As an emergency room clinician four years out of veterinary school, Dr. Vint Virga had a life-changing experience: he witnessed the power of simple human contact and compassion to affect the recovery of a dog struggling to survive after being hit by a car. Observing firsthand the remarkably strong connection between humans and animals inspired him to explore the world from the viewpoint of animals and taught him to respect the kinship that connects us.
With The Soul of All Living Creatures, Virga draws from his decades in veterinary practice to reveal how, by striving to perceive the world as animals do, we can enrich our own appreciation of life, enhance our character, nurture our relationships, improve our communication with others, reorder our values, and deepen our grasp of spirituality. Virga discerningly illuminates basic traits shared by both humans and animals and makes animal behavior meaningful, relevant, and easy to understand. Insightful and eloquent, The Soul of All Living Creatures offers an intimate journey into the lives of our fellow creatures and a thought-provoking promise of what we can learn from spending time with them.
My Impressions:
Beautifully wrote book that reminds us of the importance of animals in our lives. They are our companions, our comfort in times of sorrow, our friend in times of joy, our protector in times of trouble and our family above all us. Inspiring and passionate book that teaches us how to embrace life, grow in character and morality, and how to gain insight into what is truly valuable and precious.
It was fascinating to read the authors take of basic traits that we share with animals. Really intriguing and eye opening. I enjoyed reading about the impact Dr. Virga has on improvements made to the zoos for a better quality of living for all animals. I would love one day to walk into a zoo and not see concrete surrounding the animals, but more free roam, natural habitats. Small improvements are being made, but we have a long way to go still. The whole time I read this book I kept thinking about the documentary I watched on Sea World and how the mother wales cry for their children and will actually chase after the boats that take them. Heart breaking. I do not agree with everything that the author wrote though. Dogs and wolves do run in packs and there is always a alpha.
There are a couple negative thing I can say about this book. One is that I would have appreciated more practical tips and application on how to deal with some of the issues that are brought up. Secondly, I feel the author took some personal opinions about animals and tried to turn them into facts based on non-scientific evidence. Although for me this was a bit of a boring book it was still wrote beautifully and despite the writing style his message is a beautiful one. You can feel the authors love for animals and how desperate he is to convey that love through these pages.
Other than that I can recommend it to animal lovers everywhere that are into new age type philosophy.
About the Author:
Disclaimer: I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.
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