The Pig and I

By Rachel Toor

    In this humorous memoir the author recounts about a string of relationships with nice men whom she compares favorably and unfavorably to her various pets.

    At the age of 5, she could make no distinction between humans and her canine friends. This continues throughout her life....from childhood to college, to a career in publishing and through marriage and divorce, and of course many boy friends. She compares her many men to her pets...a mousey mate who is a pushover and allows Rachel to walk all over him bearing a resemblance to her pet mouse; the kind but dull manager of a typesetting business compared to her witty dog; a physicist/poet with ratty ways to her pet rat.

     Her book is subtitled "Why It's So Easy to Love an Animal and So Hard to Live With a Man" Toor describes in detail her relationships with her pets and how her love for men fades as her love for animals grows stronger. Her relationship with her pets is the only thing that lets her "reach the tenderest and most vulnerablest part of herself".

    This is a charming,at times hilarious, and at times heartwarming account of the joy of relationships with pets. It is a book which will make all animal lovers understand the rewards of their pet's unconditional love.