The Lightkeepers' Menagerie: Stories of Animals at Lighthouses

by Elinor De Wire

Elinor De Wire has been writing about lighthouses and their keepers since 1972. During that time she found that hundreds of lighthouse animals wandered into her research notes and photo collection. This book is the story of all these cold-nosed, whiskered, wooly, hoofed, horned, slithery, buzzing, feathered, and finned keepers of the lights. Where else would a dog learn to ring a fogbell, a cat go swimming and catch a fish for its supper, or a parrot cuss the storm winds rattling its cage? Who other than a lightkeeper would swim a cow home, tame a baby seal, adopt an orphan alligator, send messages via carrier pigeons, or imagine mermaids coming to visit? The Lightkeepers' Menagerie gathers together animal stories from lighthouses all around the world, tales of happiness and sadness, courage and cowardice, tragedy and comedy, even absurdity. Sometimes, fur, feathers, and fins tell the best tales.

Genres: Animals, Nonfiction

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

Reviews

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

For the type of book this is, it's amazing and must have taken years to collect the information and stories within. The author has spent years visiting lighthouses and has owned cat for decades. Of course, cats were one species kept as pets with jobs at lighthouses. There were dogs, mules, horses, cows (for milk), chickens, geese, goats, sheep and others. Then there are the bird stories about wild birds and how they are attracted to lighthouses. There are stories of sea life, reptiles, rats, snakes, and more. The stories are told in paragraphs or pages, not separate stories as chapters. The book is organized loosely by subject or animal. It's more than you imagined to learn about lighthouses, their keepers, and animals, both pets and wild.