I never met Dr. Julie Butler but her untimely death at age 62, one more victim of the Covid-19 pandemic, leaves me mourning a stranger.  The only African American graduate in the Class of 1989 of Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine, Dr. Butler spent...

Life before Covid-19 was not simple here in the Bay Area. Remember? Earthquakes. Gridlock on roads more pothole than asphalt. Housing costs. Drought. Fires. Let me add something that might have escaped your earlier attention. Rattlesnakes. Here? Yes, afraid so, and as...

Dogs love balls, last week’s topic, might not deserve the front page headline any more than the observation that cats love squeezing into seemingly impossibly small spaces. But why do they do it? I’ve found my cats in the sock drawer, including the sock drawer I swear...

I’ve loved and lived with a whole lot of animals, including a whole lot of dogs, and although I do not have a “type” (having lived with sizes ranging from 9 pounds to 130), there have been five retriever/retriever-mixes in my family. Which means I have a tolerance for...

Confined to our homes for long weeks with eyes glued to our screens, we thrill to the images of wild animals returning to the spaces suddenly devoid of humans and all our busyness. We are drawn to the unexpected otherness of wildness here in our cities and suburbs, to...

When Carolyn and I first got together 35+ years ago, our two incredible dogs fell quickly and completely in love. Less expected was how her Lilly (a wild kitten rescued from a trap) took to Savannah (a parrot seized while being illegally smuggled into the country)....

Much of PHS/SPCA’s work is considered an essential service and we are and will continue to be here for the animals. All of our animals continue to be cared for and loved, and our staff as well as members of the public we serve follow strict social distancing...

While this might be unexpected coming from me, today’s column is meant to encourage you to considering leaving alone some animals who might seem to be in distress. I’m talking about young native wild animals, from baby squirrels to songbirds and others. This is the...

Although currently a thing of the past, visits to the dog park with the world’s most perfect puppy Lola (my column, my rules) often led to questions which I answered “Her mother is a Chihuahua. Her dad is a question mark, likely a Poodle, Maltese, or someone else...

The mind wanders down some strange paths at times like this, and so for no reason other than random, sleepless 3AM curiosity I did an on-line search of checkout counter tabloids’ stories about animals. To my surprise, the Enquirer proved disappointing, focusing far...

Two weeks ago our topic was how animals show up in clichés. Here’s another: “They fight like cats and dogs,” meaning constant, loud and sometimes violent squabbling, like what I experienced growing up. (The baker laughed but said he couldn’t fit “celebrating 60 years...

A very dear friend died just a few days ago. His death was not a surprise, coming at the end of a long and sad illness. His death is, in some terrible way, a good thing considering what had happened to his body and spirit. His death came, thankfully, only after we had...

I’ve written before about animals’ languages (whales’ song, bees’ dance, that sort of thing) but let’s turn this time to how animals feature in our own language. The many animal-related sayings, clichés and expressions: where do they come from, and what do they say...

Amazing that, once again, I fell into the same trap! Two weeks ago this column suggested we all celebrate a number of pet-themed holidays, and while two of the four highlighted were all inclusive (National Love Your Pet Day and World Spay Day) the remaining two were...