(from Chapter 1, p. 14) Of course she had read about human beings’ sacred relation with animals, and this had always struck her as a pleasing idea. But never before had she properly grasped what it meant. Now that she had actually experienced the irrepressible and electrifying nature of this bond, she saw that it must, and would, revolutionize her life. Nothing in her world would be the same again. The very sunlight she walked in and the air she breathed would look and feel different to her.

(from Chapter 2, p. 23) Yes, he thought, it was always in the secular kingdom of animals, birds and insects that he found his sure salvation. No human touch or voice could cure him as these creatures did, or cause him such unselfish joy. This was why he would continue to lament sorely the senseless death of the Medici giraffe. A glimpse of that dear creature’s rare form would be more welcome to him than a vision of God’s angels.

(from Chapter 11, p. 123) But the compulsion to take action was, if anything, surging in her more strongly than ever before. She was obsessed with the pitiable plight of the cats, dogs and rabbits that were even now on their way to the new laboratory where the stark metal operating tables and torturing instruments awaited them. She could smell their terror as they fouled themselves, crammed into wire cages stacked floor-to-ceiling inside the frigid transport trucks.

(from Chapter 13, p. 165) Piero had taken the most assiduous care to insulate himself from the Prior’s influence. As he had grasped on his sole exposure, Savonarola’s oratory had the power to unmake his artist-self and turn him into a shadow-man shuffling through the streets in penitential mood. He would then become one of those who spied corruption everywhere: even in the clear regard of a new-born child, or in the guiltless creatures of the woods and skies and waters.