Sanctuary News Unfortunately, today it’s sad news. We lost one of our long-time residents last week. Her name was Pearl. Pearl Pearl came to us when she was about five years old. She was big for a potbelly, and we soon discovered she was more than a little feisty. All pigs get quarantined when they…
I have never believed in invisibility, unless you count that time when I was six-years old and saw The Invisible Man for the first time. For three days I pretended I was invisible. It was a hell of a lot of fun, until my dad—tired of playing the game—spoiled everything. “You know I can see…
Understanding Your Strengths Since we’ve had our animal sanctuary, I’ve come to believe that there’s a lot we can learn from animals. Sometimes it’s a tidbit of wisdom from watching them do what comes naturally, like how the pigs keep cool by digging mud pits to lie in. Or how they use sticks and leaves…
Writing With Distractions I often read, with some degree of envy, about writers who are going off on a writing retreat. Leaving the world for a weekend or even a whole week, and taking their computer to a mountain hideaway, or a beach resort, or a cabin in the woods. “I just can’t focus at…
Animal Intelligence Depending on which list you look at, the order of intelligence for the different species usually looks something like this: 1. human 2. ape 3. dolphin 4. pig 5. elephant 6. octopus 7. dog 8. crow Most scientists agree on the first two, though I personally have doubts about the number one ranking…
What I Learned From Coffee Dog A few months ago I did a post about Gracie, the coffee dog. What I didn’t say in that post was that Gracie had been suffering from diabetes for a few years. Now the disease has progressed rapidly, bringing on complete blindness. She gets insulin shots twice a day,…
What Are You Afraid Of? I was reading a thriller book a while back and there were a few scenes dealing with snakes that made my skin crawl. No, not in the creepy crawly way you’re thinking of, but in shock that a writer would put such nonsense in a book. All it would have…
I’ve been on a kick lately to get to the bottom of sayings. After last week’s column I thought I’d tackle a couple of tougher ones. Let’s start with one close to my heart: See Naples and Die. Vedi Napoli e poi Muori “See Naples and die.“ It was a phrase coined during the reign…
This was originally posted on Jackie Burris’ blog, Housewife Blues and Chihuahua Stories. It was part of the Paws With a Cause bloggers fundraiser. And it’s been fun. If you’re fond of animal stories, stop by and check them out. When Jackie asked me to write something about one of my animals, I thought…sure, that’ll be…
Coffee Dog I had no idea what I was going to write about this week, then, as I was going through my morning ritual of fixing coffee, it suddenly hit me. I was going to write about Gracie, one of our less-demanding animals. I realized I had never even thought of doing a blog on…