Animal House Style
 Julia Szabo
 (Reviewed by The Editor - Rebecca Brown)
 2001 Bulfinch Press/Little, Brown & Co.
  ISBN: 0821227556


Designing a home to share with your pets. Haute decor for your home zoo.

The flyleaf says: Journalist Julia Szabo is the “Pets” columnist for the Sunday New York Post & wrote the “Truth in Decorating” column for Elle Decor for three years. She is also a frequent contributor to House Beautiful, the New York Times Magazine & Travel & Leisure. She has written a fresh & witty encyclopedia of every chic option for housing your pets in the style to which they will become accostomed.

Mary Tyler Moore's Foreword is a one paragraph recommendation.

As Martha C. Armstrong, Vice President for Companion Animals and Equine Protection of The Humane Society of the United States writes in her long Introduction: “Let's face it: Living with animals can present some interesting challenges. But whether it's behavioral problems, allegies, relocating a household, or removing muddy paw prints from the kitchen floor, it's nothing that can't be overcome with caring, creativity, and commitment... One of the things I love about this book is that it provides innovative, practical, and appealing solutions to so many problems related to having a pet and a beautiful living space, from fabric choices to cleaning products.” Deathless data!

Animal House Style is not my usual reading fare -- I'm a rough-hewn sort of gal & our dog, a working member of our family, would be insulted to be considered a pet. When he's not outside guarding our land, drinking from his bucket filled with rain water or settled under the hemlock tree near our front door where he's made a snug, aromatic retreat, he's under the dining table on his bed of blankets where we won't trip over him. He most certainly is not allowed on our recliners or our bed & we don't own a sofa. His utilitarian food bowl is under a kitchen counter where we won't kick it, & whenever we go somewhere in our auto, he comes with us, sprawled across the back seat on a blanket. So I'm really not the best person to review a book about stylish homes & pets!

& Animal House Style is a stylish book -- begging to be set on a coffee table. Julia Szabo's breathless prose, stories & gossip compliment the glossy photos of perfectly clean & visitor-ready rooms in various well-known people's homes where dogs, cats, ponies, ferrets & birds tidily hang out with a palpable air of culture, on color-coordinated, sometimes whimsical furniture.

The pictures of dogs & cats lolling gracefully on chairs, beds & sofas of all sorts of styles & fabrics, from moderne to heirloom, are charming, if alarming. This furniture has obviously been purchased with pets in mind -- from a ferret bed to bird climbing needs; from cat perches high up the wall to pure white dust covers -- an inordinate number of featured homes in this book have white or light colored furniture!

Julia Szabo has a lot to say about decorating & keeping pets & homes clean; feed & bath times & clean up materials; toys & dignity. She also advises you that you'd better get a housekeeper! I suppose anyone who can afford the type of furniture she suggests already has one of those.

It's really a decadent use of your money & the trees it took to print it & if you're serious about transforming your home into an elegant place for you & your critters, I do suggest you pick up MetroDog & Unleashing Your Inner Dog as well! The former will guide you on how to train your soon-to-be-chic canine & the latter offers you ways in which to celebrate your critters' companionship.
(03/03/02)

Rebecca