What Sheep Think About the Weather: How to Listen to What Animals Are Trying to Say

Are animals trying to tell us something―and have we been too distracted to notice?

It started with a hummingbird dive-bombing Amelia Thomas over her morning coffee, and a pair of piglets who just wouldn't stay put. Soon Amelia, journalist and new farmer, begins to question the communications of the creatures all around her: her pigs, her dogs, the pheasant family inhabiting her wood, her 'difficult' big red horse: even the earwigs in the farm's dark, damp corners. Are they all just animals reacting instinctually to the world around them―or are they trying to communicate something deeper?

Driven by lifelong curiosity, Amelia embarks on a journey to uncover what animals truly seek to say to humans. On the way, along with ground-breaking chimps and circumspect octopuses, she'll meet an extraordinary cast of experts, from animal behaviorists and anthrozoologists to trackers and psychologists, and even explore the surprising insights of pet psychics, A.I. researchers, and animal mindfulness practitioners. Each perspective offers a new layer of understanding about the subtle, complex ways animals connect with us―and will deepen our appreciation for every creature with whom we share our planet.

In What Sheep Think About the Weather, Amelia chronicles her sometimes difficult discoveries with humor, heart, and awe. More than just a memoir, this book is a call to listen―not only to the animals we love but to the untamed world around us. What if the answers to some of humanity's greatest questions have been whispered to us all along?

Amelia Thomas is a Cambridge University-educated British author, naturalist, and journalist who lives with her husband and children on a farm in Canada. A former travel writer, she has written and contributed more than a dozen books for Lonely Planet and has worked for newspapers and magazines worldwide. Her first nonfiction book, The Zoo on the Road to Nablus, tells the true story of the last Palestinian zoo.