Review: Daisy to the Rescue

Daisy to the Rescue: 
True Stories of Daring Dogs, Paramedic Parrots and Other Animal Heroes
by Jeff Campbell

Synopsis

With their love and companionship, animals help to make our lives better every day. But sometimes, to our utter amazement and everlasting gratitude, animals literally save our lives. Daisy to the Rescue celebrates over fifty of these heroic animals with stunning illustrated portraits and detailed accounts of their exploits. The book asks important questions about why these animals act the way they do—often putting themselves in harm’s way in the process.

Today, scientists vigorously debate whether other animals share our capacity for empathy, compassion, morality, and altruism, and amazing new research is continually revising our understanding of the human-animal bond. Daisy to the Rescue presents these findings and applies them to these extreme life-saving situations. Taken together, these rescue stories make a compelling case for the presence of compassion in other animals and for the vital importance of the human-animal bond.

The dramatic, moving stories in Daisy to the Rescue provide a hopeful message about our world. Not only do they contain startling evidence of the mental and emotional capacities of animals, but they also demonstrate the healing, transformative power of our intimate connection with those incredible beings with whom we share the world.

Review

Let's start off with the truth: I never read books like this. Like, ever. I hardly even read non-fiction, let alone non-fiction about animals. It's not because I don't like animals - my husband and I have a dog, Jaxson, and I care about animals in general very much. It's just not the genre I think of picking up while I'm at the bookstore, you know?

With that said, this was truly a lovely book. At first, I thought it was going to be all about animal stories. This is what the title had me believe. However, the book turned out to be much more than that. There is an actual in depth look into the possible motivation behind the actions of these animals. The question of whether this is something emotional or already exists inside the animal's chemistry is asked and pondered. 

Then of course we're given the different stories about different animal's heroic moments. What's great about this, besides the obvious, is that there is focus on more than one type of animal and more than one kind of environment. This book was well thought-out, researched and truly seems a labor of love. 

Verdict

I cannot fathom a person that wouldn't enjoy this book! The person who would MOST love this book would, of course, be the animal lover :) It would make a great gift!