A SERIES OF OPINIONATED ANIMALS

Lerner intertwines insights into animal rights with sketches of the colorful creatures who’ve been her lifelong friends and companions.

These animals include Monster, a neurologically impaired squirrel who liked to have his best friend, a rabbit, sit on him, to a “militant chicken” named Stephanie who demanded and received obeisance from a German shepherd and a male cat; they also include dogs ranging upward of 75 pounds each who packed into a Toyota Corolla for frequent trips with the author, and a queenly lamb who was unable to walk on her front hooves but got around quite well with child-size elbow pads on her knees. Shire, a retired police horse from Newark, New Jersey, with a bad knee stands out as the author’s “greatest love.” Lerner was 8 years old and Shire was about 15 when they met, and when the horse was about to be sold for slaughter a year later, the author’s parents bought him. She applied only to nearby Princeton and Rutgers Universities so that she could be near him; she also successfully applied to Harvard Law School in 1994 for similar reasons. After Shire died in 1993, the vet sympathetically told the grieving author, “We love another soul. The vessel doesn’t matter.” This connection, and her appreciation for the distinct personalities of animals, led her to a career in animal law. Lerner’s writing about the efficacy of “trap-neuter-release” policies for reducing feral cat populations, and her description of her successful drive to start a TNR program in her town, ably showcase how she turned her commitment to animal welfare into direct action. Her prose is convincing but never preachy, and her descriptions of both human and nonhuman personalities are humorous and relatable, as when she writes of two rescue dogs: “If Nubi was the Einstein of the canine world, Chip was Curly from the Three Stooges.” Overall, this engaging remembrance may remind some readers of such animal-centered classics as All Creatures Great and Small.

A heartfelt and humorous memoir that illuminates the richness of human-animal relationships.