All Pets Go to Heaven: The Spiritual Lives of the Animals We Love
By: Sylvia Browne / Narrated By: Jeanie Hackett
Length: 6 hrs and 24 mins
A lot about animals but just a little bit about their afterlives
I’ve reeeeeeally gotta stop reading Publishers’ Summaries. I just take them to heart too much, and I wind up disappointed. For instance, All Pets Go to Heaven is supposed to be chockfull of “heartwarming and tear-jerking tales” illustrative of our pets’ loyalty, their lovable quirkiness, and their often heroic behaviors.
Uhm, noooooo, not really.
Okay, first off, I became aware of Sylvia Browne from TV appearances and, while I often found myself rolling my eyes (she knows without a doubt that on the Other Side, we’re all 30-years old and such things of that ilk), I’m kinda sorta a total believer that there’s something that comes after this life. I mean, where’s all that energy supposed to go when life peters outta us? (I could be wrong, but if I am, I’ll be deader ‘n dirt and won’t know the difference, so let’s just let it be, shall we?). So listening to her, and seeing her interact with members of audiences, I dunno, I found her compelling. Then we come to a book about an afterlife for animals? I’m THERE!!!
But things are not as the Publisher’s Summary states. There are indeed a few stories, but very few, and even fewer still that were emotionally engaging. I don’t think it was Jeanie Hackett’s narration, though it could’ve been. Everything came off as flat. So was it dry writing, or odd narration (at certain points Hackett adopts a “snooty” sort of accent as though she’s pretending to be a stuck-up rich person. TOTALLY weird!). There are no stories that surprise or delight, and though I do so appreciate how much she elevates the lives of animals in this book, I really could’ve done more with animals that a human might have a bond with and less of animals in the wild. (Who of COURSE deserve our protection on this planet! But where, exactly, are stories of their spiritual lives? Nope, only that many are endangered or have human-encroachment of their habitats).
And then too there’s a LOT about the histories of animal kind. I did NOT buy this audiobook because I wanted to hear theories about how dogs came to be tame, or how cats came to be vilified as “familiars”. Rather, I got this because I thought a renowned psychic might help me to see signs of an animal afterlife for my own much-loved and gone-from-this-earth animals.
No such luck. You want history? Here ya go. You want a treatise on respect for all living creatures? Here ya go yet again.
You want, however, some sort of “proof” or seeds that could provide connection to your beloved companions? Most unfortunate, my dear friend. But don’t look here…
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