Angelic Tails: True Stories of Heavenly Canine Companions

FINALIST in the USA Best Books 2011 Awards for Animals/Pets: General category

This collection of true stories encourages readers to reconsider their view of how God works in and through our world.

One afternoon, best-selling angel-book author Joan Wester Anderson came across an account of a woman who believed she had been protected by an angel dog. An angel dog? Nonsense, thought Anderson. But the more she thought about it, the more she realized that perhaps she was putting limits on how God ought to act. If God is the God of everything, can’t he use anything–even a dog–to help people in their time of need?

Angelic Tails is a collection of down-to-earth true stories from ordinary people who believe that God has graced their lives through heavenly canine companions. Each of the 30 stories challenges readers to reconsider their conception of angels–from the story of a former Air Force colonel whose golden retrievers served as his heavenly helpers in the Colorado wilderness to the account of St. John Bosco, who, for more than 30 years, was protected by an angelic dog as he walked the dangerous city streets.

Angelic Tails is written from a clearly Orthodox Christian perspective. In fact, Anderson opens the book by describing how she came to embrace the idea of God’s dog-helpers only after asking the Holy Spirit for discernment. In the end, for all who see through the eyes of faith, this book is evidence that God can use even muddy paws and cold noses to fulfill his purposes in our world.