5 comments about Test Your Cat's Mental Health.

1. This is a short book (80 pages) about cats, and the weird things they do. There really isn't a lot of reading involved - this is more of a pictorial. Very good, descriptive pictures portray the things we love about cats the most - their weirdness and individuality (or so you thought until you see this book & realize ALL cats do this stuff!)
   
   For the cat lover - this book is a must! You will thoroughly enjoy this fun loving book! Included is a Kitty Weirdness Scale (KWS) so that you can score your own cat and compare him/her to other cats. One excerpt; 275 points or more "Verify that your animal is not a Tasmanian Devil."
   
   A few of my personal favorites in this book include Laziness, Drinking, Body Language, and (I'm sorry to say it) Barfing. These pictures are the best in describing cats and the (definately weird) things they do!!
   
   Enjoy! I sure did!!
   
   1smileycat :-)



2. Great book with brilliant art pictorial descriptions of weird behavior. I am afraid that all of mine are off the scale. However it id difficult to find a behavior that is not in the book. With the exception of washing the caned food in the water dish like some sort of raccoon.
   In the back of the book is an attempt to help you deal with these little (ok maybe big) wierdies.



3. My cats...you should meet them, they're insane. And until I bought this book, I thought that a) I was the only one with odd cats and b) perhaps my perceptions were clouded. No, it's true, my beadspread sucking, flapping and screaming, last pair of pantyhose shredding, gettin' stuck on the roof overnight, fighting with the wrong dogg kitties, all 12 of them, just test really high in the KWS, or Kitty Wierdness Scale. Missy Dizick writes from the perspective of a person who could only have many very wierd cats who shred seedlings, eat wierd stuff, and so on. Even after 30 or so readings, this book still has me rolling on the floor every time. I laugh so hard that my abs are improving just from this book. It's been loaned to so many cat loving friends it's falling apart. You must have this book. Its so funny you won't believe it.



4. Very interesting, had very good drawings of real live cats. This entertaining piece of mind, had sub-topics and scoring. Most enjoyable for your inner love of cats. Covers most antics of cats, from vainess to drooling. Last, but not least, my personal favorite, the kws scale (kitty weirdness scale). Has a delightful description on every level. I highly reccomend this book.



5. This is one funny book! I have finally found someone who is as crazy about cats as am I. Missy Dizick clearly knows cats and cat owners. Plus, her art is beautiful!I know that my cats are crazy and that is one thing that I love about them. Dogs are . . . BORING. I recommend this book to all of my cat-loving friends and they tell me that they love it also. Thanks, Missy.

No comments about Made for Each Other: The Biology of the Human-Animal Bond.

No comments about First Aid for Dogs (Pet Care).

1 comments about Swordtails: Keeping and Breeding Them in Captivity.

1. 
   A comprehensive little book on the subject of Swordtails, one of the most popular tropical fish around, by the godfather of tropical fish keeping Herbert Axelrod. The book is an American publication and some of the equipment shown is now becoming a little dated and does not always correspond with the equipment available in Britain.
   
   The swordtail has been bred in many forms and a multitude of colours, so much so in fact that the original wild green colour and the Montezuma swordtails are virtually non existent in the fish trade anymore. However the fish keeper is more than adequately catered for by the new strains.
   
   The swordtail is a fish that will live happily with its own kind or with other fishes in a community tank and is extremely popular. Not least because it gives birth to live young and these can be seen swimming about in the tank, although unless the tank is sparsely populated or heavily planted they are unlikely to survive as the other fish will see them as a ready meal.
   
   The book gives all the information that you are likely to require, either for breeding these lovely fishes or simply making sure that they are happy and healthy in your tank.

1 comments about The Noble Newfoundland.

1. Originally published in September, 2006 issue of Dogs in Canada magazine:ÿ
   
   The Noble Newfoundland Dog,
   A History in Stories, Legends and the Occasional Tall Tale
   by Bruce Hynes
   Nimbus Publishing, 2005
   ISBN 1-55109-544-0
   220 pages
   
   Presented with a non-fiction book about Newfoundland dogs authored by someone not generally
   known in the fancy had me somewhat skeptical. Not a renown breeder and not even owning Newfs
   until after his retirement from a military career, this gentleman from Newfoundland certainly did not
   fit the usual pattern.
   
   After reading the unimpressive bio (except for the fact that he is a native of Newfoundland) I turned
   to the Preface. This finished with the clarification of an old bug bear of mine that the dogs are
   Newfoundlands and people like him are Newfoundlanders. Now I was starting to warm to Mr.
   Hynes.
   
   Then I went to the last chapter (no one has ever accused me of being normal) to see where he ended
   up. This chapter deals with the need for rescuing our beloved Newfs from abusive situations ending
   with a plea for potential adopters to consider such a rescue. Included were due plaudits to the Who's
   Who of Newfoundland dog rescue. At this point, Bruce had my full attention.
   
   If you are not already addicted to Newfoundlands, the stories in this book may convert you and if you
   are so obsessed then your addiction will be fueled. The accounts will leave you crying one moment
   and laughing the next. Everything great about the Newfoundland dog is covered: changing human
   history, sea rescues, sea dog, sensing danger, nanny and care giver, therapy, working, protecting,
   warrior, hero, retriever, fisherman, toller and comedian.
   
   Unless you are an old salt from Newfoundland, you should have a bookmark in the Glossary.
   Throughout the text you find asterisked words indicating that the translation will be found in the
   Glossary. Here you will learn the meaning of terms like bedlamer, bogey, figgy-dowdy, flake, jigger,
   landwash, livyer, polyna, sunker, tickle, touten, and whalpit.
   
   Two prominent members of the Newfoundland Fancy for whom I have the highest admiration are
   heavily cited in this book.. One is the late Margaret Booth Chern of Little Bear Kennels fame and
   author of The New Complete Newfoundland; the other is the renown breeder/judge from
   Newfoundland, Megan Nutbeem.
   
   One of my favourite stories concerns Megan and her daughter, Robin. Megan had rejected
   grandparents' advice to rock their new born baby when she fussed. A year late, she was bragging to
   friends how her training methods worked better and her daughter seldom cried. Then they looked out
   the window to see one of the Newfs rocking the carriage. The friends had known about this all along.
   If stories like this don't touch you, then you should buy a heat lamp to thaw out your heart and then
   get the book.
   
   
   - Peter Maniate

No comments about Great Dane Champions, 1987-2000.

No comments about Cavalier King Charles Spaniels (Complete Pet Owner's Manual).

3 comments about Shih Tzu (Animal Planet Pet Care Library).

1. This book, part of a series of books by Animal Planet, is getting a bad rep. I think people are buying it with unrealistic expectations. What you have here is a nice, small, handy guide to owning a shih tzu. It doesn't get into every minor detail about the history of the breed or anything like that but then it doesn't claim to be an encyclopedic volume either.
   
   I work in a grooming salon and we have a display rack full of these books so I've been through most of them. What we like about this series is that each book is FILLED with pictures. Better still, it doesn't dwell on the "standard" look for the breed but has plenty of shots of dogs in various hair styles, dressed up, shaggy, you name it.
   
   My advice, don't buy these online without looking at them first, but that's my advice about buying pretty much any reference book. It's always better to know what you're getting in advance. So check out these books in the store and if you like what you see, get them. They're very nice, simple, easy to read, lots of pictures. A good start for someone who's interested in the breed but not obsessed with it.



2. As a person who has never owned a dog and is planning to get a shih tzu, this book is 95% useless. It DOES have many nice photos, but other than that, the book is just too shallow. It just does not compare to the other shih tzu-specific books out there.
   
   For example, the author only recommends getting small chew bones to fit the size of the dog. But she did not name any prefered brands or types (i.e. rawhide, nylabone, etc.). I was left still wondering if one was preferrable to another.
   
   And if you read "About the Author" at the back of the book, it states that she has owned a shih tzu in the past, but currently owns other breeds plus birds. By the way it was written, it sounds as if the author was not really serious about the shih tzus in any way... like she's just some freelancer who is also a dog owner.
   
   Perhaps the only person this book is good for is an 8-yr. old child or the like. The writing is just too basic and gives no specifics or measurements. This book would be no good for a future dog owner, and ever more useless for someone who already has some knowledge of dogs.



3. This is a fairly good book for a person who wants a basic knowledge of Shih Tzus, but it isn't very informative for someone who is planning to own or already does own this breed of dog. They seem to play it safe dancing around important topics, like telling you general knowledge of bathing any dog instead of the specific care requirements of bathing your Shih Tzu.

No comments about Wild Dogs: The Natural History of the Nondomestic Canidae.

2 comments about The Biology and Conservation of Wild Canids.

1. The book has three parts. The first part consists of several overview chapters on canid society, infectious diseases, and similar general topics. The final section is a single chapter on conservation, which provides a very strong summary though it fails to break new ground. The middle part, and the bulk of the book, is a series of case studies of canids, both well-known and unfamiliar.
   
   Some of these case studies (i.e., those on red and gray wolves, or island foxes) focus intensively on management issues. Other case studies seek basic information about poorly-known species (i.e., bat-eared foxes), or seek to make some purely-biological point (i.e., that Finnish racoon dogs are becoming a separate species from Japanese racoon dogs). A few other chapters straddle the biological and management perspectives, extending moderate bodies of scientific knowledge and discussing management problems briefly (i.e., Ethiopian wolves).
   
   Like the focus, the quality of these chapters varies widely. It seems that the editors never really got control of their contributors and were unable to force a conservation or management perspective on everyone. This is especially ironic since one of the co-editors was a co-author of one of the chapters that fits least well.
   
   As a result, the book will be of limited interest to the general reader (and I cannot say how interesting it is to the specialist). The chapters on wolves are interesting but the material in them is available elsewhere because these species are so well known.



2. If you want to learn about canids all over the world this is the book for you. Not only is it a credible resource, it has up to date information about conservation issues and research currently being conducted. Overall, a great scientific resource that cuts to the chase and gives you the facts.