The Orangutan and Hound – A Short Love Story

I see a lot – I mean a lot  - of cute, (and not-so-cute), animal stuff because it is a large part of my professional and personal life. And yes, I have seen my fair share of cute inter-species animal stories, videos, etc. This one, new to me, was particularly heartwarming.
This made my day – hope [...]

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Summer’s Last Breath

As the sun and the earth dance through the Equinox, summer exhales and shares her final gifts.

The last perfect rose of summer blooms, defying the empty, withering stalks of Hosta and drying grass.

The tall grasses in the backyard bloom in bursts of sunlit wheat.

The praying mantis I’ve been getting to know, mated, and the next [...]

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Praying Mantis – Bravery? or Suicide Wish?

This morning as I opened windows and doors for the wonderful fresh air, I noticed a small-ish bright green fellow (or lady) on the top of my side porch stairs. It was clearly a young praying mantis, so I very quietly went to check her out. She is about 3″ long, which makes her still [...]

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Conversations with Fiona

She appeared out of nowhere. She was clearly hungry and looking for food. She was also, as best I could tell, feral, although immaculately clean, as even the wildest of cats can be.
I offered her some of the dry food which I feed my own cats and she inhaled it. Any move towards her and [...]

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Winged Migration – A Spectacular Visual Treat

This movie, released in 2003, is one of the most spectacular I have seen. There is almost no narration, there are occasional notes on the bottom of the screen indicating the type of bird and the location and distance it flies during migration, and the most incredible music created just for the film. Not to [...]

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Dogsong – Gary Paulsen

There are times when I’ve finished a book, that I don’t quite know where to put it. In my head, that is. The book is so different from anything I’ve read, that it seems to be searching for a place to settle in my mental bookshelf, and meanwhile, it seems to hover in space.
Dogsong by [...]

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Freshness Expert

One of the things that is so endearing about our pets is how they come up with these little quirky behaviors on their own.
One of my cats is the official, self-appointed Freshness Expert (and yes, that is with a capital F and E.) Just ask her.
Whenever I open a new bag of their food and [...]

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The Deer Ate Them

Who was it that said “No good deed goes unpunished?” Seems so true on this count! Because I am so behind in getting flowers in pots around the house, I decided a couple of weeks ago to at least buy two big pots of lovely pink, dark-leaved begonias for the edge of my front porch. [...]

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