All Creatures March/April 2019

BEFORE YOU CONTINUE with this editor’s note, turn to page 20 and read the amazing story of the honor an African elephant herd bestowed on the man everyone called the Elephant Whisperer. If you had any doubt that certain animals possess the depth of emotion we often reserve for ourselves, those doubts will be dispossessed once and for all. Go ahead, I’ll wait. My first inkling that animals grieve as deeply as we do came growing up in a cat-and-dog household. Pete the poodle arrived first, big for a miniature but small for a standard. I got to pick him out. Pete enjoyed the rule of the roost, as it were, for a few years at least, until Tika came along. Blue-eyed Siamese Tika was a gift to my sister…

Kerry McKinnon of Strathdownie, Australia, never expected to wake up one morning and find an unannounced visitor snuggling on her golden retriever Asha’s back. Sometime during the chilly night, a baby koala climbed atop the five-year-old dog and nestled into her warm, fluffy coat. It seems that Asha, who was sleeping next to the family’s other retriever, saved the joey’s life after it had probably been separated from its mother and wandered onto McKinnon’s back deck. “Asha is a very kind-natured dog. She’s so sweet,” says McKinnon, who had a hard time removing the baby. It hissed and protested, but eventually she got the joey to a vet and then to a local koala carer. McKinnon told News.com.au, “I think it would have been happy to have just slept there…

THINK OF GREECE and you might picture whitewashed homes built into cliffs above bright blue waters. Ancient temples. Beautiful vacation spots. But in Ierapetra, a town on the southern coast of Crete, the country’s largest island, Takis Proestakis is addressing a problem that isn’t so easy on the eyes: stray animals. For Takis, life was a party. He started out as a DJ at age 17, then ran his own nightclub. After 20 years of drinking and dancing his nights away, Takis tired of the party scene and sold the club, determined to live a quiet life in Ierapetra. That soon included feeding and caring for the dozens of stray dogs he discovered abandoned at the town garbage dump. He took in several who were sick or injured, and he…

MY BOXER mix Sophie lived for adventure. She would dig her way out of my fenced yard—no matter how many times I filled the holes—and chase the squirrels on our block. One evening, Sophie went after the UPS truck and got hit. She died not long after we arrived at the vet. My precious girl was gone. She was only seven years old. I told the doctor that I couldn’t bury her or keep her ashes. I was too devastated. “We have a lovely place nearby where we scatter the remains of patients,” the vet said. I took her up on her offer. I cried for weeks. Then I ran into Beth, a friend I hadn’t seen in years. “I’m so sorry about Sophie,” she said. “How did you know?”…

Q I just got two hermit crabs that are used to living together. One has a scablike black spot on the end of his claw that wasn’t there before. I don’t think he’d fight with his buddy. What could have happened, and what should I do? —Rachel K., Franklin, Tennessee A To best determine what the spot on your crab’s claw is, I recommend that he be seen by a veterinarian knowledgeable in hermit crab care. These crabs are very social animals that should be housed in pairs or groups, but any animal can fight. So it’s possible the spot is from an injury. It could be from an infection or a growth, or it might be a normal pigment variation. Without having a veterinarian check out the…

NATIONAL PET DAY APRIL 11 Lex Hinkley rescued her cat, Tuna, just in time. Turns out, Tuna saved her too (page 14). EARTH DAY APRIL 22 We can relate to so many creatures on this planet, like the Elephant Whisperer’s faithful herd, which mourned and honored him in a beautiful way after he died (page 20). WORLD VETERINARY DAY APRIL 27 Tell us why you appreciate your pet’s vet at facebook.com/allcreaturesmagazine.…