TERRI SCHLICHENMEYER The Bookworm Sez Advertisement

Take a good, long look at that critter curled up on the sofa with you.

No, I'm not talking about your significant other. I mean your pet. Take a look at your dog or cat.

Or think about your horse. Or the hamster you once had, or the snake in the terrarium downstairs.

We Americans love our animals; in fact, up to 70 percent of us have a pet with which we share our lives. But can you imagine loving a lemur? Adoring an ape? Wanting to tickle a tiger?

When you read "Kicked, Bitten, and Scratched" by Amy Sutherland, you'll read about people who do.

Each year, at the end of the summer, 50 hopefuls become the new class at the Exotic Animal Training and Management program (EATM) at Moorpark Community College in southern California. Before the students even apply to be members of the newest class, someone tries to dissuade them from wanting to work with animals.

Yes, the upper-classman admits, there's a rush of adrenaline when a mandrill takes your hand and grooms your arm. Gaining the trust of a camel will make you smile. Figuring out how to get a recalcitrant seal to take her medications is a feat worthy of a puzzlemaster.

But working with animals isn't all glamour. It's slave labor, as one student said.

It's mucking stalls and catching elephant poop on a shovel. It's being bitten to the bone by an animal you've known for months and thought you could trust. It's making stinky meals and dealing with allergies and lack of sleep.

It's learning that you never go in a cage alone and that you always, always back out.

For one year, journalist Amy Sutherland followed a group of first-year students as they learned the basics in exotic animal care, and a class of second-years as they reached for graduation handed over the reins of their beloved charges.

Through it all, Sutherland documents the struggles of several human animals, including a single mother whose student loans are drying up and a perfectionist who wonders if she can ever relax. Sutherland also writes about animals, including a wolf who howls along with a Michael Jackson song, a baboon who won't take guff from anyone who bothers her (male) trainers, and an overweight horse who steals his best friend's lunch.

Did you grow up dreaming of becoming a tiger tamer like the guys on TV? Then you're going to roar over this book. Author Amy Sutherland shows that "training" animals is also training humans, and while she's careful to write about the good things that happen at EATM, she's also willing to portray the not-so-good parts. Loving an animal, as pet owners know, is not entirely all warm and fuzzy.

Don't monkey around. No need to feel sheepish. Just duck on out and capture "Kicked, Bitten, and Scratched". If you're an animal lover or just want to read about a career path not taken, this is a book you'll love sinking your teeth into.

"Kicked, Bitten, and Scratched" by Amy Sutherland is published by Viking Press, $25.95, 320 pages.