Our wild calling : how connecting with animals can transform our lives--and save theirs

**“A book that offers hope.” —__The New York Times Book Review__ “Richard Louv has done it again. A remarkable book that will help everyone break away from their fixed gaze at the screens that dominate our lives and remember instead that we are animals in a world of animals.” —Bill McKibben, author of __Falter__** Richard Louv’s landmark book, __Last Child in the Woods__, inspired an international movement to connect children and nature. Now Louv redefines the future of human-animal coexistence. __Our Wild Calling__ explores these powerful and mysterious bonds and how they can transform our mental, physical, and spiritual lives, serve as an antidote to the growing epidemic of human loneliness, and help us tap into the empathy required to preserve life on Earth. Louv interviews researchers, theologians, wildlife experts, indigenous healers, psychologists, and others to show how people are communicating with animals in ancient and new ways; how dogs can teach children ethical behavior; how animal-assisted therapy may yet transform the mental health field; and what role the human-animal relationship plays in our spiritual health. He reports on wildlife relocation and on how the growing populations of wild species in urban areas are blurring the lines between domestic and wild animals. __Our Wild Calling__ makes the case for protecting, promoting, and creating a sustainable and shared habitat for all creatures—not out of fear, but out of love. Transformative and inspiring, this book points us toward what we all long for in the age of technology: real connection. Cover 1 ALSO BY RICHARD LOUV 3 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Dedication 6 Contents 10 Introduction: A Mystery 14 Part 1: Beautiful Acts: Life-Changing Encounters with Species Not Our Own 18 1. In the Family of Animals 20 2. The Aching Heart 27 Species Loneliness 29 An Altered View of Human Exceptionalism 32 3. The Mind-Altering Power of Deep Animal Connection 36 Habitat of the Heart 37 The Land of Giant Ants, an Unexpected Urchin, and a Moving Protozoan 40 Crossing Over 44 4. The Octopus Who Stopped Time 46 Time Bending 48 Resetting Our Sense of Wonder 51 Part 2: What the Wild Heart Still Knows: The Art and Science of Communicating with Other Animals 56 5. Becoming the Grasshopper 58 Wearing the Shoes of the Snake (Critical Anthropomorphism) 61 6. Intimacy Is All around Us 66 Beyond the Threshold 68 Have You Ever Seen a Box Turtle Drink? 71 7. Earth’s Oldest Language 75 Call and Response 76 Hanging Out in the Tatooine Cantina 81 The Song of the Wild 83 8. How to Talk with Birds 87 What the Animals Say 88 Awakening the Seventh Sense 93 Back to the Garden 98 9. Playing Well with the Others 99 The Labrador Retriever of Primates 100 How Elephants Taught Sven Everything He Needed to Know about Business 103 Part 3: How We Co-Become: Wonderdogs and Werecats, Therapy Lizards and Robot Pets 108 10. More Than Human 110 The Wild, the Domestic, and the Distorted 112 11. The Animal Lover 116 Who’s Raising Whom? 117 The Dog Who Taught Ethics 122 Homo homini lupus 125 12. Reptiles and Ambivalence 130 Wild Blood Transfusion 132 Herping, USA 135 13. The Boy Who Said Horse 138 Naomi and Koba 141 Animal-Assisted Self-Care 146 Wildlife, Therapy, and the Pet Effect 149 14. The Replacements: Do We Really Need Animals? 155 Digital Dog and the Internet of Cows 157 Escape from Uncanny Valley 163 An Alternative Universe 167 Do They Love Us Back? 169 Part 4: The Age of Connectedness: Creating a Home for All Creatures 172 15. New Ways to Live Together 174 Notes from the Animal Underground 176 Can’t We All Live Together? 180 A New Contract for Cohabitation 184 16. The Betweens 187 Arrival of the Neophiles 191 How Coyotes Conquered America 195 That’ll Be a Caramel Macchiato for Me and an Espresso for the Bear 199 17. Welcome to Symbiocene City 203 Designing for Peaceful Coexistence 204 Doglandia 208 Texting Pachyderms and the Bats of Bendigo 211 The Raccoons Next Door 215 18. The New Noahs 218 Zealandia 223 Mammoth Thoughts 227 Lost World Found 230 Part 5: Wild Souls: Love, Humility, and the Principle of Reciprocity 236 19. Dreaming Animals 238 Avatars, Symbols, and Messengers 239 The Man with the Crow Tattoo 244 The Spirit of the Brahminy Kite 248 In Fire and Smoke 254 20. The Peaceable Kingdom 257 The Right to Be 261 21. Learning and Teaching in a School of Animals 266 Animal Class 268 Ten Ways to Love the World 271 An Older Way of Learning 274 22. The Bear 278 Beyond the Horizon 281 Our Calling 285 Acknowledgments 287 Notes 288 Suggested Reading 306 Index 310 "The author shows how cultivating the powerful, mysterious, and fragile bond between humans and other animals can improve our mental, physical, and spiritual health, protect our planet, and serve as an antidote to the loneliness of our species"-- Provided by publisher