Animal Happiness

A Moving Exploration of Animals and thier Emotions--from Cats and Dogs to Orangutans and Tortoises

By: Vicki Hearne

Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell

Length: 10 hrs and 18 mins

Publisher's summary

A New York Times Notable Book of 1994! Highly respected author, philosopher, and animal trainer Vicki Hearne offers a treasure trove of animal anecdotes, all written in her unique and poetic style. Through entertaining stories about cats, horses, an ornamental carp, a scorpion, and tortoises, Hearne focuses on how each of these various creatures experiences happiness in its own special way. She takes issue with Ludwig Wittgenstein on lions and language, discusses the naming of pets, and considers the process of mourning a loved dog’s death.

©1994 Vicki Hearne. Introduction copyright 2007 Elizabeth Marshall Thomas (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Linguisto-moral philosophy and dog training?

Vicki Hearne is one of the finest writers on the subject of modern moral philosophy that I've ever known, and her earlier book, Adam's Task, has long held a position of honor on my bookshelf. Animal Happiness is more or less the sequel, in that like its predecessor, it is largely a collection of philosophical and autobiographical musings, but it is substantially more listenable than Adam's Task. Hearne uses her considerable experience as a trainer of working dogs and performance horses to illustrate her ideas about what it means in the first place to command another creature, and how we can do so without violating our ethical principles.

But it's by no means all philosophy. Hearne includes a number of short articles she's written for various periodicals, on subjects ranging from single-minded tortoises to anxious scorpions to elegant deerhounds. Her long piece on how one copes with the death of a beloved pet is brilliant, and makes me weep a little, every time.

Hearne was both an active trainer of high-performance working animals and a professor, teaching linguistic philosophy to humans, during most of her career, and between the two, it didn't leave much time for writing. I have located only a very limited output from her in book form: Adam's Task, Animal Happiness, Bandit (her memoir/discussion of the pit bull wars) and a novel called The White German Shepherd, along with a few volumes of poetry. It is far too little for a writer of Hearne's power, and there will not be more -- Hearne died of lung cancer in 2001.

Oyez a Hearne. There will not be another like her.

Grossly Mis-represented!

What disappointed you about Animal Happiness?

From the description I expected interesting animal stories...however, about halfway through, the author gets all analytical and spends hours expounding on the author James Thurber and very little about his dogs. It's confusing, mis-leading and ridiculous and BORING!!! I want my money back!

Has Animal Happiness turned you off from other books in this genre?

Certainly from other books by this author.

Which character – as performed by Cassandra Campbell – was your favorite?

The animals, of course.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

The initial animal stories are good, until the author gets all "existential".

Any additional comments?

Can I have a credit for the amount I paid?