Andy: Twenty-Four Years of Foul Play with a Talking Crow [Hardcover]

Whitney J. Dough (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 128 pages
• Publisher: Providence House Pub; 3rd edition (July 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1577360400
• ISBN-13: 978-1577360407
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 0.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,154,560 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not enough crow information, mostly personal observances, July 6, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Andy: Twenty-Four Years of Foul Play with a Talking Crow (Hardcover)

This book wasn't what I expected. 24 years of living with a crow should amount to much more interesting experiences than a handful of personal observances of how this crow felt and how it schemed, which seemed too one-sided.

2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars As Told To A Bird, May 31, 2005

By 

Kevin Killian (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Andy: Twenty-Four Years of Foul Play with a Talking Crow (Hardcover)

Whitney Dough is a cool writer and his book, The Hymn Writers, is *the* reference book if you're ever interested in looking up the bare facts about the lives and works of the male and female writers of your favorite church hymns. They were a varied lot and quite talented, with more quirks than you'd expect! ANDY is even more upfront about its eccentricity. In the Bible there are not very many crows, whereas there are ravens galore, perhaps because the weather conditions of the Middle East prevented crows from thriving whereas it was good for ravens? Most of the time you find "crow" in the Bible, it's as a verb: for example, "Jesus answered him, Wilt thou lay down thy life for my sake? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, The `rooster' shall not crow, till thou hast denied me thrice."

Whitney Dough is a religious man and the story of his life with Andy is an amusing one, for all its sadness. There's something about living with a bird that makes you seem kooky to others, but those of us who have had this experience from the inside know that there's something sacred about it. Not for nothing is the Holy Father continually compared to a pet owner, nor we the sinners a flock of birds. Remember Bede's story of human life as a bird darting into one window of a lighted house, on a dark night, then flying back out again into the darkness?

I don't know why the other reviewer gave this book only a few stars; maybe because it was too personal and revealing, and not enough ornithology. But there are many books about crow life, and hardly any about spending two decades of one's life with one, and so this is a cherishable book in which you will find tools and tips for appreciating your own pet in (and finding your spiritual side as well).