This award winning book is designed for animal owners who are thinking about building housing for any kind of animal. Judges for the 2005 Colorado Author's League Nonfiction Book Award wrote:
"I found How to Build Animal Housing a very useful and well-designed book. It is comprehensive, well organized, and well thought out. The writing style is practical, yet approachable, and it is evident that the author is an expert in this field."
Housing is about shelter; the right shelter protects our animals, and makes our lives better--the wrong shelter costs too much money, and causes animal health problems. It makes for unhappy owners. Learn how to be happy, and make your animals happy.
SNEAK PREVIEW: CHAPTER 1
Some people are simply driven to have animals in their lives -- and for those of you who fall into this category, know this: You are in good company; about 85% of your friends, neighbors and relatives squarely fall into the same camp.
For some people, time and space limit their direct contact with critters, but they foster a relationship with wildlife, feeding the birds, talking to squirrels, and simply enjoying the natural life in their backyard. For others, family companions, like dogs, cats, and birds, or something a little more exotic -- ferrets, pot-bellied pigs, or iguanas, for instance--enrich their world. Then there’s the group that Ken and I fall into -- the group that keeps farmyard animals.
This relationship, between people and animals, began back when people still considered a skin and pole structure to be the lap of luxury, and their animals sought shelter anywhere they could. In good times, the animals found relief from nature’s fury on the lee side of hills, or in forests, or arroyos. In bad times they found no break from rain or snow, sun or flies.
Now, by and large, we find shelter in airtight, climate-controlled boxes, comfortable in shorts and tees in January, or our flannel shirts in July. Do our animals need the same climate-controlled environment that we call home? No, they don’t.
Read the rest of chapter 1: PDF of Chapter 1