.
In other cases I've helped trap cats for TNR. And all of our 6 "pets" were rescued in some way or another, sometimes just us going to the shelter to adopt them.
I don't think that I could successfully run a sanctuary. I think it would just be too much for me.