A friend gave me this book, and I have thoroughly enjoyed it. The author uses linguistic detective work to show us the tracks of all sorts of animal stories hidden inside familiar English words (like the little dog that inspired the word "feisty" and the caterpillar in "chenille"). She also makes it easy to learn some surprising new words. My favorite so far is "chatoyant," which means "shining like a cats' eyes"!It is clear the author loves animals and also loves words. Her delight in both of them is infectious. Like everybody's favorite teacher, she clearly knows a lot about her subject, and communicates it with enthusiasm, plus a great sense of humor. I would recommend this book to any word lover, as well as to anyone else who's naturally curious about animals and the world around us.