SOULMATES WITH PAWS

Soulmates with Paws is Cal Orey’s nonfiction book in the popular animal lover and pet relationship category. Orey is an established American writer whose catalogue includes books on healthy living, natural remedies, weather and earthquake prediction, and various other practical and lifestyle topics, with her pet and animal themed books fitting into a particular corner of her wider output that focuses on the human animal bond.

The soulmates with paws premise points to the central concept of the book. The deep emotional bond that humans develop with their pets, and the various ways that the relationship between humans and their dogs, cats, and other companion animals shapes the lives of the people involved. Orey draws on personal experience, on interviews with pet owners and animal professionals, and on the wider tradition of writing about human animal relationships to develop her treatment of the subject.

The book sits in the wider nonfiction category that includes pet memoirs, animal behavior books, and the various practical guides to pet care and pet ownership that the contemporary publishing market produces in significant volume. The particular emphasis on the soulmate connection between owners and their animals points the book toward readers who experience their relationships with their pets as having the kind of deep emotional and even spiritual significance that the soulmate concept implies. This particular framing has its own substantial readership, with many pet owners experiencing their relationships with their animals in exactly these terms.

Orey’s prose is accessible and warm, with the kind of conversational voice that the lifestyle nonfiction market rewards. The book is structured to be read either straight through or sampled chapter by chapter, with each section developing some particular aspect of the human animal relationship that the wider book is built around. The various stories, examples, and reflections that fill the chapters give the book the kind of variety that lifestyle nonfiction readers expect.

For pet owners interested in reading about the wider experience of human animal relationships, for readers who experience their own pets as deep emotional companions and want to read about others who share that experience, or for general readers interested in the nonfiction lifestyle category, Soulmates with Paws is a comfortable read. Cal Orey’s wider catalogue includes other books that lifestyle nonfiction readers might find useful, including her work on natural remedies, healthy eating, and the various other practical and emotional topics that her writing has covered across her career. The book delivers what its title and packaging promise, with the kind of warm and accessible treatment of the human animal relationship that her readership has come to expect.