Simon's stories about how animals can change our lives agree with research on human-animal relationships.

He writes about pets and other animals including a cage-escaping hamster named Bagel.

Their stories remind us how animals can bring us outside of our own shells.

Animals deserve respect for their own magnificence and the gifts—companionship, laughter—they offer.

Science shows how our relationships with companion and other animals can change our lives for the better and influence how we see the world. Along with detailed research in the field called anthrozoology—the study of human-animal relationships—countless stories clearly show that bonding with companion animals, wild neighbors, and other animals can brighten up our days and help us appreciate and respect the animal beings with whom we have different sorts of contact.1

When I received a copy of NPR host Scott Simon's new book called Ulysses S. Cat and Other Animals I Have Known, I immediately thought, "Wow, finally, an easy read about cats, about whom I know quite a bit but always yearn to know more." However, as I read this well-written and beautifully illustrated book (by New Yorker cartoonist Liana Finck), I immediately realized that Simon goes way beyond these amazing felines and writes about the joys, worries, love, and humor among a wide variety of animals and how they changed his life for the better, and how he viewed the world.

In this recollection of Simon's relationships with animals, you'll meet his family’s dog guiding his child's first steps, a cat who escaped the British Embassy, street dogs being walked during Sarajevo’s........

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