Articles
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Where Did Dogs Come From?
For a few years, I taught a college seminar called Pets and People-and loved it. Students also got excited by the course, even though it was part of the dreaded general education requirements. I find that people like learning about the animals in their lives-especially students who have had to leave their beloved pets back…
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Chicken Little Chipmunks
The predators come in all shapes and sizes. They fly, they run, and they slither. They drop from the sky, they creep from behind rotting stumps, they rise from the leaf litter. If you’re an eastern chipmunk, you’ve got a lot to fear. Foxes, hawks, bobcats, coyotes, owls, fishers, weasels, snakes, racoons, and more, including…
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The Once and Future Pug
Pug puppy: 3-month-old male, nicknamed S’more. Born on Valentine’s Day, he’s ready to love you and your family! One of a litter of 4. He’s all pug: big brown eyes, button nose, adorable smushed face, and a perfect double corkscrew tail. Fawn-colored coat, silky ears. Pugs are famous for being affectionate and laid back. Good…
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Horsepower: Rereading “Black Beauty”
I wasn’t crazy for horses like some girls, though in fourth grade my best friend and I made regular trips to Woolworths and collected a small herd of plastic ones. I was crazy, however, for books about horses, novels like The Black Stallion, My Friend Flicka, and their sequels. I loved the stories because of…
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The Three Bears
On April 6th, they left around 8:00 in the evening. The two cubs’ heads were snuggled up against their mother’s belly as if they had fallen asleep while nursing. The bigger cub stirred, began to squirm, and then clambered over its sibling and on top of its mother. The cubs did this all the time-using…
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“Eavesdropping on the Human World”
More Reflections on Animals, Humans, and Being Smart. People flocked to see Clever Hans. He wasn’t an acrobatic Lipizzaner or the Secretariat of his day. But when his owner asked “What is 4 + 8?” the horse tapped his hoof twelve times. Hans could count the number of people in the audience. He could count…
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