Rita Mae Brown’s new book adores critters

You gotta love an animal book that ends with the words, “Remember: We left Eden, they didn’t.”

Rita Mae Brown, prolific author, fox hunter, civil- and gay-rights activist, and, most of all apparently, animal lover, tells her life story through the furry creatures she’s cherished, in “Animal Magnetism” (Amazon, $16.50/save 34% , 235 pages).

Born on farmland just north of the Mason-Dixon line in 1944, Brown spent her childhood around horses, hounds, cats and foxes. There were some people, too, on the sidelines: her mother, a free spirit; an alcoholic uncle, who’d never touch the bottle around her; and kind neighbors, who let her ride horses in exchange for mucking out stables.

But front and center are the animals: Mickey, the cat that sleeps in her cradle; Baby Jesus, the cat that kept her sane while at college in New York City; Major, the “ugliest horse I ever saw,” that loves cats as much as she does; and a menagerie of hounds, owls and foxes, both Catholic and Episcopalian — don’t ask.

Along the way, Brown shares her philosophy of life. About love, which she professes to need a great deal, “especially from cats, dogs and horses.” About fox hunters, who she says are influential environmentalists. Against suburbanization, violence, bigotry, racism and narrow-mindedness.

“If those of us who farm and hunt don’t pass on our skills, they’ll be lost by the middle of the 21st century,” she writes. “This is a terrifying thought.”

In her eyes, the honor and courage of animals compare favorably to that of most humans, a notion she knows many will scoff at, “should they ever pick up this book.”

You should. It comes out Tuesday.

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