The official start of Spring is less than a month away but signs are in the air. (Makes sense, of course, since the official start of anything in the natural world is a human construct and means nothing to Mother Nature who keeps a far more subtle calendar.) Peninsula...

Maybe because my last two columns were about Valentine’s Day I remain in a holiday mind-frame and, happily, February still has four special pet-themed holidays to celebrate. February 20 is National Love Your Pet Day. Don’t get too excited since, according to the...

Valentine’s Day is hands-down my favorite holiday. Yeah, yeah, I know all the negatives: rates of depression skyrocket mid-February along with chocolate sales figures; the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre is among the bloodiest dates in mob history; it’s really all a...

I love animals. That said, not every lovely-dovey thing we think about animals is necessarily all that lovely-dovey. Take, for example, the Kissing Gourami. As anyone who had an aquarium as a kid can tell you, these are relatively hardy, interesting and unfortunately...

Six months ago you would have found dozens of kittens during a tour of the Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA. Take that same walk today, however, and you’ll find many wonderful adult and senior cats but no purring fuzz balls. Why is that? You’ve probably heard the...

Break out the party hats, or at least the big bag of mixed nuts, because tomorrow, January 21, is World Squirrel Appreciation Day. (No, despite my job title, they don’t let me make these things up.) Squirrels are members of the pint-size rodent family Sciuridae which...

There’s little doubt the holiday season has left you in need of a vacation. I mean, all the shopping, the eating, the napping between shopping and eating. It’s been hell, and you deserve a rest! For many that means a call into work claiming you’re sick, and a drive up...

How the heck did it become 2020? This first column of the new decade, join me in Mr. Peabody’s Way-Back Machine (remember?) for a decade-by-decade peek at animal welfare over the past century. The year is 1920, the so-called War to End All Wars finally over, and the...

New Year’s Resolutions, typically unmet, are often repeated year after year. In 2018, 13% of us pledged “more time with friends and family,” making that the tenth most popular Resolution. #9 was drink less alcohol (15% of us made that promise last New Year’s Eve, and...

’Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house All the creatures were stirring, including the mouse And the dogs, the bunnies, the turtles and cats Awaiting the Big Guy (you know: white beard and a sack) They nibbled the cookies, set out with great care...

Last week’s topic was the animal imagery we give to full moons (January’s Wolf Moon, March’s Worm Moon, August’s Sturgeon Moon, November’s Beaver Moon, and others). Writing that took me back to one of my favorite memories of my own animals. We lived in Arizona for...

There are all sorts of natural events most of us take for granted, or let slip by unnoticed, and the phases of the ever changing moon are on that list. September’s full moon is the one full moon many of us know by a specific name: September brings us the Harvest Moon....

Let me admit my very strongly held opinion that cats should be indoor-only animals. Cats allowed to roam outside are at risk of harm (from other cats, raccoons, dogs, poisonous plants, sewer drains, nasty humans, Chevrolets, etc.) and are themselves also a major risk...

Readers might have been surprised to learn last week that after hovering near extinction, 4 million wild turkeys now roam the lower 48 states. That’s nothing, however. By the time Thursdays’ plates are washed, Americans will have eaten 46,000,000 domesticated turkeys....

Defying several stereotypes, my mother was not a very good cook, and neither did she ever show much interest in becoming one. I remember asking about turkey one franks-and-beans Thanksgiving (not a good cook, she was a good warmer-upper) and getting quite a story in...