Innehållsförteckning för March/April 2021 från All Creatures

DON’T GET ME WRONG, winter has its moments. The deer quietly leaving prints in the snow blanketing my yard, icicles like crystals hanging from the roof gutters, birds of all kinds flocking to a neighbor’s feeder. Nature, frozen and glistening, hides flower bulbs waiting to burst. My beagle-basset mix, Charlie, waits too. Perched atop my couch cushions, he alternates between snoring and watching us move about the house. He’s had plenty of romps in the snow, but at eight years old, he prefers to keep his paws dry. He’s holding out for milder weather. Come March, there may still be a nip in the air, but the ground thaws and we see signs of a new season. Charlie’s ears perk up at the sounds of kids riding their bikes again.…

The Duckling Drop IN APRIL 2018 a mallard built a nest on the second-floor balcony of Nathaniel Peters’s Seattle apartment building. “It’s a good, safe place to build a nest,” he says. Then the ducklings hatched and the mother was unable to get her babies to water. So Nathaniel and several friends rigged a plastic bin with ropes and herded the ducklings into it. As the mother waited on the street below, they carefully lowered the bin. The nearest water in their Ballard neighborhood was 10 blocks away. Nathaniel and his crew decided to escort the mallard family there. “We formed a ring around them, but the mother was the one leading the way. It was one of the best days of my life.” Nathaniel has spearheaded what is now…

Chuck Avery of Casa Grande, Arizona, wakes up at 4:30 A.M. and takes the first five of 16 pills in his daily regimen. If he’s up longer than an hour without his medication, he won’t be able to breathe. He starts his day much earlier than his wife, Amanda, and their seven rescue dogs. He needs to make his way to the animal shelter where he volunteers, and he moves more slowly than most people. Before he heads out, he checks on Maverick, a Lab-chow mix who was almost euthanized because of his aggressive behavior. Chuck has been working with him at home for about a month now and has already seen a vast improvement. “See you later, buddy,” he says to Maverick, who goes back to sleep in his…

Q My dog eats a lot of grass, and I think it’s strange. Why does he do this, and is it harmful? —Jaylin Rumph, Danbury, Connecticut A This is a question veterinarians are frequently asked, but not one to which there is a simple answer. Grass or plant eating is a common behavior seen in dogs. In a small study published in the journal Applied Animal Behaviour Science in May 2008, 79 percent of dog owners reported that their dogs ate grass or other plant material. Popular theories as to why dogs do this include boredom, dietary deficiency and to induce vomiting when they have an upset stomach. The idea that a nutritional deficiency causes dogs to seek grass is not scientifically valid. Nevertheless, there have been anecdotal reports in…

What do you think of when you think of Easter? Eggs, of course. The symbol of new life come spring. How better to illustrate the season’s spiritual message? I looked forward to teaching the lesson of the egg in my Sunday school class as Easter approached, but when I asked the children where eggs came from the answer surprised me. “Bunnies!” all 12 students shouted. Bunnies? I thought. Could these kids be so far removed from nature they actually think rabbits lay eggs? My own chickens would have been terribly insulted! “It’s on TV,” one of the girls explained. “A white rabbit lays chocolate eggs.” Now I knew what they meant. I’d seen the commercial, but it didn’t have much to do with the lesson I wanted to teach. I…

This may sound a odd, but I’m best friends with a bird. Not a pet bird either. Lulabelle is a ruffed grouse, a native game bird that’s related to pheasants and partridges. Lulu is bigger than a pigeon, with a short crest on her head, a long fan-shaped tail and the most beautiful gold, beige and dark brown feathers. I used to hunt ruffed grouse, but I quit for good after I met Lulabelle. I’ll never forget that spring day in 2017. I was on my tractor, smoothing out a trail on our wooded land, when a grouse showed up. She parked herself on the ground right in front of the tractor and chirped. Wouldn’t budge. Not even when I revved the engine. I hopped off the tractor. “Shoo,” I…

One July morning, Holly Jorgensen was standing on the dock of the small private lake behind her home in Minnesota when a green sunfish caught her eye. “He stared at me with an interest I’ve never seen in a fish,” she says. “There was something different about him.” They watched each other every day while he guarded his nest and Holly took her daily swims. Weeks later, when he had finished his fatherly duty, the sunfish began approaching Holly in the water and rubbing against her legs. He sometimes glided alongside her for the duration of her 20-minute swim and lingered as she climbed back onto the dock. “I could hardly believe he stayed so close,” she says. “I took a picture of him and labeled it ‘friendly fish.’” That first…

NATIONAL PUPPY DAY MARCH 23 “I’m too old for a puppy,” writer Lou Dean insisted. But Dell proved her wrong (page 22). EASTER APRIL 4 Isabel Wolseley Torrey’s chicken, Henney Penney, gave her Sunday school class an Easter they would never forget (page 26). EARTH DAY APRIL 22 What are some small changes you can make that help the earth and, in turn, all its creatures? Find out on page 46.…

‘‘I’m too old for a puppy,” I told my friend Julie. Her beautiful border collie–miniature Australian shepherd was pregnant and she’d offered me one of the pups. But I wasn’t going there. No way. She looked at me, surprised. “I just thought that with you losing your old dog...and you said Tuck is lonely.” I opened the door to my 4Runner, signaling my border collie, Tuck, to load. “I might consider an older dog sometime in the future. But no puppy. I’m serious.” Julie waved goodbye as I drove down the dusty road that led from her place. The truth was, Tuck wasn’t the only one in need of company. In the northwest Colorado high desert where I live, there are more elk and deer than people. My family lived…

Don’t blame bats for Covid-19. It’s our interference with wildlife and its habitats that increases the chances of viruses spilling over to humans. And only people spread Covid-19 to people. Bats, in fact, are a vital part of our ecosystem. These volunteers are making sure we understand more about these unique flying mammals. Who they are Dennis Testerman, a “bi-vocational minister,” and Gwen and Alicia Dishman, recent graduates of the University of North Carolina Wilmington, all like bats. Dennis is part of Presbyterians for Earth Care, a national eco-justice network that “cares for God’s creation by connecting, equipping and inspiring Presbyterians to make creation care a central concern of the church.” What they do As volunteers for the North American Bat Monitoring Program (NABat), which gathers data to promote conservation…

EVERY TIME DUCHESS heard our neighbor Jim’s truck rumbling up the road, she’d raise a ruckus, barking and growling enough to scare the horses three farms away. I wondered if it had been a mistake to take the stray dog in. I’d found her, a bright-eyed yellow Lab, lingering on the other side of our fence with hopeful—and hungry—eyes. “There’s no chance my husband will let you stay,” I’d said. We already had a dog, two cats, a pony and a coop full of chickens. Her name is Duchess. I heard the words almost as if they had been spoken aloud. “Duchess?” The stray perked up. I let her into the yard. “Think she’ll get along with the chickens?” my husband asked. Duchess got along fine with all our animals.…

In 1969 a massive oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara, California, sent an estimated three million gallons of crude oil into the ocean, killing thousands of animals. Policy makers designated April 22, 1970, the first Earth Day—a day to increase awareness about environmental issues. Here’s how we can protect our planet…and the animals we share it with. 1 Reduce Waste Remember saving tinfoil, repairing toys and darning holey socks? Today these items often end up in landfills, leading to pollution and habitat loss for wildlife. WHAT WE CAN DO Don’t buy what we don’t need. Buy secondhand furniture, clothes, toys and other items. Recycle paper, aluminum cans, glass and plastic. Use reusable water bottles and coffee mugs. Repair rather than discard. “Freecycle” by posting items on local Facebook…