Home Care

On May 27, 1784, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart met a flirtatious little starling in a Viennese shop who sang an improvised version of the theme from his Piano Concerto no. 17 in G major. Sensing a kindred spirit in the plucky young bird, Mozart bought him and took him home to be a family pet. For three years the starling lived with Mozart, influencing his work and serving as his companion, distraction, consolation, and muse.

The loss of a beloved pet is a hugely challenging emotional journey. When grief takes hold of us, we feel a myriad of feelings, from deep sadness to anger at the unfairness of their departure. Are you struggling with the heartache and loneliness of losing a cherished pet? After leaving, they always take a piece of us with them.

A young man is murdered for his prized pet fish. An Asian tycoon buys a single specimen for $150,000. Meanwhile, a pet detective chases smugglers through the streets of New York. Delving into an outlandish realm of obsession, paranoia, and criminality, The Dragon Behind the Glass tells the story of a fish like none other: a powerful predator dating to the age of the dinosaurs.

On an early summer morning in 2001, Mandy Retzlaff received the phone call that she and her family had been dreading. Her farmhouse in northern Zimbabwe was being decimated at the hands of an angry mob of Robert Mugabe’s war veterans, who had been tasked with driving white farmers from their homes. In just a few short days, forty-five of Mandy’s neighbours narrowly escaped with their lives and decided to leave Zimbabwe behind.

Cats are an enigmatic species and their behaviour is subtle and difficult to read. Because of this, it's not always easy to understand what they need from us and our relationship with them can suffer as a result. Included in this book is information on how cats communicate through body language, vocalisations and their secret language of scent. Deciphering this information helps us understand what they are trying to tell us, including when they are feeling unwell, when they are stressed or when they are feeling perfectly content.

Ted Kerasote met and adopted Merle, a Labrador mix, while he was on a camping trip. Merle had been living in the wild, and after taking the dog home with him to Wyoming, Kerasote soon realized that Merle could not adjust to inhabiting exclusively the human world. So he put a door in his house to let Merle live both outside and in. A deeply touching portrait of a remarkable animal, Merle's Door explores the issues that all animals and their human companions face.

When it comes to popular dog breeds, Goldendoodles are all the rage these days - and for good reason! This breed combines the adorable playfulness of the Golden Retriever with the intelligence (and low-shed coat) of the Poodle. However, no new dog comes with an instruction manual. If you’ve never owned a Goldendoodle before, there are some things you’ll want to know about the breed before you bring your dog home. This audiobook will give you a step-by-step guide to everything you ever wanted to know about Goldendoodles.

Do you suffer from “Pony Fever”? Have you been waiting a long time to add a horse to your family? Have you carefully considered a match between you and your new equine buddy? Have you decided exactly where he’s going to live and how you’re going to keep him happy? Do you have moments when the idea of bringing a horse into your life is scary? Horses are unlike any other animal companion. They’re too big to live in your house, so they have to live in specialized homes of their own.

Never believe that life in a tiny Spanish mountain village is predictable. Vicky and Joe have finished fixing up their house and look forward to peaceful days enjoying their retirement. Then the fish van arrives and, instead of delivering fresh fish, disgorges the Ufarte family. The peace of El Hoyo is shattered. Packed with badly behaved humans and animals, irreverent humour and sunshine, this audiobook will make you laugh out loud.

When 23-year-old shepherdess Emma Gray breaks off her engagement, the chance to take over an isolated Northumberland farm seems just the fresh start she needs. But while the beautiful scenery certainly offers plenty of scope for contemplation, a night out with an eligible bachelor soon seems more remote than the farm itself. And once you add fugitive sheep and freak blizzards into the mix, Emma's dreams of a happy future at Fallowlees Farm quickly begin to fade.

An accessible and balanced account, Food Politics laid the groundwork for today's food revolution and changed the way we respond to food industry marketing practices. Now, a new introduction and concluding chapter bring us up to date on the key events in that movement. This pathbreaking, prize-winning book helps us understand more clearly than ever before what we eat and why. This book is published by University of California Press.

Life is tough and cheerless for Billy Casper, a troubled teenager growing up in the small Yorkshire mining town of Barnsley. Treated as a failure at school, and unhappy at home, Billy discovers a new passion in life when he finds Kes, a kestrel hawk. Billy identifies with her silent strength, and she inspires in him the trust and love that nothing else can, discovering through her the passion missing from his life.

While many veterinarians apply, only a small number are approved to examine the elite canine athletes who, using solely their muscle and an innate drive to race, carry handlers between frozen outposts each year, risking injury, illness, and fatigue along the way. In Four Thousand Paws, Lee Morgan—a member of the Iditarod's expert veterinary corps—tells the story of these heroic dogs, following the teams as they traverse deep spruce forests, climb steep mountain slopes, and navigate over ice-bound rivers toward Nome, on the coast of the Bering Sea, where the famed Burled Arch awaits.

When Ted Kerasote was ready for a new dog after losing his beloved Merle - who died too soon, as all our dogs do - he knew that he would want to give his puppy Pukka the longest life possible. But how to do that? So much has changed in the way we feed, vaccinate, train, and live with our dogs from even a decade ago. In an adventure that echoes The Omnivore’s Dilemma with a canine spin, Kerasote tackles all those subjects, questioning our conventional wisdom and emerging with vital new information that will surprise even the most knowledgeable dog lovers.

Even if we've never had direct contact with one, we will have seen one, or at the very least, heard one. For those of us who live in the Western world, it is more than likely that one sleeps in our house, possibly even on our bed. I'm talking, of course, of the dog. Yet, this animal, which lives alongside 500 million of us all over the world - as an invaluable partner and a trusted confidant - presents us with one great unsolved mystery: how did this relationship - the most complex and enduring of any between human and animal - start in the first place?

From the author who brought you The First-Aid Companion for Dogs And Cats, pet journalist Amy Shojai presents this new edition of her popular New Choices in Natural Healing for Dogs & Cats. In this audiobook, you'll find over 1,000 at-home remedies for your pet's problems....

Have you often felt admiration for "horse professionals" like Bernd Hackl, who you know from VOX, and would you like to whisper with horses yourself? Or are you struggling with everyday problems with your horse that you want to make a thing of the past? Then this guide is the first step for you in this direction.as an enthusiastic horse person or newcomer to the horse world, you will gain basic knowledge about the origins of the horse. Among other things, you will learn how it has developed over the course of evolution and why.

Flight technician Frank Williams and Judy, a purebred pointer, met in the most unlikely of places: a World War II internment camp in the Pacific. Judy was a fiercely loyal dog, with a keen sense for who was friend and who was foe, and the pair's relationship deepened throughout their captivity. When the prisoners suffered beatings, Judy would repeatedly risk her life to intervene.

In this homesteading book by best-selling author Norman J Stone, rabbits are in the spotlight. Perhaps one of the most underestimated and nutritional cheap food sources, rabbits have in recent years been on something of a comeback, and quite rightly so in this authors opinion. The humble rabbit is high in protein, low in calories, and only 4.5 percent fat - lower even than chicken! Not only that, it is easy, quick and cheap to rear; and produces meat and fur that can be used by the family or sold for profit - or both!

The definitive guide to feeding your dog a balanced, nutritious, and home-cooked raw diet - from the founder of a natural pets product company with over 30 years of experience. Many people want to prepare their dog’s meals at home, but feel it is too complex. Raw and Natural Nutrition for Dogs provides a road map to the essentials of canine nutrition, written in easy-to-understand language.