All Creaturesの January/February 2020 の目次

UNBELIEVABLY, PEOPLE STILL ask me if I believe that animals can think. If they can really feel and plan and dream. Like we humans do. Maybe not like we do, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have their own unique inner lives, differentiated from ours only by degrees. I read an article about a little girl in Seattle named Gabi, who feeds the neighborhood crows every morning. In return the crows bestow gifts on Gabi—buttons, beads, earrings, Lego pieces, pa per clips, even a heart-shaped stone. They scatter them all over her yard, apparently in a ritual display of gratitude. Or as Gabi says, “It’s showing me how much they love me.” Love. If you don’t think animals can love and love deeply, then you should just stop reading now.…

Dapper Dogs SEVENTH GRADER and entrepreneur Sir Darius Brown of Newark, New Jersey, is doing his sartorial part to help shelter dogs find new homes. Diagnosed with fine motor skill delays as a toddler, Sir Darius began making bow ties as a way to strengthen his hands. The devastation caused by major hurricanes two years ago brought an urgency to his work. “When I learned about overcrowding in animal shelters, I made it my mission to help as many dogs as I could,” he posted on Facebook. He thought the bow ties he donated would make displaced dogs look more attractive and adoptable. The response was so positive, Sir Darius kept designing. He named his company Beaux & Paws and travels to shelters across the country, distributing free bow ties.…

Capturing a subject’s emotions with a camera is an art form. Tim Flach does just that as he brings the animal kingdom into focus in his four major bodies of work. We’re sharing stunning images from his 2012 series, More Than Human—portraits that invite a connection between Flach’s audience and various species around the world. Shapes, expressions, moments, personalities...what do you see?…

THIS MORNING A RED FOX trotted in the meadow behind our house. Her legs paused as she poked her nose in the dried brown grass. Then, sitting on her haunches, she stared in the direction of our house. I reached quickly for my binoculars. Reddish-brown fur framed her face, and a slender snout accented her dark eyes. She was exquisite. I watched her for some minutes before she trotted out of sight into the trees. I did not have words for the warm feelings swirling inside me. That is, not until later, when I picked up a book about Albert Schweitzer. Schweitzer was a brilliant philosopher, physician, missionary and clergyman who has been called one of the greatest Christians of his time. He based his philosophy on what he called…

It was a typical morning for Kara Twomey. She was taking her rescue pup, Cassie, for a walk in her Winnipeg, Canada, neighborhood, when a loud caw startled her. Some crows rose up in a flurry of black feathers. One of them had snatched a baby robin, but as the crow took flight, it dropped the baby to the ground. Kara rushed over. Cassie took a closer look, sniffing the tiny creature. Kara knew she couldn’t leave him there. Gently, she carried him back home and settled him in a box lined with grass. “He looked like he was in shock,” she says. The fall had injured the robin’s feet, and he wasn’t able to curl his toes to perch. “I’ve always been an animal person,” Kara says. She has…

I’D ALWAYS dreamed of raising a Westie. In 1998, I found a farm in New York that had three-month-old Westies up for adoption. I was sure one of the pups was meant for me. The moment I picked up Geordi, he lay back into my arms and put all four paws in the air. He was the one. Geordi was my best friend. He loved being wrapped in a blanket and would often lie on his back with his paws up. I took a picture of his paw once and hung it on my fridge. One night in 2013, Geordi let out a wail when I picked him up. I knew something was wrong. The vet confirmed he had a tumor in his stomach. I couldn’t bear to put him…

Wednesday night, 11 P.M. Before I went to bed, I took one last look out my back door toward the woods at the edge of my yard and called, “Jax, where are you?” I have four cats. One was a house cat, but the other three, including Jax, had been born feral. They weren’t happy staying inside all the time, so I would let them wander freely during the day, then call them into the house at night to give them a warm and safe place to rest. Jax was my biggest wanderer and tended to return later than the others did. A few days earlier, when he’d come home with a scratched face, I started to worry about him. Now there was no sign of him, and this was…

WHAT WILL IT BE THIS TIME? I wondered, yanking the rope through my bay window. Games? Puzzles? My twin brother, Brad, had rigged this pulley system to run between my second-floor bedroom and the front yard. Neighbors and friends left presents for me in a wicker basket, and I’d hoist them up once a day. The basket held everything from comic books and card games to snacks and flowers. I even pulled up a banana plant one day. Those little gifts really brightened my spirits. It was mid-December and I’d just gotten back from Boston Children’s Hospital. The doctors had put me in traction for a month to treat the arthritis in my hips. My family visited from the suburbs, and I got to meet three Boston Bruins players.…

AS MANY AS 40 injured turtles a week are brought into the Carolina Waterfowl Rescue (CWR) in Indian Trail, North Carolina. The turtles often arrive with broken shells, the result of being hit by cars and boats. The staff uses glue and tape to fix the cracks, and hook-and-eye clasps to keep the shells closed while they heal. For a long time these supplies were in high demand and went unfulfilled on CWR founder Jennifer Gordon’s online wish list—until she heard about using the clasps of old bras to secure turtles’ shells. “I loved the idea of repurposing something that would have gone into a landfill,” Jennifer says. She posted a request on social media in June 2019. Within days, CWR starting receiving boxes of old bras. Plus, Jennifer partnered…

I sat cross-legged on my bed in the house I rented with some other students and stared at the phone. It was 10 P.M. on a Sunday night in March 2010. I was in my last year of a college program in food science and nutrition, doing a dietetic internship. My fiancé, Chris, was deployed to Afghanistan with the 172nd Mountain Infantry of the Army National Guard, and he hadn’t been able to call for almost two weeks. I took the framed photo from my nightstand and traced the lines of his face. He looked so strong, so capable in his camo fatigues, his eyes squinting against the Afghan sun. NORMALLY CHRIS WAS really social, the life of the party. But the last time we talked, the conversation had been…

The day I met Penny my life was pretty much falling apart. My husband had just told me he wanted to leave. We were in the middle of a remodel, and our house literally was falling apart. I had a job at a costume store in a city south of Los Angeles. But I felt farther than ever from my dream of being a Hollywood costume designer. How was I even going to make my house payment? Penny was a kitten. A scrawny, filthy weeks-old ball of black fur with runny eyes and a runny nose, she turned up one day in the backyard. I picked her up and, though she looked near death, she immediately purred with pleasure. I already had one rescue cat named Annie. And I had…