By Bree Renz, California
I was taking a photo workshop at a nature center that rescues injured wild animals. If the animal can be treated and completely healed, it is released back into the wilds. If it won’t be able to survive, it can live out the rest of its life at the center.
By Carol Sims, California
Recently I was in my front yard discussing bush removal with Tom, my landscaper. I happened to glance between our house and the one next door and saw a beautiful white hen.
By Angelica Maulucci, California
Everyone who knows me knows I loved my pet fish Rey. I bought him filtered water and made sure he had exposure to sunlight. I even brought him with me in the car when I went to Cape Cod and drove to western Massachusetts for long weekends. Friends joked that of course this would happen when you give a social worker a fish.
By M. Jane Hocking, New Mexico
When we were younger and living in Alaska, my husband and I had sled dogs. He did some racing, but I never really enjoyed running a team. With beautiful scenery and my dog buddies, mushing should have brought joy, not a heavy lump of dread in my gut. But I loved raising puppies, training lead dogs, and finding and clearing old trails, so I concentrated on those tasks related to sledding.
By Rosemary Carpenter, Minnesota
In a few days I’d be leaving the beautiful mountains and rivers of the Western Slope of Colorado to move to my new home in Arizona. So I stopped at an outdoor concert. I knew that several of my friends would be there and I could say good-bye to them before I left. After parking, I cracked the car windows a little and told my kitten, B. J. Honeycatt, that I would be back shortly.
By Sri Harold Klemp
“Eppie” and her adult son hadn’t seen eye-to-eye since his youth. But after years of ECK study, Eppie realized that it was her anger and her temper that had caused this rift between her son and herself. There was more, but her anger played a big role.