Commentaries

In retrospect I can appreciate how becoming proficient in animal behavior, like most animal-related professions, consists of a process that in some ways mimics the co-evolution of humans and other domestic animals. First you understand the normal behaviors of the animals around you at the same time as you acknowledge that those animals also are trying to make sense of human behavior. At some point in this process, you also realize that it would help enormously if you understood your own normal and problem behaviors too.

Read more →

It’s that time of year here in the northern hemisphere when hormone levels shift and thoughts turn to mating, reproduction, and raising young. Some of us find ourselves getting all gooey when we see photos or videos of baby animals; the urge to add a companion animal to the household may increase. Then one day we find ourselves trolling the Internet and scrolling through pages of photos on purebred, shelter, or rescue sites looking for THE ONE… Back by popular request is the list of questions that kindhearted and well-intentioned but ill-prepared folks have told me over the years that they

Read more →

No sooner did I finish Never Have Your Dog Stuffed, a memoir written by Alan Alda, than I began thinking about how experiences with companion  animals may carry over into other parts of our lives. For young, only child Alda, a black cocker spaniel made the isolation, boredom and pain of polio bearable. When the dog died unexpectedly, he became so distraught that his father took the body to a taxidermist in hopes of lessening the loss. I won’t give away what happened except to say that the result was not what they expected, much worse than Ollie’s camera-phobic expression in

Read more →

It’s late February as I write this and I’m having a major attack of cabin fever. It began this morning when I turned on my computer, saw the screen saver I loaded the beginning of November and hated it, really hated it. Superficially it doesn’t look inflammatory. It’s merely a view of my front yard in winter. What’s so bad about that?

Read more →

This month’s commentary is a review of The Great Grisby: Two Thousand Years of Literary, Royal, Philosophical, and Artistic Dog Lovers and Their Exceptional Animals by Mikita Brottman.

Read more →