This book is a real find for anyone who loves animals and dreams. Neil Russack engages us in his passion for creatures of water, land and air through excursions into art, science, mythology and dreams. In an autobiographical chapter, Russack recounts his failed early attempts to connect to animal life. Later, as an overextended psychiatrist, he withdrew to live alone in Inverness, California. In time, the healing of nature allowed him to return to an active life.

I had drawn energy from the red fox lying in the sun, the waterbird taking off into the sky. Now this energy flowed into my work with patients’ dreams … I returned to the office, but with the listening ears of a knowing animal (p. 30).