Animal Friends Around the World - Photos and Anecdotes

Prairie dogs have a bad reputation, and this is why: The foreground shows a nice stand of native grasses and flowers–see the last few purple asters of the season?   A little prairie dog town starts where the grasses stop, and the land is stripped to nubbins of grass and bare earth.  That big dark green plant growing on bare earth is an alien species of thistle that nothing eats, so it looks as though the prairie dogs remove good grasses and grow noxious weeds.  No one wants these rodents...Read Full Story

I spent some time in a prairie dog towns both Monday and Wednesday, and the whole time I was there a sentinel dog kept his eye on me.     This prairie dog was looking out of the hole that was closest to me.  It barely moved the whole time I was there–both times.  The prairie dogs that came out of their holes were the ones that were farthest from me.   This shows the general situation: the prairie dogs are putting on fat for winter, and they are stuffing food into their mouths as fast as they...Read Full Story

I spent half an hour in a prairie dog town a few days ago.  The prairie dogs are out of hibernation and wary as ever.  I have to photograph them from inside the car, because they don’t register cars as a threat.  I thought I could use a tripod outside the window while I stayed inside, but the prairie dogs weren’t having any of it.  Then one took a wrong turn underground and popped out a hole fifteen feet away.   It looked left, it looked right, and then it looked straight at my head...Read Full Story

Cat Bride Pets are the best friends of our human beings and everybody loves pets. But even if people love their pets and are willing to share their happiness and sorrow with them, few people want to hold a wedding ceremony with pets. However, a man from German shocked the whole world recently by getting married with his pet, a 15-year-old cat. At the present time, animal weddings is illegitimate in German and no priest or official want to chair the wedding ceremony for this crazy man. So the...Read Full Story

This post has little to do with writing, websites, or anything else related to my internet activities. Instead it's a little glimpse into my family.My family loves animals, that's obvious to anyone who visits our house within a very short time. Monday of this week the menagie consisted of 2 dogs, 3 cats, 2 goats, 2 rabbits, 3 fish, a bantam hen, and a gecko. Notice that I said Monday because it's changed.On Wenesday my dad stopped by the Paris Farmer's Union and ordered chicks. In late May we...Read Full Story