Author Joan Chittister invites readers to share her experiences with pets, especially dogs and a parrot, in this book detailing how animals can teach humans.

The Judeo-Christian creation story, the author points out, pictures mankind given dominion over animals. But what if naming is, as we usually treat it, an act of relationship rather than dominion? Then the naming of animals puts relationship above dominion, and our whole worldview might change. Not only that, but our willingness to learn from our animal friends might result in lessons well-taught.

Two Dogs and a Parrot isn’t a theological treatise of course, though it has enough serious discussion to satisfy anyone who needs a religious edge. Rather it’s the story, as the title says, of two dogs and a parrot, each taking their place in a community, each helping wounded humans, each in their own way. From an Irish setter’s eager bounce to the nervous glance of a rejected show-dog, these pets reveal their own feelings and invite a human response. Meanwhile they teach – “Life is not about becoming someone else,” real truth doesn’t
“simply mask[] irritation with polite dishonesty,” and “the act of simply being present to pain may be at least as powerful a gift” as anything else we can offer, for example.

“Each of us has been wounded by something on the way through life,” says the author. But woundedness isn’t the same as broken; it can include an invitation to more, as these pets reveal. And so, building story upon story drawn from life, the author leads her humans as surely as she has been led by her pets, turnings ends into beginnings, building hope that grows, and offering gently humorous vignettes of life with dog and parrot along the way.

This book is a thoroughly enjoyable read for any dog-lover or pet-lover. But it’s much more, and these animal friends, at the ends of Joan Chittister’s pen, really can teach life lessons for us all.

Disclosure: I was given a free copy and I offer my honest review. ( )

I am a dog lover. While I have owned cats before and there have been some cool ones, I am more fond of dogs. My first dog was a yellow lab that was my protector and play friend when I was a little girl. Her name was Honey. Then there was Pepper, Nuke, Patriot, Harley, and now Keech, Kong, and Oreo (all pitbulls). Which I did not want any pitbulls to begin with but we ended up with Keech after my husband's youngest brother's death. Yet, now that I own three pitbulls, they do get a bad rap. It is not the dog but the owner that makes them bad. All three of my dogs are lovers. Plus my husband and I have joked that they would probably watch and lick any robbers who came into our house.

So back to this book. I have always believed and treated my dogs like they were human and we could share a nonverbal communication. Even now I find myself talking to my dogs like they are my kids and they understand me. SO I can relate to the different emotions that the author spoke about in this book with Danny and Duffy. Then there is Lady, a parrot. While I have never owned a parrot my Nana used to own a cockatoo. My sister and I would have so much fun playing with the cockatoo. I found this book to be an enjoyable treasure of a read. ( )