By Dannette Horton, North Carolina
At four o’clock on a Saturday morning, a dish crashing to the floor in the kitchen downstairs awakened me. I heard my ex-husband, Carl, making sounds as if he was in pain. (Although Carl and I are divorced, he is still my best friend and lives with us.) My thirty-seven-year-old son, Eric, was pleading in an urgent voice, “Dad, please try to sit up in the chair.”
By Harold Klemp
Wilton, a retired man from Auckland, New Zealand, reported the case of Tiddles, his cat, saving a bird. The story runs like this:
By Sue Ellen Armstrong, Connecticut
As a way of giving service to life in my semiretirement, I offered to socialize cats at a local animal shelter by petting and playing with them. My second volunteer job involved working with a rescue group that specializes in saving cats.
By Allen Anderson, Minnesota
Standing in line at a sprawling grocery store, I placed five bags of large sweet potatoes on the conveyer belt. A mature cashier with a kind, smiling face (I’ll call her Stacy) enthusiastically said, “Leaf’s food!”
Startled, I looked up. Although I’d been in Stacy’s line a couple of times, she wasn’t usually the cashier who rang up my weekly haul of sweet potatoes. And I didn’t recall ever telling her my cocker spaniel’s name.
By Gillian Wilkins, Queensland, Australia
For thirty years, I worked as a small-animal veterinarian, mostly for cats and dogs. I also treated reptiles, guinea pigs, and mice and realized I really like exotic, unusual, and wild animals. Since my practice was located in the city, I didn’t get much wildlife to care for at my vet office, but when I did, I enjoyed working with the creatures.
By Lois Stanfield, Minnesota
I have been in love with Afghan Hounds most all of my adult life. Many years ago as a young adult, I had an inner vision of a female pup that guided my search for a dog of my own.