Tabla de contenidos para Mar/Apr 2022 en All Creatures

“IT’S THE DOWNY WOODPECKER!” my son shouted, pointing out our picture window to the two bird feeders hanging in the front yard. “He’s back!” David was right. There at a feeder was our black-and-white feathered friend, his body leaning and the red patch on his head darting back and forth as he looked around for others that might swoop in. And they will. In the less than two years we’ve lived in our house, we’ve watched a variety of birds visit our feeders. The woodpeckers come year-round. American robins and mourning doves prefer fall and winter. Goldfinches, house finches and cardinals reappear as spring blooms. Some share the ledge of the feeder while others wait until they can have it all to themselves. And the grackles scare everyone off. In…

More than anything else, I loved horses when I was a young girl. My family owned an old plug of a horse that I rode over the rolling hills near our home in Oklahoma. All the while I imagined I was astride a glorious stallion, riding off into the sunset with the sky above me and the wind in my hair. It was the closest thing to God and heaven. I displayed plastic horses on the shelves in my bedroom and covered the walls with pictures I’d cut from horse magazines. There was one champion—a show horse named Morafic—that I loved most of all. He seemed larger than life, white and ethereal. I dreamed of one day owning a stallion like him, but that seemed about as likely as lassoing…

‘Jake!” my husband called out. “Jake!” I shouted. “Jake, where are you, boy?” Our voices echoed in the bitter wind whistling through the hickory trees. The light draining from the December sky, we tramped through the wet leaves and grass stretching behind our house. “Jake!” I yelled, squinting at the thick woods out back, woods filled with foxes, owls and hawks, hungry predators all. And Jake, a mere five furry pounds, would be easy prey. “Maybe he’ll come back on his own,” my husband said. “Jim, he gets lost in our back seat.” Jake was definitely an indoor dog, a puddle of spilled cream with two raisin eyes and a black button nose. All of our previous dogs had been large, rangy outdoor animals, the kind that take you for…

CIVILIAN LIFE WASN’T EASY after spending nearly 12 years as a Marine. I tried a few nine-to-five jobs, but I couldn’t connect with my coworkers. None of them had served in the military, and I had trouble finding common ground. Somehow I just didn’t fit the mold. I felt angry that I couldn’t find my place in the world. I struggled with depression. One day my wife came home with a strange announcement. “I signed you up for a beekeeping class,” she said. What? Why? Sure, our Michigan farmland had room enough for hives, but I had never mentioned an interest in beekeeping, nor did I have any. “Something just told me to jump on the opportunity,” she said. “Who knows, you may love it.” I was so lost, I…

Who she is Terry Hutchison was an EMT who rushed people to the hospital. Then her own medical crisis changed her life. In 2014, after serious longterm health issues and several hospitalizations, Terry was left with seven stents, a pacemaker, a defibrillator and an altered electrical system in her heart. As she was recovering, a friend gave her an unusual gift—a two-pound piglet. “Obviously, they ran out of flowers, cards and boxes of candy,” Terry jokes. She quickly bonded with Bacon Bits and discovered that dogs weren’t the only animals that could provide comfort. What she does Along with her partner, Ed, and their Traveling Therapy Pigs, Terry visits more than 100 nursing homes, centers for disability, schools, libraries and community events each year in the New York Capital Region.…

Matt Wilson and his wife, Katie, scour the thrift stores near their North Charleston, South Carolina, home, looking for silverware and cooking utensils to buy. No, they don’t own a restaurant. Matt is an upcycling artist who uses scrap metal, driftwood and other found objects to create beautiful, lifelike sculptures of birds, insects and other animals. Matt’s artistic abilities were evident from an early age. He attended Winthrop University and worked toward an arts degree in drawing and painting. Then in 2006, he became interested in a new medium: metal sculpture. So he learned how to weld. He took a job at Detyens Shipyards, where he became the resident artist, building metal models of the ships that were serviced in the shipyard. The models were given to the port engineers…

Turtle Trackers John Rucker and his team of turtle dogs from Cascade, Montana, are on a mission to save the Eastern box turtle. Back in 2001, John’s Boykin spaniels found box turtles and brought them to him while out hiking. Since spaniels have soft mouths and can carry things without damaging them, John released the unharmed turtles back to their habitat. When word got around about these pups, environmental organizations reached out. Now John and his team—Skeeter, Ruger, Yogi, Scamp and Lazarus—collect box turtles and attach trackers. The research gleaned from them has been game-changing. “All these studies have given us a greater appreciation of how complex these creatures are,” says John. “The dogs are helping to raise awareness and save the turtles. I feel like we’re making a difference…

‘‘You don’t want that one,” the shelter volunteer said. “He’s broken.” “Broken?” I asked. Had I heard her correctly? I looked down at the black cat sitting on my foot. He trilled softly. The minute I’d walked into the animal shelter’s cat room, he’d been one step behind me, my shadow. I wasn’t an expert, but this cat seemed friendly. “He’s been a stray since birth,” the volunteer explained. “He doesn’t like anyone—not other cats, not dogs, not people. Sometimes they’re out there way too long. He’s already three years old. At a certain point, it’s nearly impossible for them to be fully domesticated.” “I want to adopt him,” I said. “Really?” she asked. There were several other cats up for adoption, cats that were socialized and would be easier…

I DIDN’T NOTICE that my husband, Marty, was carrying something when he came home until he plopped it on my lap. It was a little ball of fluff with a cold, wet nose. A puppy! Marty and I had talked about getting a dog, but I wasn’t expecting this! “I thought you were out getting the car serviced,” I said, trying to get a grip on the wriggling puppy. “I was,” Marty said. While he was waiting on the car, a pickup truck pulled up in the dealership parking lot. In the truck bed was a litter of puppies, a few months old. The owner was trying to find homes for them. “This one came right up to me!” Marty said. “I just felt like she was meant to be…

The days immediately following a pet’s death can weigh heavy on the heart. Coming home to an empty house is difficult. You miss your beloved friend and family member. Here are some ideas to help you move through the grief. 1 Revisit happier times. After my golden retriever Ike died, all I could think of were his final days—his painful expression, our fear and anguish. I went over those last moments again and again, wondering if we did all we could, if the vet had done all she could. Then one day my husband sat close to me, and together we looked through pictures and videos of Ike when he was spry and healthy. That shifted my focus from the grief to the happy times we spent together, which started…