Table of contents for September - October 2018 in All Creatures

HI! GRACIE HERE, aka Grace and/or Googoo, depending. Edward and Julee’s golden. Three years old. You remember me. I’ve enjoyed talking to you before, with the help of Edward. Exciting news! There is a new feature this month: How I Met My Pet (page 32). It’s great. You should definitely check it out. But why not How I Met My Humans? I have a story! At the time, my life was a mess. I was six months old and belonged to a lady breeder who was very nice—I mean really a good person at heart—but who couldn’t figure out what to do with me, among other things. She’d held two puppies back from the litter, me and my brother, who was being trained to be an agility champ. Weird! I…

Ian Somerhalder Foundation isfoundation.com,  @isfofficial Living with six dogs, two cats and a horse isn’t enough animal love for actor Ian Somerhalder and his wife, Nikki Reed. In 2010, he started his foundation “to empower, educate and collaborate with people and projects to positively impact the planet and its creatures.” Through a variety of programs, including spay and neuter clinics, a clean-water campaign and emergency animal medical care grants, Somerhalder, who grew up in Louisiana rescuing pelicans and otters, is encouraging sustainable living and animal rescue. In a post on Instagram, he detailed the rescue of three donkeys, describing them as “beautiful, smart and sentient beings [saved] from certain death somewhere in a cold Colorado feedlot.” The Roar Foundation shambala.org @roarfoundation In Sanskrit, shambala means “a meeting place of…

Do animals grieve the way we humans do? I’ve been asking myself this question ever since my husband, Adam, told me the story of how his parents’ dog, Sandy, behaved after the death of his grandfather a few years ago. “We took Sandy to Pop Pop’s house after the funeral,” Adam said. “She raced to his armchair and lay next to it. She stayed for hours. Somehow she knew he was gone.” But how? To find out, I decided to talk to experts and others who have witnessed animals mourning. Like Meva Scarff of West Virginia, who was stunned by the way the cows on her farm seemed to express their grief after the death of her husband, Jim, about a year ago. Meva had Jim buried at the top…

Bye for Now Monarch butterflies head to Mexico and California; they’re the only insect that migrates as far as 2,500 miles to a warmer climate. Bar-headed geese hit altitudes of 5.5 miles above sea level while flying over the Himalayas to India. Winter Wardrobe Sometimes appearance signals a seasonal shift. Animals whose coats turn white as winter approaches include the snowshoe rabbit, the arctic fox and the Peary caribou. Brain Power A squirrel buries nuts and seeds in autumn. A 15 percent increase in the size of its hippocampus, the brain’s memory center, helps it remember exactly where to find its stash come winter. Stocking Up Moles store hundreds of earthworms—their favorite food—in underground chambers, biting their heads so they can’t escape but remain alive to be eaten later. Love…

You spot a tiny ball of fur huddled in a corner of your yard. It’s a wild animal, and it’s not moving. You should step in and help it, right? Think again. I recently met with Katrina Haskell, a New York State licensed wildlife rehabilitator. “Sometimes intervening can do more harm than good,” Haskell says. Read on for her advice on helping injured wildlife. 1 I see a baby animal alone in my yard. Should I try to rescue it? KH: Not necessarily. The first thing you should do is check to see if the mother is nearby. For instance, it’s normal to find baby bunnies unattended. Their mama comes around only in the early morning and early evening. A baby that is alone is not necessarily orphaned. If it…

SHELTERS CAN BE NOISY and stressful places for animals. But something special happens when Kitty Snyder, an Atlanta-based musician, walks into DeKalb County Animal Services in Chamblee, Georgia, playing her guitar and singing for the dogs and cats. Snyder, who’s always had a strong bond with animals, began volunteering at the shelter in 2014. “I rescued my dog 12 years ago,” she says. “Since then, I have been fostering and walking dogs in need of permanent homes and finally found a great local place to volunteer.” Earlier this year, Tracy Hunton Thompson, the director of LifeLine Animal Project (the shelter’s managing organization), had an idea for Snyder, based on a viral video she’d seen of Chad Olds, an animal service officer and musician in North Carolina who plays at the…

Q For two years, my four-year-old cat has been scratching himself incessantly. My vet has prescribed steroids and tested for mites and ringworm. My cat is losing hair on his hind legs and belly and will suddenly jump as if he is being bitten. What could it be? —Mary Richwine , Boyne City, Michigan A Your cat’s scratching is almost certainly the result of an allergy. The first and most likely cause of the symptoms you describe is a flea allergy. It takes only a few fleas to set off a severe reaction. Just looking for them on your cat is not a good way to find them. It is much easier to look for flea dirt (excretions appearing as black-brown dots). Even this can be tricky to detect…

Drums were beating somewhere, steady like my heart, and the melody of a flute drifted through my head. I opened my eyes. Time to feed the dogs, I thought. But the blanket over me was too heavy, and I couldn’t lift my arms or legs. What’s wrong with me? Men began chanting to the drumbeats, and I recognized my Indian music. But I knew I wasn’t home in Vermont. Then I felt a warm touch and heard a whisper in my ear: “Steve…” Turning my head was impossible. I lowered my eyes to see my wife’s face. Gwen, I tried to say, but no words came out. For some reason I started to cry. “You have had an accident,” Gwen said, touching my cheek. She was crying too. “You’ve been…

“Finally, a break in the weather.” I spoke out loud, but only our two dogs were listening. “Come on, guys, let’s go for a walk.” An anemic sun was shining. It was only March, though and the trails would be soggy from weeks of rain. I pulled on my hiking boots. Nothing like a Pacific Northwest winter to give someone a serious case of cabin fever. It wasn’t just the weather that had made me restless. My mare, Rubi, was overdue to give birth. For the past few weeks I’d been checking her methodically, day and night. I’d calculated her due date as the end of February. I had already spent more than one night in the barn watching her lie on her side, groaning in discomfort, and feeling sure…

I CHECKED MY CELL PHONE AGAIN. Why doesn’t he return my text messages? My 10-year-old grandson, Luke, and I had always been close, but now that my husband and I had moved 120 miles away, I felt as if I wasn’t part of Luke’s world anymore. The next day, I drove down to see him. He was all set up to play a video game. “Can I play, too?” I asked. He explained the rules, but by the time I understood, he had lost interest. “What’s your favorite subject in school this year?” I said, grasping for a way to connect with him. Luke shrugged. What would get him talking? Maybe his new pet. “How’s Rex?” I asked. Luke’s face lit up. He led me to his room, where…

ERNEST, my older, experienced golden retriever, lines up at a therapy-dog event next to a Shetland sheepdog, a beagle mix and a labradoodle. They all have something important in common. Does our golden puppy, Petey, have it too? Eleven-month-old Petey has learned most of the skills needed to pass a therapy-dog certification test. He can sit, stay and come. He walks nicely on a leash. He passed his Canine Good Citizen test, meaning he can behave politely in public. But none of these skills are the special characteristic I’m talking about. The one important trait all therapy dogs have in common is a good temperament. Fortunately, I feel Petey has this going for him. Golden retrievers tend to be happy, gentle and eager to please. But just as with people,…

IT STARTED WITH A MEOW. On a hot Saturday in Brooklyn, I was about to begin my afternoon run when I heard it: “Meow.” A slim black-and-white cat was staring up at me from the sidewalk. I feed the cats in my neighborhood. This one was shy, always hanging back and waiting for me to leave before eating. Today she seemed different, insistent about something. “Meow!” “What is it?” I asked. “Are you hungry?” Suddenly she darted down the driveway, stopping next to my car. She meowed again. That’s when I noticed a black lump on the ground. It looked like one of the shingles that sometimes blew off the roof in a storm. “Meow!” It wasn’t a shingle. It was a kitten! His fur was a dusty black with…

MY VERY FIRST ASSIGNMENT as a minister was to an inner-city parish in Camden, New Jersey. There was drug dealing and violent crime within sight of our home, and rough characters knocked on our door at all hours of the day and night. Not long after we arrived, I had to attend a weeklong church conference out of town. I dreaded leaving my wife and three children alone in our new neighborhood. God, I prayed, take care of them. My first spare moment at the conference, I called home to make sure all was well. My wife assured me that everything was fine and that no one had bothered them. “But there is one thing,” she said. “You had barely gotten out the door when a huge black Labrador retriever…

Lots of little girls dream about having their own horse someday, especially if they live on a farm as Hannah Simpson did. Growing up in the Southland hills outside Invercargill, the southernmost city in New Zealand, Hannah loved being around and caring for animals. But without a horse, something didn’t feel quite right. She didn’t just want to trot around the barnyard; she wanted to gallop through meadows and compete in show jumping. Unfortunately, the feed and other costs of caring for a horse were beyond her family’s budget, so she tried to put the idea of riding out of her mind. That is, until one day when she was tending her family’s small herd of cows and her younger brother dared her to hop on top of one. Little…