May/June 2020

All Creatures

The Animals Who Share Our Lives

All Creatures2 min read
Editor’s Note
JULEE CALLED TO SAY that something was wrong with Gracie, our four-year-old golden. I rushed home, praying Gracie would greet me with her usual exuberance. Instead, she moved tentatively, leaned into my leg and looked up at me imploringly. She was in
All Creatures1 min read
Unexpected Friends
Zookeeper Estelle Morgan was determined to help baby porcupine Diablo survive. Diablo’s mother, overwhelmed with her porcupette twins who had arrived just months earlier, rejected him after he was born at Cotswold Wildlife Park & Gardens in England.
All Creatures1 min read
All Creatures
Editorial Director & Vice President Edward Grinnan Executive Editor Amy Wong Creative Director Kayo Der Sarkissian Managing Editor Megan Troise Art Director Gigi Fava Photo Editors Kristin Sladen, Kevin Eans Copy Editor and Production Coordinat
All Creatures2 min read
Going Beyond
WHEN PILOT Jon Wehrenberg agreed to fly a rescued Doberman from Florida to South Carolina back in 2008, he had no idea it would be the start of something special. His friend Debi Boies, a Doberman rescuer, asked if he would help her get this one dog
All Creatures1 min read
Peaceable Kingdom
I drove through my neighborhood the day after a spiritual retreat, feel ing more present. I heard the birds talking to one another. I saw bees in the budding flowers. Then, right in front of me, four adult ducks stepped out into the road. The last on
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The Cops And The Coop
IT WAS HATCH DAY for Michelle Sullivan’s Silkie chicken eggs when a nor’easter hit Derry, New Hampshire, knocking out the electricity at 4 ›.M. She awoke to the sound of the incubator turning on and off, which meant the temperature would drop quickly
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Wish Granted
NEW RESIDENTS at the Bernadette House, a senior care home in Lincoln, England, are asked to make a wish when they move in. But Joyce Gardner, 99, didn’t ask for just anything—she wanted to meet a penguin. “I’m always looking for something different t
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Hope for Orangutan Orphans
WILD ORANGUTANS are found in only two places on earth: the islands of Sumatra and Borneo. The three species that exist are all critically endangered, and as the rain forest shrinks, orangutans are coming into closer contact with humans. Despite laws
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Why We Love… Free Pets For Veterans
IN JANUARY, California became the first state to waive pet adoption fees for veterans. State Senator Ling Ling Chang, who wrote the bill, said that she’s “glad we can reduce the barriers for bringing together veterans seeking companion animals and pe
All Creatures1 min read
I’ll Never Forget You
ONE SATURDAY in August 2000, I was working the bake sale table at my church’s annual peach festival, thinking about how I was going to celebrate my forty-ninth birthday the following month. I wanted to do something special since it was also my third
All Creatures2 min read
Should I Be Worried?
Q My 13-year-old border collie, Charlie, has severe arthritis in his shoulders and hips. He doesn’t seem to be in pain but is stiff when he tries to get up. I was shocked that some vets told me to put him to sleep. Could natural treatments help? —
All Creatures1 min read
Calendar
There was one hen in Crystal Sands’s flock that desperately wanted to be a mother. Would she ever get a chance (page 30)? Georgeanne Irvine shares stories of perseverance, friendship and miracles from her more than 40 years at the San Diego Zoo (page
All Creatures4 min read
Finding Fluffy
The conditions outside weren’t fit for man or beast. Or cat. Especially our big gray cat, Fluffy, who was probably curled up in a patch of daylight in the greenhouse and flower shop we ran next to our house. The snow was piled high where the plows ha
All Creatures5 min read
Forever Family
Accountant Steve Greig’s motley family of 16 animals has taken over his suburban Colorado home. Crazy? Not to him. The all-senior crew, which includes a moody 110-pound pig and a music-loving turkey, has helped him heal after his greatest loss and gi
All Creatures1 min read
The Provider
DURING THE DROUGHT this past summer, I rigged up a fine trickle from the sprayer attachment on my hose for the birds and spent hours watching them from my kitchen window. Standing motionless in the drizzle were not just the usual cardinals and chicka
All Creatures3 min read
Our Broody Hen
‘‘THAT CHICKEN just growled,” my husband said, surprised and amused. “I think she’s broody,” I said. “How long does that last?” Ron asked. I didn’t have an answer. A hen goes broody when she wants to hatch eggs. She will sit on them for days, weeks,
All Creatures5 min read
A New Perspective
I glanced over at the passenger seat. My 17-year-old daughter, Emma, was on her phone again. “I drive you to school every morning, and every morning you ignore me,” I said. “Can’t you put down that phone and talk to me?” Emma shrugged. “About what, D
All Creatures4 min read
My Best Teachers
My career at the San Diego Zoo started back in 1978. As a child, I often visited this zoo, and getting a job there was a dream come true. At first, I didn’t know much about the issues facing wildlife, but I quickly learned that many species were—and
All Creatures2 min read
Their Mysterious Ways
THE CASSEROLE WAS IN THE OVEN. Our five young children were running around the kitchen. They’d been cooped up in the house all day. My husband, Eric, knew I needed a break. “Mom called a little earlier and said her washing machine quit working,” Eric
All Creatures2 min read
LINDA MERRYMAN Pony Patrol, Assateague Island
Linda Merryman is one of the Assateague Pony Patrol volunteers watching over the wild ponies on Assateague Island. The landmass, which is off the eastern coast of the Delmarva Peninsula and spans parts of Maryland and Virginia, is home to more than 3
All Creatures2 min read
Creature Comforts
I HAD LIVED IN AND AROUND SYDNEY, Australia, for the majority of my life and had never been out on the ocean until that April day. It’s not that I was afraid of the water, though I never learned to swim well. My life just took me in another direction
All Creatures2 min read
How I Met My Pet
WHAT IS THAT SOUND? I heard it as soon as I pulled into our driveway that autumn afternoon. Some kind of wailing. I’m a civil rights lawyer, and I’d been away for four days on business. My clients and their families depended on me for their liveliho
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Is This for Real?
By the late 1970s, the rivers in England and Wales were so polluted with pesticides that the otter population was on the brink of extinction. In 1980 a journalist following the troubling decline noticed an eighteenth-century mill outside her friend a
All Creatures3 min read
Here’s To Pet Parents
Taking care of an animal is not the same as taking care of a child. Still, having a pet requires many of the same responsibilities. That animal is part of your family, depends on you and yearns for you to love it unconditionally. Here’s why all of us
All Creatures1 min read
Color Me !
FUN FACTS: There are 13 otter species around the globe. These semiaquatic mammals can hold their breath for up to eight minutes. Sea otters carry food in the loose skin of their armpits, have the thickest fur of any animal and are the only otters to

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