Kill an Owl to Save an Owl? What’s Wrong With This Picture?
On April 9, I received an email from the specialty company I buy bird seed from: Wild Birds Unlimited, Inc., in Wenatchee, Washington. I got hooked on this company when I lived in Houston and quickly found the local franchise when I moved to eastern Washington. The email told me that the CEO and founder […]
Christmas 2023: Three Shades of Grief
In July I wrote that I was preparing for a cross-country move from Houston, Texas to Washington state. The real reason for my move, which I didn’t state at the time, was to help my oldest sister Lois, who had contracted lung cancer and wasn’t bouncing back from her treatments as well as we had […]
Celebrating Earth Day—Koalas and Cockatoos and Sea Turtles, Oh My!
In honor of Earth Day 2022, I’ll tell the story of the most amazing encounters I’ve ever had with wildlife. Interestingly, they all happened on the same trip to Australia that my former husband Bill and I took 20 years ago, in December 2002. Our first stop was in Melbourne to visit a friend of […]
Gail vs. the Raccoons (and the Raccoons Won)
Most of my family and close friends know that the last few years when I was living in Rockport, Texas, my house got invaded by raccoons. Generations of them. Year after year, they set up camp in my attic and raised families, home-schooled their children, had barbeques, used my kitchen ceiling as their toilet, tore […]
Happy New Year 2022
Many people use New Year’s Day to make resolutions, or lists of things to do in the coming year. They may use the day to take stock of the previous year and think about what worked for them, what didn’t, and try to make adjustments going forward. I’m on several mailing lists these days, and […]
Fred Goes Missing (Or, I Lose My Mind Over a Trapped Kitty)
Fred was one of the neighborhood feral kittens that I’d adopted and domesticated into my household; a story told fully in Trapping and Releasing in Rockport, Texas. He was born in 2014, and even though he quickly adjusted to life around humans, he still preferred to be outdoors most of the time. Because of all […]
Trapping and Releasing in Rockport, Texas
Can a person ever have too many cats? That is the question. About a year after moving into my home on Church Street in Rockport, Texas, the family next door moved out (was it something I said?). What would become the infamous “pink house on Church Street,” it was first put up for sale by […]
The Hummingbird
Back when my cat Tigger was about 2 to 3 years old and still quite the hunter, one day she arrived on my back porch where I was doing laundry. I heard this “muffled meow” thing that cats do, the one through clenched teeth. “Oh no,” I thought, “she’s caught something again.” This happened almost […]
