Steven Kotler 
A Small Furry Hope 
Dog Rescue and the Meaning of Life

Steven Kotler was forty years old, single, and facing an existential

crisis when he met Lila, a woman devoted to animal rescue. ‘Love me,

love my dogs, ‘ was her rule, and Steven took it to heart. Spurred to

move by a housing crisis in Los Angeles, Steven, Lila – and their eight

dogs, then ten, then twenty, and then they lost count – bought a

postage-stamp-sized farm in Chimayo, New Mexico.
A Small Furry Hope

chronicles their adventures at Rancho de Chihuahua, the sanctuary they

created for their pack with special needs: the very old, the very sick,

and, as Kotler says, ‘the really retarded.’







An insider look at the culture of dog rescue,
A Small Furry Prayer

weaves personal experience, and scientific inquiry into a fast-paced,

fun-filled narrative that explores what it means to devote one”s life

to the furry and the four-legged. Along the way, Kotler combs through

every aspect of canine-human relations, from long human history with

dogs to brand new research into the neuroscience of canine

companionship, in the end discovering why living in a world made of dog

may be the best way to uncover the truth about what it really means to

be human.