Innehållsförteckning för January/February 2019 från All Creatures

OUR PETS ARE SOULFUL CREATURES. They think and they feel. They dream and they scheme. But most of all, they love. And love is proof of a soul. So can an animal be a soul mate? I think so. It’s easy to overlook the emotional lives of our pets, their complex inner lives, especially from our too-often anthropocentric perspective. Yet one of the great miracles of life is our capacity to reach across the boundary of species to connect with a creature not of our kind. I force myself to remember that the God who created me is the same God who created my golden retriever, Grace. I believe her presence—like that of many people who are brought into my life—is due to the hand of heaven. She is a…

IN THE EARLY 1960s, squirrels in Longview, Washington, came out of the woodwork to feast on peanuts offered by a dentist. But many of the animals didn’t survive crossing the busy roadway in front of the dentist’s office. Developer Amos Peters decided to build a squirrel bridge 18 feet above the road. Peters and his friends constructed a 60-foot-long crossway out of aluminum TV-antenna tubing and fire hose. On its opening day in 1963, the Nutty Narrows Bridge, named after the state’s famous Tacoma Narrows Bridge, was lined with nuts, and squirrels quickly adopted the safe passage it gave them. Today there are five squirrel bridges in Longview. The original span has been reconstructed and relocated nearby, as trees have died. “The Nutty Narrows Bridge is part of our city’s…

ON OUR FAMILY CATTLE RANCH, calves usually weigh 70 to 90 pounds when they are born. But Mini started life as a vigorous full-term 20-pound calf. She was so petite, it was comical. She made people smile whenever they saw her. Her sunny, friendly disposition grew as she got older, but her body never did. As the time came to wean the calves from their mothers, Mini was more than 200 pounds lighter than her age group. A new worry developed: What do we do with Mini? We couldn’t keep her, but we didn’t have the heart to send her to some anonymous auction yard. We ran an ad online. Every day I prayed, “Please, Lord, help us find a home for Mini.” Weeks passed and I began to lose…

“GOT ICE IN YOUR PAWS?” I asked Felina, my 12-year-old black Lab-border collie mix. I was shoveling snow from the walkway outside our apartment building in Greenfield, Wisconsin, so my wife, Andrea, would have a safe path when she came home from work. Felina had been frolicking in the snow, but now she was limping. I leaned my shovel against the building wall and checked her paws. Ice had accumulated on them. I’d have to dislodge it with my fingers. I pulled off my left glove. Ping! Metal hit brick. My wedding ring! There had to be 30 inches of snow by the building. How would I find a little gold band in that? Worse yet, how would I tell Andrea I had lost my ring just five months into…

AT ONE POINT DURING THE WINTER of 1940, my husband, a house painter, was temporarily unemployed because of the weather, and the textile plant where I worked was closed due to a seasonal layoff. We literally had no money. To make matters worse, our 18-month-old daughter, Rachel, was recovering poorly from pneumonia, and the doctor insisted we feed her a boiled egg each day. Even that was beyond our means. “Why not pray for an egg?” suggested our babysitter, who was staying on without pay to help us. We were a churchgoing family, but this teenager’s depth of faith was something new to us at the time. All the same, she and I got on our knees and told the Lord that Rachel needed an egg each morning. We left…

Has your cat put on a few pounds? Obesity can lead to restlessness and destructive behavior, as well as health concerns such as diabetes and arthritis. If it’s time to help your kitty lose weight, here are some suggestions to get her excited about exercise. 1 Cat Tree Your cat may already have a multi-tiered tree or tower. If she only naps on it, add some toys, dangles and surprises on the different levels. Or spice things up with a ramp or a teeter-totter. Then park the whole thing where she will use it frequently—by a window, in her favorite room or in the living room near the rest of the family. 2 Laser Pointer Does your cat likes chasing a laser? Boost the exercise benefits by moving through the…

AS PREPARED as we were, the one thing my husband and I never planned for was the result of Petey’s therapy dog certification test. We did our homework,›took classes and practiced, but in the end, Petey didn’t pass. “He just needs to grow up,” our trainer assured us. She’s confident Petey has what it takes to be a great therapy dog, so together we’ve come up with a new plan: 1. WAIT. Dogs must be at least one year old to take the test, but not all are ready at that age. Petey still has a lot of energy and a near irrepressible desire to play with other dogs. We never want him to lose his fun-loving personality, but we’ll watch for signs that he can control his exuberance and…

KIDS MIGHT TRY hedgehog pose in yoga class, but meet a real, live hedgehog? That’s what some young yogis did last summer at the Yoga Playhouse camp in Millburn, New Jersey. In Yoga Meets Philanthropy sessions, kids ages 4 to 13 “practice poses, tackle community service projects and meet visitors who empower them to make a difference,” says founder Betsy Stephens. Howl the hedgehog is a registered therapy animal. His owner explained how keeping this little creature in a pouch around her neck helps slow her heartbeat and ease her anxiety. “The kids loved meeting Howl and learning how something so small can help someone heal,” Stephens says.…

I WAS ON an early morning walk with my husband, Cecil, when a tiny white kitten darted into the road and sat just a few feet in front of us. I scooped her up, put her in my sweater pocket and took her home. That was over 40 years ago and I can still recall how certain I felt that she was meant to be mine. Miss White was a mellow cat, content to purr in my lap or soak up attention from anyone who came into our family flower shop. A few years later Cecil passed away, and Miss White came to mean even more to me. Cecil and I had found her together—she was my last link to him. I was heartbroken when she died at age 13.…

Q What’s the best way to prepare a cat for a new baby? —Jessica Marshall , Albany, New York A Cats can be prepped for the arrival of a new baby through a combination of behavior modification and making a few cat-centric changes to the home. Start preparing three to four months before your newborn comes home. Set up baby-free zones so the cat can feel safe. These include places to climb, such as tall cat trees, shelves and other furniture that’s at least five feet high. The vertical territory should be in areas where your cat hangs out, such as family rooms. The sound of a baby crying can cause a feline to feel stressed, especially one that has never lived with a child before. Help yours adjust…

Lindy nibbled at the hay I held to her mouth, then laid her head weakly on the straw inside the tentlike shelter in the pasture. She still wasn’t getting up. For four days in the February cold my three-year-old ewe had lain here, miserable, unable to give birth to the obviously huge baby (or was it twins?) straining against her swollen belly. Despite watching hours of lambing videos online, I doubted I could be the midwife she needed. The only large-animal veterinarian in the area was out of town. The on-call vet had advised, “Just watch her.” What did he think I’d been doing? Every two hours round the clock, I’d sat with Lindy, coaxing her to eat and drink. Nothing had changed. Desperate, I’d messaged other shepherds online. “She’s…

The call came one September morning, before I’d had my coffee. “Julie, he’s drinking again.” Our family member had relapsed. Not for the first time. I got off the phone and felt myself slipping too. Not by drinking, but by “stinking thinking,” the distorted thought patterns that had made my life unmanageable. Overanalyzing. Obsessing. Trying to control things. Clyde, our four-year-old yellow Labrador retriever, came into the kitchen as I poured my coffee, prancing as much as a 100-pound dog could prance. He knew it was time for a walk. “You’re always happy, aren’t you, buddy?” I drank my coffee, imagining worst-case scenarios involving this family member who’d fallen off the wagon. One phone call, and my 20 years of Al-Anon recovery work went out the window. I didn’t want…