All Creatures May/June 2020

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 pain. Julee said our vet, Dr. Barbara, thought Gracie might have strained a muscle, but we wouldn’t know without a full-body scan. “She prescribed pain pills and said to watch her for a few days.” Julee’s eyes were red with tears. She was fighting her own pain, having just had back surgery. She should have been in bed herself. But Gracie comes first. How terrible to see our beloved animals suffer. They can’t usually tell you what’s wrong or even how to help them. But they want your…

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. Morgan took Diablo home, hoping his appetite would improve. That’s where he met her dachshund, Fig. “It’s safe to say they have become best friends,” Morgan told South West News Service. “Under close supervision, they will run around the garden together, and Fig has been very gentle and patient with Diablo,” she says. The other good news? Diablo gained a whopping four pounds in only six weeks.…

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 one hesitated, looking back at her babies, who were too scared to cross. She quacked as if to say, “Come on, you can do it!” One by one they fol lowed her, safely making it to the other side. I was happy to have witnessed that moment. It was a reminder to slow down and take notice of God’s beautiful world.…

Flying the Furry Skies 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 to a better home. After that flight Wehrenberg and Boies realized they could do so much more. They founded Pilots N Paws (PNP), connecting private pilots with rescue, shelter and foster organizations to provide safe transports for animals in need of forever homes. PNP now has 18,000 volunteers (6,000 of whom are pilots) across the country. There are a number of people involved in each mission. The work begins long before pilots get involved. First, a rescuer gets notified…

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. To hatch, eggs need the incubator kept at 99.5 degrees with high humidity. She also had six two-week-old chicks to keep warm. “Neighbors didn’t have power either,” Sullivan says. One baby had already pecked a hole in its egg. She called the Derry Police Department in a panic. Could she bring her soon-to-be flock there to ride out the storm? They agreed. Sullivan set up her heat lamps, incubator and chicks, turning an interview room into a coop. A steady stream of officers visited. “It made our…

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 to entertain the residents, so…I thought it was a great idea,” home director Elizabeth Stephens told Birmingham Live. A few months after Gardner’s request, Pringle, Charlie and Groot—three Humboldt penguins who are no strangers to the limelight—were waddling around the Bernadette House. Originally from Chile, the two-foot-tall birds live at Heythrop Zoological Gardens and often work at events or on camera. Gardner’s wish turned out to be a gift for all—her peers enjoyed the unique visitors, who sat on the seniors’ laps with the help of a…