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Book Review: Alex and Me is a Fascinating Study
Amazon link to Alex and Me http://amzn.to/2vC3tc7 For anyone fascinated with human-animal communication, chimps and gorillas named Washoe, Koko, and Michael and an African Grey Parrot named Alex need no introduction. Nor do their human compatriots Roger Fouts, Francine “Penny” Patterson, and Irene Pepperberg. I still own a Time magazine from the early 90’s…
What My Cat-Sized Cat Thinks About My Babysitting a Rat-Sized Dog
My sister is off on a cruise with her family this week, so I’m babysitting her dog, Kiki, on my end of the house. (We share a “duplex” of sorts–we have completely separate living spaces but we’re connected by a door in between her kitchen and mine.) Kiki, bless her heart, doesn’t weigh two…
Soup-er Duper Mistake–Face Palm–Oopsie!
All is forgiven NOW, the day after I managed to sling at least a quart of cold vegetable soup into the face and across the neck and withers of my magnificent Maggie. I really should have taken pictures of the aftermath of my wayward pitch, but I was in such a hurry to make…
Rawhide Chew Products Recalled
Check it out, pet lovers! https://www.fda.gov/Safety/Recalls/ucm562701.htm
Want to Read Some Books I’ve Written?
If you’re enjoying these blog posts, thought you might be interested in checking out some of my books. Below are direct links to each of them. Find out more about them (read excerpts and reviews and enjoy a few TV and radio interviews) at YellowBalloonPublications.com DeForest Kelley Up Close and Personal (Kindle Edition) http://www.amazon.com/DeForest-Kelley-Up-Close-Personal-ebook/dp/B019PIKSAY/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8 DeForest…
Myrtle the Turtle Up Close and Personal
Upper image: Carolyn and DeForest Kelley with Sue Keenan feeding the ducks at Tippi Hedren’s Shambala Preserve, Acton California Lower image: De and Sue with Myrtle the Turtle in the Kelley’s back yard later the same day (Excerpt from DeForest Kelley Up Close and Personal, A Harvest of Memories from the Fan Who…
Skippy the Mouse and Fink the Rat
Ranched-raised in Cle Elum, I wasn’t your typical “mouse/rat-averse” young’un. Creatures great and small thrilled me to my toes. So I’m sure Mom and Dad weren’t surprised when I walked in from the barn to show them my newest prize: a very young mouse I dubbed Skippy because I kept him in a Skippy…
Never Go Critter Watching with a Bird Watcher
On the way to a bankrupt beaver ranch to build portable cages so we could transport and release captive families of beavers into the streams of amenable ranchers, my boss/supervisor and I grabbed food at McDonald’s and headed toward the ranch. She was driving. At one point after she had finished her meal…
ANIMAL ADVOCATES I HAVE KNOWN AND LOVED
By KrisSmith | May 3, 2017 | 0 One of the special perks of being an animal lover and—later in life—a paid professional animal advocate for more than a decade is that I ended up rubbing shoulders with so many of the people who made (and make) animal welfare the work of their lives.…
“Saving Simon” is Terrific
I read Saving Simon: How a Rescue Donkey Taught Me the Meaning of Compassion in one day. I wasn’t able to put it down for very long. The first few pages are intense and very hard to get through; the rescue scene is so raw and horrific that you want to turn away. …